It’s not the value, it’s the damned price.
If the Ivy League “public servants” we are afflicted with are any measure of the value of a college education today...its hard to NOT question its value.
I think colleges and universities are pricing themselves out of the market. My son is a grad student at Stanford and my head about exploded when he told us how much a year there costs. Fortunately he is a teaching assistant and it is all on his dime.
College is GOOD!
It keeps folks OUT of the job market for 4 years, lowering the apparent jobless rate.
The higher education nonsense will continue until States put their foot down and make some common sense decisions.
1) Universities cannot have unlimited growth. Students from other States and nations cannot have State taxpayer support for their education, and must pay their own way.
2) States subsidize education so that students will have better quality employment. Thus majors that have significant job placement in their field of study within six months after graduation are worthy of subsidy, and those with little or no job placement within six months after graduation should not receive taxpayer subsidy. If students wish to study in those majors, they must do so out of vanity, paying the full price for their education. If not enough students are willing to do so, that major should no longer be offered. Importantly, this applies as well to post-graduate studies. PhDs with no chance for employment are little more than deeply indebted unemployed persons.
3) Majors have a core curriculum essential to that major. Classes taught in an “employable” major are worthy of a taxpayer subsidy. Classes that are elective to a major are not worthy of a taxpayer subsidy. If enough students see an elective as valuable to their education to fully pay for it, it should continue. If not, then it should no longer be offered by the university.
4) Community colleges are a cost effective alternative to lower division (freshman-sophomore) subjects, and students should be encouraged to take such classes there, which are then transferred to universities when the student wants to take upper division classes. Doing so will save countless millions for the State, and permit significant reductions in the size of universities.
5) Many universities actively recruit far too many students, even though they have 50% attrition rates of their freshman class, solely to get one or two semesters tuition from them and the associated State subsidies. States should create diversion programs both to community colleges and trade schools before these students are denied an education altogether, as well as being in debt $10,000-$30,000 for an education they didn’t get.
6) States also need to create far more comprehensive pre-college State examinations, to insure that no student who is not capable in *all* essential studies is admitted to school. Both the SAT and ACT tests have consistently failed to eliminate unqualified students from entering college.
7) Though very popular, college athletics neither provide job placement nor employable skills. As such, calling college athletes “students” is foolish. There is no reason that the State should subsidize it at all. If a school wants a football team as a money raising effort, it should hire professional athletes as minor league teams, and pay them a salary, dispensing entirely with the notion that they are students.
Not only would they get better athletes, and better sporting events, but by paying them a salary, they would no longer have to compromise their educational standards to maintain the illusion that they are students. And if they made more money than they cost, it would help to support the school.
“But...but you can’t do this. This...this is my job!”
Moreover, while the gap between grad school and high school is about $60k, to complete grad school is about 10 years from your high school graduation. So, put another way, a graduate student has to work about five years just to catch up with the high school graduate. If there is debt involved---and the average grad school debt is about $30k---then you add another year before you catch up.
There is no question a professional degree-holder will earn a ton more over a lifetime (about $110,000 per year avg.) but you start your career much older and much poorer, and a kid who is an entrepreneur can not only eliminate that differential but greatly exceed it.
The universities brought this on themselves.
No federal policies needed, just a demand for scholastic achievement that stems from the head of the school, on down through the teachers and deans, to the students. No more laws necessary.
media promotion of “education” = more tax money flowing into “education” = more money in the pockets of leftists = more money in the pockets of the Democrat Party = more elected Democrats = more money flowing into “education” =
loop