<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:14pt"><div>This letter was submitted to the NG in reponse to this Commentary: <a href="http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/guest-commentary/2014-06-22/gi-bill-anniversary-celebrate.html">http://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/guest-commentary/2014-06-22/gi-bill-anniversary-celebrate.html</a></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; background-color: transparent;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3"><br></font></font></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; background-color: transparent;"><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">Chancellor Phyllis Wise’s Commentary “</font><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font size="3">The GI Bill: An anniversary to celebrate” (June
22</font><sup><font size="2">nd</font></sup><font size="3">)
leaves me aghast.</font></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Calibri" size="3">The funding of
World War II and the massive education, research, and infrastructure projects
of the 1950s and 60s showed that the public spending that is central to our
economy is only limited by natural resources and skills of our people, not by
phony governmental budget constraints. The GI Bill was one aspect, along with
virtually free higher education for all qualified.</font></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Yet Wise presides
over a system that is underfunded and administratively unbalanced, and promotes
student indebtedness in a country four times as rich as 1950 and twice as rich
as 1975. Public universities have become corporate profit centers and low-wage
workplaces—including for those who do much of the teaching and research.</font></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Even more
troubling is Wise’s assertion: “It seems every generation must learn that the
costs of war aren't measured in dollars, but in lost human potential. Whether
in the world wars, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq, shattered bodies,
battered spirits and families torn asunder remain a stark, unvarying reality of
conflict in any era.”</font></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
<br></font></div><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><font face="Calibri" size="3">Wars are not
tornadoes. They are political choices, and for all American wars since 1945, immoral
and pernicious choices. Wise sees education as “transformative,” but won’t
question that the U.S. has the right to rule the world by force. Her argument is
ironically a triumph of conventional wisdom over the critical thinking required
to end the costs of wars that she refers to and implicitly justifies.</font></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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