Shad White gets deservedly high marks for his aggressive approach to protecting the taxpayers’ money and going after those who steal and squander it.
But the Republican state auditor can be thin-skinned and arrogant. He needs to work on both his hypersensitivity and his insensitivity to others as he positions himself for higher office in Mississippi.
White stepped into a hornet’s nest recently with his latest foray into areas that are beyond his job description.
Rightfully concerned about Mississippi’s “brain drain” — the high percentage of Mississippi college graduates who settle someplace other than the state in which they were educated — White and his team at the State Auditor’s Office offered this solution: Target state funding to those fields of study that are likely to produce a high-paying job in Mississippi.
To back their case, they highlighted majors that are low-paying or of low practical demand — what White calls “garbage degrees” — such as anthropology, sociology, women’s studies, African American studies and German language and literature. White suggested that those types of degrees should be defunded.
Of course, the report and White’s defense of it produced the predictable result. He was slammed on X, formerly known as Twitter, and other media outlets by those who have studied or taught in those fields as well as in other less lucrative majors. Columnist Bill Crawford also took White to task for interfering with decisions best left up to the state’s College Board and university professionals.
Although college students shouldn’t take lightly their choice of major, especially if they are going deeply into debt to finance their education, White’s idea of trying to dictate, through legislative appropriations, which courses of study are more valued than others is autocratic and impractical.
First off, who is going to decide which degrees are worthy, and based on what criteria? White only seems to have two: Did the graduate stay in Mississippi and, more importantly, did the graduate make a boatload of money?
Not everyone is motivated by money, nor should they be. If they were, there would be even fewer journalists, social workers and ministers. For that matter, White’s idea — if taken to its logical conclusion — would suggest that higher education dollars are wasted on women who marry and stay at home to care for their husband and raise the couple’s children.
He also undervalues the benefits of a broad, liberal arts education to develop critical thinking and communication skills, which can be applied to a variety of professional schools and careers.
And he seems to ignore that even those who major in more practical degree programs have their interests and brains broadened by taking courses in college outside of their main field of study. A chemical engineer who knows something about German literature, for example, is probably more interesting than one who doesn’t.
White’s own education was not particularly practical before he went to Harvard Law School. He majored in economics and political science at the University of Mississippi, then economic and social history as a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford.
All of that education, one would think, might cause White to consider that those who disagree with him could have a point. Instead, he tends to double down when he receives pushback, firing away snarky rebuttals, such as the one he made to Crawford, accusing the fellow Republican and former College Board member of being a “liberal” and a defender of gender studies, of which Crawford in his own piece made no mention.
If there are majors that are worthless, as White contends, it does not require government intervention to weed them out. The free market, if left to run its normal course, will take care of the problem. If students don’t find fulfillment, whether financially or personally, from a major, they will eventually stop choosing it, and it will die a natural death. Universities won’t keep funding programs with low enrollment.
As far as Mississippi’s brain drain, White is looking at the wrong place to fix it.
The reason many college graduates are not staying in this state has little to do with what they study. It has a lot to do with job and social opportunities. It’s also driven by prevailing attitudes.
States whose leaders seem to be close-minded or anti-intellectual can be a turnoff to the college-educated. Ridiculing those who have a different point of view from the majority can be, too.
White is bright and honest. He could grow into a major leader in this state. But if he hopes to realize his potential, he could stand to work on his humility and his manners.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
