ORIGINAL: Greyshaft
ORIGINAL: Neilster
Jobs are raining from the sky for skilled workers here, so I'm looking forward to abandoning the ranks of poverty-striken students.
Just wait until Howard brings in his national education scheme then outsources it to India and gets all of the students to pass high school via distance learning from Bangalore. [:D]
Don't get me started on those clowns. They were still denying global warming 5 minutes ago (in public anyway. Privately they knew what was going on but didn't want to annoy their coal industry mates. All of a sudden they've discovered renewable energy and have finally spent some of the zillions they've had sitting around for years that was earmarked for it. The drought has turned up the heat on them and forced them to bust open the pork-barrel ahead of their usual pre-election spend-up).
Still, by under-funding education and making it ridiculously difficult to battle through a degree without resorting to wealthy parents, drug dealing or prostitution (Austudy: Can you say "40% below the povery line"? [:@]), they've created a big demand for graduates. I take no pleasure in that though. I know clever people who can't afford to go to uni. How's that in Australia's interest?
I've had a Coalition politician, whilst full of grog, tell me that they don't want kids from working class backgrounds getting tertiary education because they end up with a bunch of left-wing ideas and join Young Labor. No, no, no. Better to make it financially difficult, so as to favour those whose parents can subsidize them, meaning more graduates who "think the right way".
That's good for the current government but bad for Australia. I used to hang around uni 15 years ago and it was a really interesting and vibrant place. Now they're little more than graduate factories, with compliant, time-poor students marching in lock-step, too busy juggling part-time jobs and study to cause any trouble and just desperate to get the degree so they can start paying off the massive debt they've just incurred. Of course all these bastards making the decisions got their Economics/Law degrees back when they were free and students had enough money to eat. Just like they reduced the generous pay and superannuation package for any politicians
after them. Universities should be a place where new ideas are formed and the status quo is challenged. That's healthy for a society. Drone production isn't.
Arrrrgh! I told you not to get me started [:D]. There's an Orwellian push to control the future by controlling the past too. And what's the latest gem from these geniuses? Tax dollars to subsidize chaplains in schools! WTF? [:@]
You'd vote for the opposition except they're a useless pack of no-hopers too. [:D]
Cheers, Neilster