"The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it’s now doing more harm than good. It looms as the largest mistake in educational policy since World War II, even though higher education’s expansion also ranks as one of America’s great postwar triumphs.
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MP: The chart above shows graphically the results of the "college-for-all crusade." In the 1970s and 1980s only about one out of three high school graduates went on to college. Now about half of all high school graduates attend college. And most of them now graduate with student loan debt of $25,000 and many are having a hard time finding a job.
For reasons unknown, the US political right has a big problem with educating people. Whether it's the "threat of liberal indoctrination" (ever talked with professors in the business school ?) or some other such nonsense, the lack of respect for education and educational achievement is palpable -- and grows more and more every year.
The problem with the above statement is this chart:
The more educational achievement you have, the lower your unemployment rate. And this is not a matter of .5% here and there, it's a noticeable difference.
7 comments:
I don't see this as a left-versus-right argument. You left out the chart he posted showing the dramatic increase in college tuition.
For a more detailed chart showing that college tuition inflation dramatically dwarfts that of the housing bubble, see his other post from May 19, 2012 below.
This is truly a massive bubble. The chart makes the housing bubble look like a pebble sitting on a table top.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/05/update-on-higher-education-bubble.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FmmMP+%28CARPE+DIEM%29
The other flaw with just looking at unemployment rates by category is that just because unemployment trends lower with education, that doesn't mean that everyone should get bachelor degrees.
Not everyone is college material, just like not everyone is home ownership material. See this 5/27 post for associated grade inflation at US colleges.
This is another alarming trend. College education is being diluted, and its value diminished in some cases. Graduate preparedness for the real working world seems to be shifting.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/05/todays-grade-inflated-lake-wobegon.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FmmMP+%28CARPE+DIEM%29
The cost of education at state schools is a result of the slow defunding of these programs and placing the financial burden on students backs.
Additionally, schools could increase supply of classes if they chose to, thereby decreasing costs.
Higher tuition costs do not mean educating people is bad. It means people who are against educating people are bad because tuition costs should not be used by a developed country to deny its citizens a decent education. Tuition costs should be heavily subsidized by government to equalize the field for poorer citizens to get a decent education.
Also college education does not mean bachelors degrees. The majority of degrees are always going to be associate degrees or two year vocational college which is crucial for a manufacturing developed economy. Confusing ourselves by pretending that college education means liberal arts 4 year degrees is disingenuous. Education policy for a progressive nation must be against the commoditization of education and towards active government support of further education and higher transition rates from High school to college. Anything else is the campaign to make the US a third world country because it suits rich people.
I don't think the reason for conservative aversion to college for "Them" is unknown. They don't have to have more people capable of competing with them. They also don't want their children having to attend school with minorities, feminists, hippies and poor people on scholorships and as you mentioned, there's the good old standby of "liberal commie pinko egghead professors who have no real world experience telling us how bad Reagan was."
For a more detailed chart showing that college tuition inflation dramatically dwarfts that of the housing bubble, see his other post
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