This article opens eyes. Sounds like there’s an education industrial complex at work. 4 year degrees take 5-6 years to complete, time that could be spent in the work force.
Then there’s the GED one should be able to take early and drop out of school if passed..
Last it’s the trimester system that should be applied to community colleges. No wasted summers for those that are serious about going to work in the trades.
These ideas have been posted before. Immature teenagers have the option of ‘parking’ their butts in a lecture hall while figuring out what they want to do later but it should not happen at taxpayer expense.
I’d go for tuition expenses paid for the top 10% of HS grads. They’ll end up pulling the wagon. Gets rid of the welfare serfs.
Welding shop was exactly that; we had a summer session or you could work and get credit (the local places always checked with the shop teacher). A summer session that had 8 unit all day classes, so you could really study and practice full time without worrying about other things (at least academic things).
Really, English, math, science, chemistry can easily be taught on the cheap at a JC. University should be more for specialization, putting focused young adults in direct contact with experts in their fields with professional advancement as the goal.
I had a great time at the JC; I didn’t finish HS (got kicked out) so started at the JC at a few days shy of 16, then spent 4+ years getting all my stuff out of the way for university, learning welding, drafting, some fun stuff while working part time, chasing women; when I got to university I had a trade, a back-up trade, my wild oats sown and was ready to get down to study.
The biggest damned shame is that we have such a need for trained tradespeople, we have kids who are quite well aware that a HAVC tech makes more than any ‘Social Studies’ or Gender studies teacher, and we have a lot of the infrastructure and a remnant of skilled tradespeople to transmit the information (I know lots of electricians, plumbers, equipment operators who, like me, are in their 60’s and still have the knowledge but not a body that can take 8 hours of hard work).