Neoliberalism is in the process of transforming higher education from a social good into a market good. For neoliberals, all social institutions, including education, should be subject to the market. Yet this market vision can have detrimental effects on higher education because it negates all critical and humanistic aspects of it. The Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2011 is a state policy that aims to restructure higher education into a market good and is a direct reflection of neoliberalism. This paper will argue that scholars and educationalists must not only fight neoliberalism and return education to a social good, but also help higher education progress to something totally new. Dialectics entails the simultaneous preservation of what is beneficial and the destruction of what is oppressive in state affairs. It is the hope that a dialectical critique of the Virginia Higher Education Opportunity Act can transform higher education from its current state as a market good into a rich and complex entity that can contribute to true progress for the state of Virginia. 1 Angelo Letizia is a doctoral student at the College of William and Mary in the Educational Policy, Planning and Leadership program. His interests include critical theory, post-modernism and their application to higher education and K-12 education. This article would not be possible without the support of my advisor, Dr. Pamela Eddy and the excellent faculty at William and Mary. My wife Janet and my children, Troy and Rosalie are the inspiration for everything I do.

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Over the last 40 years, American institutions of higher education have been encouraged to align with the private sector by policymakers, think tank experts and businessmen in order to become more efficient and more accountable. In a wider sense, this new partnership may be evidence of what has been termed ''disaster capitalism.'' In disaster capitalism, crises are treated as economic opportunities. Governing bodies become ''hollow states'' which serve only to regulate contracts and provide further opportunities to entrepreneurs. The supposed crisis of accountability in American higher education may be such an opportunity. This paper argues for the emergence of the ''hollow university'' in American higher education. In the hollow university, state legislatures, think tank experts, leaders from the private sector and higher education administrators help to create a climate where institutions are more amendable to private sector partnerships. In order to determine this, I examine the desired inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes of four performance-based funding policies in the United States and demonstrate how the wording of these policies allow for and encourage private sector partnerships, specifically with emerging data companies such as Civitas Learning. Implications for the public mission of universities are discussed.