Sustainable. Resilient. Free.: The Future of Public Higher Education

by John Warner

In 1983, U.S. News and World Report started to rank colleges and universities, throwing them into competition with each other for students and precious resources. Over the course of the next thirty or so years, everything fell apart. A Reagan-era ethos of privatization and competition has turned students into consumers and colleges into businesses. Tuition is unaffordable. Student loan debt is more than $1.6 trillion, and a majority of college faculty work in adjunct positions for low pay and with no security. Colleges exist to enroll students, collect tuition, and hold classes. When learning happens, it is in spite of the system, not because of it.

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare what we already know: the current system is unsustainable. We have forgotten that education is infrastructure, and are paying a high price for this wrong turn thirty-plus years ago. In Sustainable. Resilient. Free., author and educator John Warner maps out a way forward, one by which our public colleges and universities are reoriented around enhancing the intellectual, social, and economic potentials of students while providing broad-based benefits to the community at large. As Warner explains, it's not even complicated. It's no more costly than the current system. We just have to choose to live the values we claim to hold dear.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published October 27, 2020

Reviews

[Brent Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don’t get me wrong; I believe colleges and universities should be tuition free, and there are some good suggestions in here, but I think a lot of it completely ignores the current political landscape in which this country exists. We weren’t even able to pass Biden’s half-assed attempt at loan forgiveness. Also, there were typos and grammatical errors all over the place, and the book could’ve used a better editor.

[Bridgitte Rodguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating read! And I agree with everything that John Warner says. Particularly chapter 13! I’ve never known anyone to agree with me that college is not a pathway to any one particular job— but rather a pathway to critical thinking and navigating life, which sets you up for success in the real world in an infinite number of jobs. No one I know who’s gone to college, came out of college knowing how to do a job, that’s what the job was for. Even the software engineers and the biologists and the teachers, etc. etc. They learned the background for their job— but the actual doing of the job? That was while on the job.

The big point that John Warner’s book alludes to here, is that though this may be a brilliant idea— we must change our mindsets. We must change our world views and our perspectives in order to make public higher education useful and life changing once again. So many people are stuck that college is the best way to a better paying job and earning high incomes— but as Warner makes the case for, that is rarely the outcome. We put so much store behind the name or the ranking of a particular school but an English class is an English class whether you take that class at Harvard or at your local community college.

I could go on and on— but it really boils down to priorities. And we have created a system of competition where everyone strives to want more and more, rather than to be comfortable. At what point do you have enough? At what point can you be satisfied? Maybe then we can refocus college back to learning about ourselves and others and creating a better world for everyone.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Warner nails the diagnosis of the problems with American public higher education today. I've held the positions of adjunct writing instructor at a community college and lecturer at a regional state university and I've seen so many of the phenomena he describes in this short book.

Warner's two main solutions (as I read it) are to 1, make public higher education tuition free (paid for, possibly, by taxing the endowments and property of wealthy private institutions); and 2, make instructor pay more equitable by equalizing the pay for teaching across the ranks of faculty from full professor to adjunct. The first would require federal legislation, but the second can be implemented by any university that really wanted to do it (not holding my breath).

In addition to these proposals, Warner has brief chapters that dispel a host of popular myths and "common-sense" takes on what's wrong with higher education. These include: lazy rivers, tenure, jobs-that-haven't-been-created-yet, coddled students and safety-ism, and "cop-shit" in the classroom.

I couldn't stop reading this book, and if you're a little interested in the challenges of higher education in America, it's well worth reading for some bracing perspective on the problems and solutions.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book partly because I like John Warner's writing, and partly because the book is published by BELT, a wonderful independent press serving the "rust belt." The appeal of this book certainly goes beyond any region, it's a book that has a lot to say about American higher education in general.

The author grapples with the real problems of higher education, and does it very well. Highly recommended.

[Jonathan Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every administrator and everybody interested in higher education policy should read this common sense manifesto.

[Leah Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book had good points, but I just did not like the writing style at all

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and interesting

Short and to the point, this book is designed to make you consider both the current system and Warner’s hoped for changes.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author makes excellent points throughout, and proposes solutions to real problems. Not everyone will agree with those proposals, but they should be taken seriously.