Sorry but you just pushed another of my buttons. The "research" done in many universities is so biased that ends up being outright fraud, masquerading as scientific fact. The Global Warming, sorry, Climate Change garbage is only one example. One of the things that we have to do in the very near future is to take back our higher learning system from the misguided, elitist pukes who now consider it their own domain. This year's foray with the campus concealed carry is but one example of how those who are in control are manipulating the system for their own benefit. I'm sure that there are some very dedicated researchers who are conducting themselves in professional manner. If a university study told me that the sun rose in the East, however, I'd go to the window to check it out for myself.warhorse10_9 wrote: I will make one more point. Increasingly basic scientific research is being done by universities (and therefore funded by the government). This nations previous investments into basic research is one of the things that helped make us a superpower. If you want to cut spending that is one of the first places Washington has been looking. This will ultimately impact the nation in a very negative way. Spending has to be cut in appropriate places when it is cut.
I would agree that the United States has benefited from innovation. But I think that government is the wrong place for sponsorship of it. What happens is the politicians end up tainting things, picking winners and losers. The number of studies that never should have been started, and never would have been started with out the government abuse, is staggering.
That said, educational research would not be one of my first targets for cuts. There is so much else in the "target rich environment" that is the Washington lead spending complex that it might take years to get back around to education. Like much of the Medicare establishment, I think that the budgets in the colleges and universities (public ones) are filled with fraud and abuse and it high time in Texas that an accounting is called for. There should be absolute transparency and it isn't even close to that.
Our educational system, top to bottom, is in need of a major overhaul. The first step is to get the Federal government out of the education business - period. That is a State responsibility. The next thing is to get some accountability from the schools. The key is to get local control back. There are several other points but they will just add more gasoline to this fire.
