DeSantis bans African American studies class in Florida

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

dmb wrote:

Yes, I have actually. Have you ever served on a tenure committee for an economist? I have and the work they do can be amazing and highly quantitative, I agree. But there is another side to the story and we are talking about undergraduate degrees here.

As with many things, the quality of instruction depends on where it is taught and I have noticed a precipitous decline in the mathematical requirements to obtain an economics degree in the last 40 years. Concomitant with that, there has been an increase in the number of Econ majors.

You can see this same story played out with biology, chemistry, and select other social science majors that used to be more rigorous but have become less so in recent years as a result of a consumer mindset in higher ed and other trends. Look at majors and colleges that play a little game with both BA and BS degrees. I have seen schools that have chem degrees that only require calc I and calc II for a BA degree (or even worse, a one semester calc catch-all). They may offer an ACS-certified degree as a BS, but that is a minority of the students that receive a degree from them. To an outsider, all looks well, but it is not.

Math is increasingly being omitted from undergraduate degrees and Econ is definitely a ‘buyer-beware’ degree nowadays.

If this is the case, then the problem is not unique to economics or even social science in general. By your definition, a chemistry degree could be worthless.

However, just because your econ department doesn't require advanced econometrics for an undergrad degree, that doesn't mean you cannot take those courses. Doing the minimum necessary for the degree and barely passing most courses is likely to lead you to jobs that don't require your education. This is true about any social science major that another poster declared "worthless." A major is not worthless, students are making it worthless by not doing more than absolutely necessary.

I know where the pressure is coming from. You need to increase the headcounts and you need to improve the graduation rate to survive. Having difficult requirements discourages students from choosing your major and also lower the completion rate. That could be a disaster for the department.

BTW, some majors which used to offer only BA degrees now offer BS degrees so that students do not have to complete a certain number of foreign language courses. It goes both ways.

History Major (again) wrote:

Let it Rupp wrote:

School curriculums have been an accepted upon responsibility of state leaders, as public schools are funded with taxpayer dollars. Desantis is an elected official doing what is in his authority of the position he was elected for. It's hilarious to see the left try and paint this as a governmental overreach, or even a free speech issue.

I mean, sort of. That is a broad generalization. States makes certain guidelines and then municipalities work within that and can be more or less stringent. This has nothing to do with right or left (for me) since each side is full of idiocy, hypocrisy and indecency. I’d happily debate you on it, yet since you immediately made it about party politics the chances of it being productive are slim.

For what it’s worth I’m not remotely pro CollegeBoard and I have no idea if this is a good curriculum. I mean, AP gives teachers a sample syllabus they can adopt but then the teacher doesn’t have to really adhere to that (though if they want student success on the exam, they somewhat do).

For everyone getting up in arms about CRT (and even if this class ends up sort of adhering to that), philosophically I am looking for the educational system to allow people to make informed decisions throughout life. I can read Bob Vila’s recommendation on an affordable high-pressure shower head but it’s up to me whether I want to take his recommendation. I can then look at what his criteria was, what his track record is, and maybe if he gets a kickback for linking to certain products (which doesn’t necessarily delegitimize his assessment). Then I can think about where it’s produced and how I feel ethically about what allows the cost to be affordable, etc.