P!
For later.
The trouble is, the main way to get to the middle class is a diploma. What is the alternative?
This was talked about on Coast-2-coast AM friday night
http://www.youtube.com/user/akcijak#p/c/4B49E4DC360B429F/0/ZK2rLwM_i6k
Kaplan is flush with cash. I know. I’ve been consulting with Kaplan Prep Test and Admissions (business software development) for over two years. And, it’s funny. You would think with all the dough and university access they would attract the best and the brightest. Nope. Not even close. All it reminds me of the the dot com bubble where html script kiddies were billing at $125 per hour. Education IS a bubble.
I had a professor friend who hated the teaching part. She took sabbatical whenever she was eligible. Professors get huge salaries and great perks. Teaching, for many teachers, is no longer a noble profession, it is a really cushy job. Now, before all you teachers flame me, I am not talking about ALL teachers. My professor (former) friends were all Libs. That is who is mostly teaching at the college level.
Let’s take the BILLIONS that our government gives to third-world rathole nations and use it to knock down the student loan problem, starting with those who have been saddled with it for over 20 years AND whose yearly income is BELOW how much is owed.
WE CAN DO THIS!
Credentials. This entire system is built around the power to control who gains credentials. And who controls that game but a claque of hardened socialists committed to destroying the foundations of Western Civilization! With all that cost, all that work, and all that time spent for a rotten product, do they provide a guarantee?
No.
There is a very simple solution to this problem, one that could bring the entire edifice crashing to its knees: A competitive system of private credentials.
Envision a small shop in a strip mall: "We Test." We Test tests, and how. We Test tests are no joke, indeed; they're hard. REALLY hard. We Test guarantees that any person who can pass their tests can perform as specified with an insured guarantee. If the person you hire fails to perform to those specifications within the term of the guarantee, We Test pays the cost of hiring and training a replacement.
Any human then could use any means imaginable to acquire the necessary knowledge to pass We Test tests. Any school would do, no accreditation required. The Internet is loaded with coursework and curricula, libraries and lab-simulators. Any human with the drive and intelligence to learn on their own could then qualify for a job. No saving for decades, no brainwashing, completely transferable work, at any pace one can withstand. Any employer could then simply select from a menu of We Test specifications instead of a diploma, at any level. We Test tests.
One would think that this should have happened a long time ago, but in fact there is one thing standing in the way that makes the realization of this seeming inevitability a matter of now or never.
State licensing requires degreed credentials obtainable only at said profligate, bureaucratic and unaccountable institutions charging outrageous fees and demanding excessive time as only a State monopoly could command. Why not just amend the legislation specifying education for state licensure by adding the simple words, "or equivalent"?
As an example of how little it would take, consider my wife. She just passed her board certification exam as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. She walked into H&R Block, sat at a computer, took a three-hour exam harder than anything she'd endured in her Masters' Program at Cal State San Francisco, and within five minutes after completion had her passing grade. If the private system can handle a test that specialized, why can't it test arithmetic, algebra, US history, or college chemistry? Instead of bricks and mortar, it would be e-books in quarters. Why not?
There are two basic myths being peddled by academia in an effort to encourage more students to pay through the nose to attend their schools:
Myth 1: A college degree is key to financial affluence and employment stability.
Fact 1: College is an opportunity, not a guarantee. If the student takes advantage of it wisely, then he could be in a position to do well. Spenign $100,000 on a degree with no marketable skill is not an example of wisely taking advantage of college.
Myth 2: Only with a college degree will someone be able to do well.
Fact 2: College may be an opportunity, but it is not the only opportunity. There are many very wealthy and well off people who never went to college. Anyone who doubts this should inquire what a skilled welder makes.
A few disciplines require college, not because of the wallpaper, but because of the knowledge and instruction in the field. College should not be discouraged for any child who gets excited by medicine, science, engineering, etc.
I think that the problem is that some Americans have a real hard time doing a cost/benefit/risk analysis. I also think that many young people are betting that the US taxpayer will be forced to bail them out of their education debt. Why not? The US taxpayer bailed out the greedy old people in the savings and loan debacle. The US taxpayer bailed out the auto workers union employees. The US taxpayer bailed out huge financial firms. Eat, drink, drugs, sex and be merry for on the morrow, the US taxpayer will pick up the tab.
The student loan takeover by the feds was 100% political as the result is that just four private companies were given the entire loan program to service for profit.
Both student-loans and credit-card debt are voluntary loans, requested by the student. If you accept the money, then you have an obligation to pay it back.
More than one successful person worked their way through college without using student loans.
This is because these loans are federal and guaranteed by the taxpayer. This is the current credit bubble. Without it, lending would be negative in growth.
PhD--the P should stand for Parasite.
Liberal elites run colleges. Liberal elites are scammers. College is a scam...
Let’s look at some of these “students” that are in debt too. Many of the diploma mills will accept homeless people.
Yes, more companies should hire high school dropouts, because they’re all exactly like Bill Gates who dropped out of college himself. The last thing an employer needs is some lazy good for nothing kid who spent four or more years trying learn something useful.