Only one student has registered for courses at West Virginia University’s new Washington Center, an academic program mandated by Republican lawmakers for the campus.
State lawmakers have allocated $3 million in state dollars to the “Washington Center for Civics, Culture and Statesmanship” in the last two years ahead of it officially opening this fall.
Proposed college courses this fall include “Woke,” “Nation and Migration” and “The New Right.” The center has hired faculty members ahead of its launch.
House Bill 3297 mandated that WVU operate the Washington Center focused on teaching constitutional studies and “great debates of Western civilization.” … As of June 22, one student was enrolled
Coming Soon (probably): HB 3298 mandating that as required curriculum.
The state fundingmy goddamned tax dollars goes to Miller’s annual salary of more than $300,000.Can you imagine the GOP outrage if the WVU was created to focus on teaching progressive viewpoints?
Yes, it’s exactly what we’re seeing. In their minds, WVU (and other higher education instutitions) is teaching progressive propaganda, and this is how they react to that imagined injustice.
that 3 million would have been better spent doing something to improve that state’s education system, which ranks anywhere from bottom-5 among states to dead last (source: usnews, wallethub).
this politically-motivated university ‘center’ will drag it down
This is the demographic that put Linda McMahon in charge of the Department of Education. While that might not have a direct bearing on this situation, I feel like it speaks volumes about intent. They’re “laying the smackdown” on education as an obscene, tribalistic, conflict fantasy. I doubt the legislators actually care how this goes. The point is that it’s a story they can show their base, so that their supporters feel like their group is winning. It’s a perspective fundamentally detached from the nature of education in a functioning society, which is fundamentally collaborative.
I think you’re right that they’re breaking stuff. They’re also effectively selling tickets to watch the drama.
West Virginia is already filled to the brim with xenophobic fascists; there’s no need for the state to waste money it doesn’t have indoctrinating students who deserve a real education.