State of Minnesota bans free online education

El Reg does it again!

Here's the new statement from Larry Pogemiller, director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education:

Obviously, our office encourages lifelong learning and wants Minnesotans to take advantage of educational materials available on the Internet, particularly if they’re free. No Minnesotan should hesitate to take advantage of free, online offerings from Coursera.

Strange. Probably is just a garden-variety bureaucratic glitch that's been journalized out of proportion. This really isn't the way things typically work here in Minnesota--if something like this crops up, they often do sort it out pretty quickly, as they seem in fact to be doing with this. (And as they did with the hair-braiding licenses.)

There are exceptions, of course. Bureaucratic insanity that favored established healthcare, pre-college education, or social welfare interests would probably be untouchable. But incredible as it sounds, even the people who collect taxes here are a pleasure to deal with.

I'm not just defending my home state, by the way. I moved here from New York f-----g City, my hometown, ten years ago.

Geography lesson for Europeans: The USA consists of 50 states, and state laws and general legal environments vary widely. The states have a status somewhere between that of German Länder and EU member states. There is a solid correlation between the extremes of regulatory insanity and Democratic party rule. The corruptibility of state legislatures is an axiom of American politics, but the degree of corruptibility varies widely.

Minnesota, home of non-free on line Capella Uni

Just saying, maybe a coincidence, yeah, coinkydink for sure.

http://www.capella.edu

Capella University

Capella Tower

225 South 6th Street, 9th Floor

Minneapolis, MN 55402

BA, Accounting

Total program:

180 quarter credits

Tuition Per:

1000-2000 Level Credit: $290

3000-4000 Level Credit: $350

Never fails

Leave it to the State, any state, to smother anything that threatens it's monopoly on education. To hell with them. I say move your operations outside of the country and tell them to get stuffed.