Posted on 08/09/2010 5:20:49 AM PDT by reaganaut1
President Obama on Monday will renew his call for the United States to lead the world in college graduation rates by 2020, an ambitious goal that senior administration officials say will require 60 percent of all young Americans to possess a college degree, up from 40 percent today.
The United States gave up its spot as the world leader in college graduation rates about 10 years ago, as students in countries like South Korea, Canada and Russia began to surpass their American counterparts. Now the United States ranks 12th among 36 developed nations; a report by the College Board last month warned that the gap threatens to undermine American competitiveness.
Mr. Obama, who shares that view, used his State of the Union address in January to call for the United States to resume its spot as the world leader in graduation rates. He will travel to Austin, Texas, on Monday to reiterate his education plan in a speech at the University of Texas there.
“We’re flatlined, where other countries have passed us by,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Sunday, during a conference call with reporters to preview the president’s remarks. Mr. Duncan called the 2010 goal “the North Star for all our educational efforts.”
Mr. Obama’s trip to Texas will pair policy with politics; before delivering his education speech, he will headline a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in Austin. After the speech, he will make a quick trip to Dallas to raise money for Democratic Senate candidates.
And the speech itself will have a political edge; advisers to Mr. Obama say he will use it to remind Americans that, with just a few exceptions, Republicans voted overwhelmingly against legislation adopted by Congress earlier this year to revamp the student loan program
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Education is a great thing, but before pushing college, how about making sure that people get out of high school? The national high school graduation rate is around 68-69%, and is significantly worse in many cities.
The average public school high school graduation rate in the 50 largest cities in the nation is ~53%. In Detroit that number is ~25%, and in New York it is ~54%.
To address the high school problem, however, requires liberals to 1) be honest about social issues and the root causes of unequal outcomes, and 2) to be willing to fight the teacher’s unions.
I’m not impressed.
College graduation rates would improve greatly if we banned the NCAA.
Yeah, I don’t know how you REQUIRE people to get a college degree. Unless you have the equivalent of commissars making the decision.
I am a college professor and, my own opinions is that too many kids get pushed into college as it is. From what I’ve seen: one third of those in college deserve to be there, the next third might deserve to be there if they got serious, and the last third has no business being there at all.
Some college professors have no problem being high priced baby sitters who hand out As like candy. I’m not one of them, however.
I'll go with "and."
Why would 60% of our HS graduates need college edumacations? What jobs are they going to do? Are they going to water the value of a degree that much? Are you going to need a BA to operate a fryer?
Got a better idea. Unless you’re going to be a scientist or engineer, to heck with college. Rebuild the vocational education system. Teach ‘em to build stuff. There is money in being a good mechanic, plumber, mason, carpenter, etc., and we need them!
The top Majors many will receive to ‘improve’ grad. rates:
1) African-American studies
2) Women’s studies
3) Art History
4) American Studies
5) Music Therapy
6) Communications
7) Dance
8) Leisure Studies
9) Poetry
10) Physical Education
Obambi wants to make Bachelor Degrees an E.G.O. item...Everybody Gets One.
I still submit that an 8th grader from 1920 could write better prose than a college sophomore today. And what is the use of such a percentage of BAs and BSs? We still need factory workers, farm hands, cowboys, and waitresses do we not?
Most Ivy League schools have >90% graduation rates (mostly achieved by flexible individualized standards, I think).
So let’s have all the people 0bama wants go to Harvard and Yale!
Yeah, Lets Dumb down America. They’s all white racists anyway. Lets make the graduation standards lower so other folk can get a debree.
You know they are not talking about raising more people to current accademic standards; this will be accomplished by dropping standards as required to graduate the targeted percentage of population.
All that will do is lesson the value of a college education. Already a college degree is required for a lot of jobs that really don’t need college skills. We waste a tremendous amount of resources in teaching C students to be a secretary.
We should work to make our schools better and more rigorous. College should be a privilege for those who show the most intellectual potential not a right that prepares people for low end jobs that don’t need college skills. That to me would do far more good than opening the doors to everyone in high school and overcrowding the colleges with C students. The larger classes and the weaker students would hurt the quality of education that the really talented people get.
I agree that an investment in vocational education makes more sense. We need good plumbers, lab techs, etc.
“You know they are not talking about raising more people to current accademic standards; this will be accomplished by dropping standards as required to graduate the targeted percentage of population. “
Which will then mean you’ll need grad school to get the skills you once learned in high school.
First thing to note: college has become nothing more than a business.
IMO, perhaps he should consider opening more Close Match Book Before Striking colleges to get the 60% graduation he desires.
Went to a high school graduation, as an attendee not awardee, recently. Noticed the number of students who were graduating “with honors”. I kind of thought it odd that almost 50% of the entire student body were graduating with honors in a school the state considered of average achievement.
Next phase of the reparations tour. Free college for all minorities, with degrees to anyone who attends one class.
Good points. Yet, that is not the true issue. Obama thinks that a college education is the key to success/prosperity/happiness. This IS a major premise of liberal mindset. And it is full of fallacy.
Did Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan have to complete college to be sucessful? Did Charleston Heston have to get a Masters to be successful? I know a good mechanic who went to a trade school, also. Uh-oh, I guess this mechanic has no common sense because he did not go to college. It is beyond him to think of lofty ideas, such as Black awareness month or global warming. < rant/ >
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