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Fewer People Are Going to College. Here's Why That's a Good Thing.
Reason.com ^ | 4.25.2023 12:23 PM | EMMA CAMP

Posted on 04/25/2023 5:49:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Fewer people are going to college these days, and that's great news.

For decades, the percentage of recent high school graduates attending college was climbing, until about 2008, when it started leveling off. Twelve years later, it went in the other direction, with the largest one-year drop in over 30 years coming between 2019 and 2020. And then it continued falling into 2021, albeit at a lower rate.

According to some analysts, it's starting to climb back up. Which would be a shame.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in the past 10 years, about 200 colleges have closed down, or four times as many as in the previous decade.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, where five colleges have closed since 2016, officials have launched a "call to action" to try to reverse the trend.

State officials are promising new programs to bring kids back to campus, on top of the massive federal subsidies for college already on the books.

But Obama didn't explain the reason for that wage premium, which isn't based on actual knowledge accrued by college graduates. As the economist Bryan Caplan argued in his 2018 book, The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money, most people don't learn anything on campus that helps with their actual jobs, and only kids who make it all the way to graduation earn more.

That's because a college degree is actually what Caplan calls a "signaling mechanism," or a way of showing that you have the fortitude to make it through. Employers want to hire college graduates not because of what they learned in English class but because they're more likely to arrive on time and do what they're told.

(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: college; education; jimknowsdonors

1 posted on 04/25/2023 5:49:02 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

College is pretty much a scam at this point.


2 posted on 04/25/2023 5:51:48 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

College is a game. It is not about being smart or learning. It is knowing how to play the game. Turn in the assignment in the proper format and vomit back the expected answer


3 posted on 04/25/2023 5:59:52 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Starve the beast and steal its food!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Unfortunately I think Universities are like big banks; they’re too big to fail and will be bailed out ad infinitum.

Regional colleges and for profit schools will likely shutter, but the bastions of leftism living in university campuses will continue to grow.

4 posted on 04/25/2023 6:02:54 PM PDT by GunRunner
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It’s easier and cheaper than ever to acquire knowledge.


5 posted on 04/25/2023 6:05:14 PM PDT by grumpygresh (Civil disobedience by non-compliance; jury and state nullification. )
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6 posted on 04/25/2023 6:08:46 PM PDT by dsrtsage ( Complexity is just simple lacking imagination)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They’re woke. And we know that’s a negative.


7 posted on 04/25/2023 7:01:35 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Colleges have deteriorated into very expensive daycare centers for young adults.

8 posted on 04/25/2023 7:10:52 PM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: BitWielder1

It’s ALL our fault. How many of our parents guilt-tripped us into going? Expensive. I paid $100 a semester at State U.(Calif). Best deal in town. 4 years out if the work force. Smoked a lotta dope. Came out ok, not the worse for wear.

The only alternatives for an 18 year-old HS graduate should be the military and community college where the trades are emphasized. No fun but should we pay for their being non-productives? Perhaps their parents can brag about them at their wine/quiche parties.

Ok. So the top 10% of HS graduates can and should have their science/engineering tuition paid for by the rest of us. I’m ok with that. They pull the wagon.


9 posted on 04/25/2023 7:29:38 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

More people will say less people.


10 posted on 04/25/2023 8:27:31 PM PDT by Lisbon1940 (I don’t see why they would)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

College is a scam. Most degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on and you’re in debt the rest for decades. Why bother


11 posted on 04/25/2023 9:06:02 PM PDT by Lod881019
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

STEM degrees are the only ones worth going to college for. All the rest is propaganda and BS. Get a certificate in something useful at the most, and then work hard and get real world OJT and experience.


12 posted on 04/25/2023 10:37:13 PM PDT by vpintheak (Live free, or die!)
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To: Lod881019
Most degrees aren’t worth the paper they are printed on and you’re taxpayers will be in debt the rest for decades.

There. I fixed it.

13 posted on 04/25/2023 11:07:04 PM PDT by Gritty (The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the Revolution. - Saul Alinsky)
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To: vpintheak

RE: STEM degrees are the only ones worth going to college for. All the rest is propaganda and BS. Get a certificate in something useful at the most, and then work hard and get real world OJT and experience.

#

Sorry to inform you that STEM field have also been captured by the religion of woke, meritocracy has been thrown out the window


14 posted on 04/26/2023 2:52:09 PM PDT by khelus
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

bkmk


15 posted on 04/26/2023 7:08:42 PM PDT by sbnsd
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To: khelus

I know some of them are. But engineering at least is still good to go.


16 posted on 04/26/2023 7:59:36 PM PDT by vpintheak (Live free, or die!)
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To: vpintheak

Not really ...

All the STEM fields have been captured, engineering included,

https://www.nae.edu/7488/DiversityinEngineering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JujbCzpE7U

https://engineering.stanford.edu/we-must-increase-diversity-field-engineering-heres-what-were-doing-make-it-so

https://www.colorado.edu/emp/2021/01/22/equity-inclusion-and-diversity-engineering-why-they-matter

https://engineering.njit.edu/news/njit-named-top-university-dedicated-stem-diversity

https://engineeringonline.ucr.edu/blog/why-diversity-is-key-to-the-future-of-engineering/


17 posted on 04/27/2023 12:17:47 PM PDT by khelus
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To: khelus

Well that’s unfortunate.


18 posted on 04/27/2023 1:47:31 PM PDT by vpintheak (Live free, or die!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

College-related update from Upstate NY.

As usual the enemedia buried the lede.

Important info is in the last three paragraphs of the article.

And I’m seriously wondering if, since the info was readily available, the students caught flat-footed are literate.

https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/merger-of-trocaire-college-and-medaille-university-terminated


19 posted on 05/12/2023 5:11:04 AM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
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