Martha Rosler on education and debt

When I went to Brooklyn College it was entirely free; now fees are about 10k a year. That's because the state had realized the need for a professional class beofre but esp after the war. When the attendees at public educational institutions became working class kids of color in high numbers, the interest of the state and the population at large in supporting public ed of any kind, including k-12 in NY, evaporated.

The invention of Pell grants to help lower middle class students and working class students attend college was a Dem initiative essentially canceled out by the advent of neoliberalism in the US in the 80s. Loans were routed through banks instead of the government, and the terms were not in the least favorable to students. This was not accidental, as part of the prescriptions of Huntington et al to neutralize student activism and return the democracies to "governability" was to increase the costs of all sorts of attending college and to turn it into a jobs-credentialing industry.

The corporatization of higher ed has led to a grotesque hypertrophy in the administrative/management layer, and they draw absurdly high salaries, costs borne by tuition-paying students. Since the 1980s the cost of tuition has far outstripped inflation.

The corporatization of higher ed has led to a grotesque hypertrophy in the administrative/management layer, and they draw absurdly high salaries, costs borne by tuition-paying students. Since the 1980s the cost of tuition has far outstripped inflation.

Blaming students for incurring debt, like blaming householders for incurring incomprehensibly encumbered mortgages is blaming the victims as though they were 'complicit." They were gulled, not complicit.

- Martha Rosler / distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission

Martha Rosler was born in Brooklyn, New York. She took her B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1965 and her M.F.A. from University of California, San Diego in 1974.

Rosler works in video, photo-text, installation, and performance, and writes criticism. She has lectured extensively nationally and internationally. Her work in the public sphere ranges from everyday life — often with an eye to women's experience — and the media to architecture and the built environment.

She has published several books of photographs, texts, and commentary on public space, ranging from airports and roads to housing and homelessness. Her work has been seen in the "Documenta" exhibition in Kassel, Germany; several Whitney biennials; the Institute of Contemporary Art in London; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Dia Center for the Arts in New York; and many other international venues.

A retrospective of her work has been shown in five European cities and in New York at the New Museum and the International Center of Photography (2000). An accompanying book has been published by MIT Press. Her writing has been published widely in catalogs and magazines, such asArtforum, Afterimage, and NU Magazine.

Rosler has ten published books. She has produced numerous other "Word Works" and photo/text publications — now exploring cookery in a mock dialogue between Julia Child and Craig Claiborne, now analyzing imagery of women in Russia or exploring responses to repression, crisis, and war.

Rosler teaches at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Comments

[paul]

The advent of tuition at CUNY was in response to the city going bankrupt in the 70's. Getting private banks into the student loan business came long after Huntington and the 60's. The problems of public education do not stem from inadequate funding (dollars spent per pupil are generally high) but from misallocation of resources.

Intellectual dishonesty is no better than financial dishonesty, and no less damaging to the commonwealth. The whole world is watching.