Governor plans to eliminate faculty unions

In Wisconsin, reports the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Wisconsin's newly elected Republican governor announced a sweeping plan on Friday that would cut benefits for state employees, including those in the University of Wisconsin system, and eradicate the collective-bargaining rights ...
it would specifically remove the right of the university system's faculty and staff members to bargain collectively. That right was just won in 2009 under a bill signed by then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. Since then, faculty members on two University of Wisconsin campuses, Eau Claire and Superior, have voted in favor of collective bargaining

Adjunct faculty unionization is something that makes sense to me.  But, tenured faculty in public universities unionizing always seemed bizarre to me.  Three layers of job protection: indefinite tenure, collective bargaining, and public sector?

Meanwhile, the flagship campus at Madison, wants to break free (not unlike the plans that the University of Oregon has):

In response to declining state support, Madison's chancellor, Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin, proposed last fall a plan, dubbed the New Badger Partnership, that would free the university from state controls over various parts of its operation, allowing it to set differential tuition, provide more student aid, and compensate faculty members separately from pay plans for other state agencies.
Last week, the faculty senate at Madison adopted the principles of Ms. Martin's proposal.

Most of these problems will easily go away if only we stopped overselling higher education and college degree.  The more we do this, the more we make it worthless, while driving up the costs, and triggering the need for more faculty and graduate students, and ..... Instead, we have made higher education an expensive credentialing process that forces even the disinterested and unqualified to attend college on lots of borrowed money.  Apparently, we seem to be intent on making things even worse for the youth and, in particular, those from lower-income backgrounds. 



(Editor: aren't you forgetting full-disclosure? Yes, I am getting to it. I teach at a public university where faculty negotiate through collective bargaining.  But, I am not a member of the union.)