Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Federalize Driver's Licenses

For face to face transactions, identity in the U.S. is established primarily via the driver's license.  There already is a Federal identity of sorts, the passport, but most people don't carry around their passports.  They are too big to carry in your wallet.  And, after all, you already have the driver's license, at least most people do.  As identification becomes increasingly important in the society in which we live, doesn't it make sense to have one system for all Americans and have that system replace the present state by state use of driver's licenses?

Actually, the above is a ruse.  I really don't care about national identity cards.  That's for others to worry about.  My concern is education, particularly higher education, and especially public higher education.  In this morning's Insider Higher Ed, the lead article is about the Governor of Wisconsin wanting to impose very steep budget cuts on the University of Wisconsin system.  I found myself nauseated when reading that piece.  Angry and nauseated.  My knee jerk reaction was to start spewing bile about how destructive such a move would be.  But, on second thought, it occurred to me that I can't rant in my writing very well.  Others can be highly critical and sarcastic and do that with some art.  When I try this, it usually ends up sounding like whining.  So I thought I'd be cutesy instead.

What about Federalizing public higher education?

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