Take tenure out of the University of Wisconsin and the people who can will - over time - leave. If we had a single national system, that would be one thing, as it would effect all equally. The departees wouldn’t have any place to go. But it won’t. Private universities, with the most outrageously high tuitions, will not do this. They are self-governing institutions. And even to the extent that boards of trustees are in tension with professors, they are driven by the quest for institutional prestige, not scoring political points. So the top academics will go there. The net effect of all this will be to kill off or bleed dry great state universities which are yes, still pricey, but not as crazy expensive and hard to get into as the prestige private universities.In short, it’s a big boon for education for the very rich.
Josh Marshall. This is exactly right. I don’t think Scott Walker gives a flying fig, but this is how it’s going to fall out.