Wisconsin GOP senator wants to replace history professors with Ken Burns videos

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) thinks history professors are an extravagant luxury that could be cheaply replaced with video documentaries and Google searches.

Johnson, who is locked in a tough re-election battle against former senator Russ Feingold, argued last week that Ken Burns and following through on invitations to “do your research” were sufficient substitutes for costly college professors, reported Inside Higher Ed.

“We’ve got the internet — you have so much information available,” Johnson told WisPolitics. “Why do you have to keep paying different lecturers to teach the same course? You get one solid lecturer and put it up online and have everybody available to that knowledge for a whole lot cheaper? But that doesn’t play very well to tenured professors in the higher education cartel. So again, we need destructive technology for our higher education system.”

The 61-year-old Johnson, who believes the “Lego Movie” is anti-business propaganda, suggested Ken Burns’ PBS documentary could form the basis of Civil War instruction for all U.S. students.