Cogs in the bloated education bureaucracy. Of course they defend their institutions with 17% graduation rates. In any other other line of work besides education, they'd be fired and have to go out and get a real job. What a scam.
I think we need to lower the bar a little more. After all it is more important to graduate a higher percent of illiterate idiots, than it is to educate them.
College is way too expensive nowadays, and people are finding sometimes it's just not worth the cash.
Yes if you want the kind of profession you can only get going to college, but just going for the sake of going may not be the best decision. I know someone who is an oil burner repairman making more money than most college grads I know.
A child? Are they enrolling 12 year olds?
More than likely they are enrolling ill prepared, immature twits who were pushed through 12 years of public school with no standards.
Is it the bureaucracy's fault that students do not graduate? Remember, many are there to get Pell grants and often drop classes once the grant checks are mailed out. Graduation may not be a priority with many.
No matter how complex and high tech our society gets, there will always be a need for people who can fix cars, unclog pipes, repair air conditioners and defend our freedoms. And if effete little elitists and journalists sneer condescendingly at these "menials",and congratulate themselves on being in the "enlightened" class just because they have a sheepskin, that just highlights what shallow, conceited and petty people they are.
Despite what the educrats say, not every high school student needs to go to college, and a lot of kids end up buying into their line that you're a loser if you don't have a degree. They end up dropping out after a couple of years, thousands of dollars in debt and feeling like failures, and having wasted all that time that could have been using building a career they're happy with.
Campuses like these are known as "commuter campuses" and dismal "graduation rates" come from a few areas. 1. There are many students who are using it as a stepping stone to a "better" college. 2. There are alot of students who don't go through in less than six years because they work at the same time. These students are also more likely to drop out as they find jobs/professions that don't necessarily need a bachelor's degree. 3. The majority of the students are transfers from community colleges and are often considered the more important constituent. While they are awarding degrees, it is usually to students who enter as sophomores or juniors. Our local state U. awards five to six times the number of degrees than the number incoming first, time freshman it enrolls.
The reason these schools blow off the 17% is because there are more factors involved.
The "Graduation Rate" assumes the student is attending the same school, full time for the entire college career.
The myth that every person that graduates from a high school (secondary school) simply MUST go to a 4-yr academic college is ridiculous. Too many of those youngsters are not even sufficiently mature to take advantage, in an academic sense, of the educational opportunities that good colleges/universities can offer. Moreover, they may not have the inherent intellectual capacity required nor the requisite self discipline (See "maturity," above). Moreover, the sociopathologic behavior that too many collge students demostrate is further evidence of their lack of fitness for admission to institutions of (supposed) higher education. Those looking for remedies for low graduation rates should first take a good, hard look at admissions policies.