November 27: When College Was a Public Good (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

At a recent town-hall meeting in Tucson, local business leaders took up education in the state of Arizona. They examined state support for public colleges — among the lowest in the country — and fretted about their future work force, says Gary D. Rhoades, a professor of higher education at the University of Arizona. They had even gone to the statehouse to meet with legislators, he heard at the town hall. "If you need to raise taxes," the businessmen had told their representatives, "we’ll give you political cover."