Starving the Beast

Ever wonder how public universities became so expensive that students must take on loans that saddle them with huge debts? Filmmaker Steve Mims's documentary recounts the origins of a state-by-state movement in the U.S. to undercut crucial funding for higher education. Going back to the time of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, tax-funded public universities were considered important to civic engagement and an avenue to good jobs in America, but these longstanding assumptions gradually fell to a rapacious Tea Party mentality. Starving the Beast traces the rise of a new way of thinking about higher ed: namely, college should be considered a business and students as customers. In state houses and governors' offices, this convenient shift toward free market measures provided political cover for massive cuts to schools, the destruction of tenure for faculty members, and unqualified judgments by non-experts about the relative value of one field of study over another. “Shakespeare? Yes. Faulkner? Maybe,” says Jeff Sandefer, a former business professor who played a large role in the changes. Besides Sandefer, Mims presents new and archival footage of anti-tax guru Grover Norquist, billionaire David Koch, and Democratic operative James Carville, who offer perspectives from both sides. Mims traces the popularity of this development from where it began in Texas to Louisiana, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, the latter proving—under Governor Scott Walker—to be a hostile landscape not only for higher ed but also for public service employees, unions, and collective bargaining. This timely documentary brings the whole sad story into focus. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)