A week later, some folks are still stunned by the Chronicle of Higher Ed’s “An Era of Neglect,” which offers a long-term view of states’ retreat from funding higher education.  Two thoughts come to mind.  The first is that anyone who really was shocked, or even surprised, probably hasn’t been paying attention much.  But what’s stunning to me, upon re-reading the article, is its failure to note that the erosion of funding for higher education involves more than neglect: rather, it’s been part-and-parcel of the all-out assault by conservatives on the public sector, one that’s become entirely partisan.  In the coming days, I’ll give some examples.  But if you have to guess which of the nation’s two political parties has been waging war against public education (at either the K-12 or the post-secondary level), I’ll give you a hint: it hasn’t been the Democrats.