Liberal Arts Undervalued? Umm, Duh?

Liberal Arts Undervalued by Education Department, Official Says After Quitting - Chronicle.com

You'll need a site pass or subscription to read this in its entirety, but here's the first sentence:

The Education Department is controlled by advisers who have insufficient regard for the liberal arts and instead are intent on judging colleges largely by their ability to provide economically measurable talent for industry, a recently departed top official told The Chronicle.

I don't know why the liberal arts are so disparaged--maybe because of the word "liberal"--but it would seem to me that the ability to think critically, to analyze data, to write well, and to be able to understand and convey information effectively would all be skills that the business community values.

It's a debate, says Terry W. Hartle, who is a senior v.p. for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, between the liberal arts and "employment-specific education," a debate, he said, "that people have been having for centuries."