Perhaps I yearn for a time that never was when I say that college should be (a) hard to get into, and (b) easy to afford. Presently, it seems like it is the opposite. There is a for-profit college on every corner telling holders of GEDs who struggled to pass science classes that they can work "in the medical field." What they fail to disclose is that these for-profit colleges' graduates' role "in the medical field" is near the bottom rung . . . they will have jobs making perhaps $35,000/year, if they're lucky, while saddled with $65,000 in student loan debt.
I don't have a proper solution for this problem. My preferred solution would be that employers return to the days when they bore the load for training their own employees. You run a medical office and need someone to code your bills to submit to insurance? Find someone and train him/her. You run a factory and need a machinist? Have an apprenticeship program.
Of course, like so many things, I believe that when the public policy response to a problem is "people need to make different choices, even if those choices are against the individuals' self interest," then there is no public response to the problem. Stated another way, if the solution is "people need to act against their own self interest," then we need to find a new solution. What that solution is, I haven't figured out.
I think that if college is made more affordable by the government ( by us the taxpayers ) then everyone would have to admitted, at least that would be the argument of the liberals . Free college for everyone ! Bernie Sanders style .
ReplyDeleteI think too many kids go away to college to have fun , and are not really thinking about how the education will get paid for ( their parents or a payback loan, or decades later with compounding interest !) Throw in the college councilors that encourage majors that are fun and “ interesting “ but offer no real benefit in finding employment post college and you’ve got a process where maybe 20 % of the kids find gainful employment and get their loans paid off in a reasonable amount of time .
I think it’s disingenuous of liberals like Sanders and the like to dangle free education in front of these kids , who the majority obviously need to get their priorities straight , just to get their vote .
I think, Anonymous, that your reasoning is flawed on a few fronts:
ReplyDelete1. The notion of free college for everyone is a good one, but it contains an important asterisk that we should discuss more . . . "free worthwhile college for everyone." I have no interest in paying taxes to support more film studies majors or recreational activity majors. If you want to go to college for something like that, fine; just don't ask me to pay for it. However, if we want to flood, to take one example, the healthcare industry with highly trained therapists/nurse practitioners/etc. in order to bring the cost of healthcare down, that is worth spending tax money on if you ask me.
2. "Too many kids go away to college to have fun" sounds a lot like a "kids these days" gripe. Let's not forget that the current generation of college kids is (a) considerably better educated than we were at that age; (b) drinks less than we did at that age; (c) does fewer drugs than we did at that age; (d) has a lower incident of out-of-wedlock/unplanned pregnancy than we did at that age; (e) is paying considerably more for college than we did; and (e) is facing considerably worse post-college wages (adjusted for inflation) than we did. To be sure, some kids (like me in the 1990s) attend college for the social aspect rather than the educational aspect. This is not something unique to today's college students; it is getting more attention, however, because college has become exorbitantly expensive.
3. Also, talking about how the "majority obviously need to get their priorities straight" "just to get their vote" goes back to my earlier comment about how asking people to act against their own self interest is not a public policy response to anything. It's moral grandstanding.
Look, the college kids didn't create a world where essentially every secretarial job in the city requires a 4-year degree or 20 years of experience. Clearly, a 20-year-old will not have 20 years of experience and, without the degree, will never get a single day. We can tut-tut them for their choices and how "things were better back in my day," but we would be wise to remember that today's world is a result of what WE did to the world WE inherited from our forebears.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and for participating in this candid exchange of opinions.
That is the problem with Bernie’s “ free college for everyone “ motto , the government will not be able to make rules and regulations for who gets their education for free and for what because then we will be having the conversation of what minority child or what poverty ridden family we are being prejudiced against for not allowing them their choice of a “ free education .” Because the rich or upper middle class , well , their kids can choose their major , why not the minorities or the lower class ? I’m sure a liberal running for office will take up the cause. Face it , nothing worth any sweat equity is worth much . And it’s just a fact that your family station in life sometimes effects your own . No one like that . Sometimes hard work can overcome it .
ReplyDeleteAs far as this generation being so much better and more morally upstanding compared to mine or your “beloved “ baby boomers , I beg to differ . I do not know where you got your stats , but I assure you that wherever you got them I could find a few that contradict some if not all of them. Which is always the case with most stats. There is more birth control available now and many parents have become smart about it and placed their kids in birth control ... which is an excellent thing to do ... after all it is biology .... and we are mammals . So , the unwanted pregnancies may be down ,you may be right ... oh and let’s not forget abortion is legal .. still ... thankfully ... a very important female right .
Drugs ? Alcohol? I don’t know how one measures this one . What teenager will admit to that ? Do you measure it by arrests ? Convictions . Idk , we were pretty secretive as teens , stealing alcohol from our parents when they went bowling and watering down the bottles .. !!! We were so bad .( sarcasm )
And finally I’m glad that you went away to college to have fun ... but I don’t want to pay for that !
Maybe some programs for 21 or 22 year olds to be eductated in areas that need workers would be a good idea ?.. you mentioned healthcare , maybe at that age, hopefully ,maturity has given the applicant a wake up call and they will finish the program successfully and be productive in society .