: Re: [AAACE-NLA]HOUSE PASSES H.R. 1261

[Eileen Eckert]

I'd like to respond to Allan's statement:
"Now, in practical terms, what can be done since few institutions can even 
consider doing without their federal dollars that they have been dependent 
on for so many years?"

I agree that few institutions will consider doing without federal funding, 
but is it true that they <can't>? Does the dependence on federal funding 
still come from a real need (after all, does the funding even cover the cost 
of all the mandated activity anymore?) or does it come from a mindset that 
says you can't let go of federal funding no matter how expensive the 
attached strings? I don't just mean the mindset of the people in the 
program--it's hard to imagine any college turning down federal funding.

What would happen if a number of colleges and large K-12 based programs 
decided to forego, or to boycott, federal funding and accompanying 
regulations? (I ask about those because many smaller programs have let go 
of, or been frozen out of, federal funding already.) For those who really do 
run or work in such programs, think of the specific things you have to do in 
order to be eligible for federal funding. How much time do those things 
take? How much staffing and money? Does federal funding pay for anything 
except its own mandated activities? Does it even cover all of those? How do 
mandates "pull" the direction of your program, and do they pull it in a good 
direction or are they a distraction or a roadblock to what you really feel 
you should be doing?

I think that a boycott might just be greeted gleefully by members of the 
Bush administration ("Oh, goody, they're privatizing all on their own!" 
they'd say), so I'm not advocating for that even if it were realistic to 
think it might happen. However, I think lots of creative thinking happens 
when we let go of assumptions about what has to be, even if it's only 
hypothetical. With some of that creative thinking, we might generate some 
ideas about what actually can be done.

Eileen

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