What we need is more worker drones, dammit!

So according to North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, state universities should stop offering liberal arts degrees (gender studies were particularly singled out) that don’t provide good employment. Which may indicate some sort of Repub meme emerging, as Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s task force has proposed charging more for degrees that don’t serve Florida’s job market (so people who want to do something that doesn’t make a lot of money will have to pay more to get qualified to do it).
This doesn’t surprise me. I think college is increasingly seen by conservatives (and probably some liberals too) as a tool to churn out more of whatever the business world needs. McCrory is, I gather, also big on increasing vocational education, which fits this trend: The rich are always going to need plumbers and auto mechanics, so let’s bulk up the supply (I agree with one interviewee at the link that making this call in high school—college or trade?—is too soon for a lot of people).
Of course, McCrory also seems keen on wiping out gender studies and similar courses that question the status quo. And he’s Republican, go figure on that one. I’m willing to bet that despite the fact growing numbers of law-school students can’t land jobs (as Paul Campos has discussed in many posts on LGM)—in some parts of the country, less than half—I suspect we’re not going to see any changes there.
During McCrory’s interview with right-wing pundit William Bennett, Bennett offered this thought: “”We’ve really created this elitist cult of hierarchy … where people who know how to do things with their hands are looked down on by people who don’t know how to do anything.”
Which is actually a fair criticism, even though Bennett constitutes an elitist himself (former cabinet official, best-selling author, radio talk-show host, extremely wealthy). Plenty of educated people do look down on blue-collar types. Of course, so do lots of rich people and Wall Streeters, but I doubt McCrory or Bennett are going to fling that sort of flak their way. Much better to play the old Evil Elitist card for a right-wing audience. After all, we know a regular guy who’s a Real American can write about history just as well as people who actually study it, right?