Will I be a Phoenix???

With the state’s budget woes sinking further, would something like selling off the CSU system to a private education provider be that farfetched?


William Tierney’s idea that the state sell off the CSU system for billions of dollars, may seem like a good one on the outside. But is it really?


It would save the state money to look into having someone else take the CSU’s off of its hands.

Tierney probably does not mean for people to take the University of Phoenix as the one end all option here. It’s an idea, an idea that has gotten a lot of glances. It’s interesting to scroll through the comments that have been left on Tierney’s seemingly out there piece. Some have pointed out the fact that he works for a for-profit university, which would seemingly be in his best interest to push something like a private institution taking over the education system.

For a long time the private education system has been seen to be far superior to the public one as well as far more expensive.

There has to be a better way to get small classes, excellent teachers, and work-force ready students without breaking the bank.

Maybe the answer lies in the professors, or maybe in the drive of the students, or maybe, just maybe it goes back even further than that into high school and grammar school.


When was it that the public school system first started failing us?

I would argue day one.

There are many dedicated teachers in within the public school system but they can only do so much against the people who hold the money. I sometimes wonder if the teachers give up and just become complacent. Meanwhile forgetting all the things they wanted to see happen, and year after year turn out mediocre students that will scramble their way up through the rest of the public schools and onward into college.

To be fair, I spent most of my school years in the private sector of education. After seeing how education had gone, my parents decided that they would rather me go into a private school from the beginning, saying that they wished they had kept my sister in a private school instead of sending her to a public one. They always believed that she would have excelled further and done better if they been able to put her through a private school like mine.

I will also admit that I was a tremendous fan of my K-8 experience and when I got into high school I was able to go into all the AP courses at the public high school. The only regret I have is letting them talk me into taking a lower Spanish course then I should have. I should have stood up and said, “No I am going to take Spanish 2, because I know I can do it. I know I can handle it.”

But no. I let administration, the teachers, and my parents tell me that, maybe it was better that I start in at Spanish 1. It would be a great refresher course, and then I would be all set for Spanish 2 the next year.

It was a miserable experience.

I was bored out of my mind. With a huge class size, my teacher didn’t see that I was bored and was able to do so much better. He failed as a teacher, my parents failed to believe in me, worst of all, I failed to stand up for myself.

Teachers get so used to dealing with mediocre students that nothing fazes them and onyl being able to do so much because of the all to commonly blamed "budget problems."

Students should learn to stand up for themselves and demand more from their education system.

Demand that they be taught so that they will be prepared for the workforce. Take pride in their education.

Something needs to light a fire under students so they see that something, something needs to be done with the CSU system, before there is just a moneyless skeleton of a half-way decent education system. Something to get them to take charge of their education, and future generation’s education.


Maybe Tierney’s column will do just that.