Matthew T. Hora: Opposing UW Cultural Diversity Courses Hurts State’s Workforce Development
September 26, 2017
Matt Hora, director of the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions (CCWT), recently published an op-ed in the Captial Times.
One of the sticking points in recent deliberations about the 2017-2019 biennial budget was a complaint by several Republican representatives about funding for "diversity, sensitivity, and cultural fluency" courses at University of Wisconsin campuses. Of course, opposition to such courses is nothing new, and is often framed as a waste of taxpayer resources that is advancing a "politically correct agenda of liberal administrators and staff."
But based on my research about the skills employers seek in today's job applicants, it is clear that Republican hostility to these courses is detrimental to Wisconsin's ability to educate and train a competitive workforce. In fact, opposition to multicultural education in the state's public colleges and universities will negatively impact one company in particular: Foxconn.
