Wisconsin and their Republican “governance” has declared total war on their public education system, from Kindergarten to their Universities: Bombs away.
For additional reading, see Marc Bousquet’s How the University Works
For a perspective from 100 years ago (that lends perspective to today’s situation), Thorstein Veblen’s classic The Higher Learning In America is hard to beat
THE QUANTUM of EXPLANATION 
Do you follow Diane Ravitch’s blog? There’s a wealth of information and comment there on what the Destroyers Of Public Education (you do the acronym) are up to across the nation.
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I had not been, but I’ve seen her name come up in a number of places, so I just now ran over and clicked the “follow” button.
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I wondered, Gary, if you have any thoughts or comments on choosing the path of independent scholarship, not (primarily) for lack of academic work, but as a positive, principled response to how wrongly things have turned in academia?
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There are people going this direction on purpose (I fell into it by accident.) The folks at the National Coalition of Independent Scholars http://www.ncis.org/ have a variety of supports and stories to tell. Another term that is used a lot is “Alt-Ac” (Alternative Academic.) Many folks are turning to professional writing & blogging. I know of others who have been running their own online classes. (These aren’t leading to a degree, of course, but are for the personal life-enrichment of the students.) There are folks I know who are involved with “Philosophical Counseling,” also sometimes called “Philosophical Practitioners.” (Depending on the state, the word “counselor” might require a different kind of licensing.) The main professional group for this latter is the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (I am a member) http://www.appa.edu/
These are just a few of the groups and types of folks that I know of. So, yes, there are definitely people taking this as a choice rather than a necessity.
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