just another example in a long line
of how our elected and appointed officials completely disregard need for prestige.
i know, what do you expect, right? honestly, i expect the folks that manage the monies collected from us to provide services and infrastructure actually be used for something necessary, for the "common good". our federal dollars have a mysterious habit of ending up being earmarked for things like the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, or for farm subsidies, which when first offered helped the small farmer in dire straits, but now more likely than not are paid to a small percentage of farmers, mostly wealthy, that don't need them to survive.
kahleefornia is no exception. a little background before i get into the rant. i'm married to a nurse, and i work for a major university.
so what has my knickers knotted up today? monday, Dan Walters, a columnist for the Sacramento Bee wrote a piece about future spending by the University of California.
a few snips from the published article
"At last count, California had slightly more than 200,000 practicing lawyers and a slightly higher number of registered nurses....
The California Postsecondary Education Commission, in a critical report on the University of California's plans to establish a new law school at its Irvine campus, found that the state has no shortage of qualified attorneys."
"Nursing is another story. Even though there's been a significant increase in training programs in recent years, the state has an estimated 17,000 qualified nursing applicants on schools' waiting lists."
"Why is UC stubbornly plowing ahead with the new law school at Irvine? UC Provost Rory Hume provided one rather arrogant answer. "CPEC's view is there are enough lawyers in California," Hume told the regents. "Our view is there are not enough good lawyers in California."
So here's the situation in a nutshell, as if the events cited above were not self-evident: California has more than enough lawyers now and plenty of public and private law schools to supply whatever we may need in the way of legal beagles in the future, but UC wants to spend many millions of dollars to build a new law school at Irvine. Meanwhile, we have a large and growing shortage of nurses and desperately need more investment in nursing education to alleviate the shortfall."
"UC's regents and administrators want to establish a new law school at Irvine because it would, in their view, enhance the school's prestige and, by extension, their own, not to meet any true educational or societal need. It's the same syndrome that drives the state Senate to, as it did a few weeks ago, dump another $5.5 million in precious transportation funds down a bottomless pit called the North Coast Railroad Authority."
it seems that the prestige of having an unnecessary law school trumps funding a much needed nursing program. in "their" world, useless attorneys are much more important to the folks living here than training and certifying nurses.
the UC system has been in the cross hairs of several local papers for the last several years, with articles exposing unbelievable compensation packages and shady dealing by administrators that hold themselves unaccountable to those of us that pay their salaries.
wish i could get a job like that
i know, what do you expect, right? honestly, i expect the folks that manage the monies collected from us to provide services and infrastructure actually be used for something necessary, for the "common good". our federal dollars have a mysterious habit of ending up being earmarked for things like the infamous Bridge to Nowhere, or for farm subsidies, which when first offered helped the small farmer in dire straits, but now more likely than not are paid to a small percentage of farmers, mostly wealthy, that don't need them to survive.
kahleefornia is no exception. a little background before i get into the rant. i'm married to a nurse, and i work for a major university.
so what has my knickers knotted up today? monday, Dan Walters, a columnist for the Sacramento Bee wrote a piece about future spending by the University of California.
a few snips from the published article
"At last count, California had slightly more than 200,000 practicing lawyers and a slightly higher number of registered nurses....
The California Postsecondary Education Commission, in a critical report on the University of California's plans to establish a new law school at its Irvine campus, found that the state has no shortage of qualified attorneys."
"Nursing is another story. Even though there's been a significant increase in training programs in recent years, the state has an estimated 17,000 qualified nursing applicants on schools' waiting lists."
"Why is UC stubbornly plowing ahead with the new law school at Irvine? UC Provost Rory Hume provided one rather arrogant answer. "CPEC's view is there are enough lawyers in California," Hume told the regents. "Our view is there are not enough good lawyers in California."
So here's the situation in a nutshell, as if the events cited above were not self-evident: California has more than enough lawyers now and plenty of public and private law schools to supply whatever we may need in the way of legal beagles in the future, but UC wants to spend many millions of dollars to build a new law school at Irvine. Meanwhile, we have a large and growing shortage of nurses and desperately need more investment in nursing education to alleviate the shortfall."
"UC's regents and administrators want to establish a new law school at Irvine because it would, in their view, enhance the school's prestige and, by extension, their own, not to meet any true educational or societal need. It's the same syndrome that drives the state Senate to, as it did a few weeks ago, dump another $5.5 million in precious transportation funds down a bottomless pit called the North Coast Railroad Authority."
it seems that the prestige of having an unnecessary law school trumps funding a much needed nursing program. in "their" world, useless attorneys are much more important to the folks living here than training and certifying nurses.
the UC system has been in the cross hairs of several local papers for the last several years, with articles exposing unbelievable compensation packages and shady dealing by administrators that hold themselves unaccountable to those of us that pay their salaries.
wish i could get a job like that
Labels: politics
posted by bothenook at 12:55
2 Comments:
UCI desires to move into the top tier of the UC system. To do this, they need a law school. Simple a that. Lawyers are also powerful and generous alumni. Are the mists starting to clear for you?
As for nursing. Nursing education is expensive and requires a very large staff/student ratio. Nurses don't make any money, to speak of, and are not politically powerful. Most large universities are cutting back nursing programs or eliminating them.
No worries. As an RN quickly approaching an age that would make me unemployable in any other field I am still in demand. I can walk into any venue and be working almost immediately. This would not be possible if there was young, strong competition. I love it. I"m going to work until I hobble and drool. Heh, Heh, Heh.
You are correct about needing more nurses. 200,000 lawyers in one state - Californians had better start worrying about regulation of lawyers by a truly independent body of folks who are NOT lawyers.
Meanwhile, I am seeing more and more signs of something that should never exist in our republic, a class of nobility exempt from too many laws and for whom rare punishments are meted out less severely than for the "commoners" like us.
Reddog is right, of course, but that will not lessen the impact of more lawyers. Ever wondered how a trial lawyer like John Edwards could get medical doctors to treat his wife without being sued?
- LKPB
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