By George Leef
The first point to observe is that “our” college graduation rate is just a statistical artifact, like “our” home ownership rate and “our” voting rate. To people imbued with a central planning mindset, such statistics betoken national success or failure. In fact, the nation isn’t doing anything. Millions of individuals are deciding whether or not to go to college and complete the course of study. Students and parents make those decisions with good (but not necessarily perfect) knowledge of the student’s capabilities, the costs of college, and the prospective benefits of doing so.
Therefore, when Obama pronounces America’s college graduation rate “unacceptable,” he’s saying that many of us are making the wrong decision. In an unguarded moment, he might even say that some Americans are behaving “stupidly” (like the Cambridge police) in not choosing to get their college degrees and thereby preventing us from “retaking the lead.” On the contrary, there are strong reasons to believe that college education has already been greatly oversold and many of those who have “invested” in it are going to regret their decision.
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We don’t need college. Doctors would be better off without a college education. Less than a school year of a four year degree at an accredited college can be courses in your major. I checked when I was taking courses. A tech school grad has more than twice the knowledge of a four year college grad. All tech grads will pass a test on tech knowledge and most college grads will fail. Not only that, but better tech schools have better labs and hands on experience.
Medical schools should skip college and the gov’t should not be supporting tertiary education that is not job training. It’s pretty bad when your TV repairman has more training than your doctor. Med school is the same length as tech school, but run by colleges who think professional knowledge is less important than socialism and liberal arts.
If you’re going to spread the wealth around, I want a taxpayer supported party. And contrary to the article, student loans don’t have to be repaid. Lots of news stories have been printed about forgiveness. I don’t think he’s right about bankruptcy either.