Higher Education's Big Lie

The author had me until she brought her failed politics into it and started writing about how we need unions and mandatory higher wages. She has a PhD in English, not economics. I wouldn't give credence to much (or any) of what she said.

 

I agree with her identification of the problem, but not her policy prescription.

 

It's true, MC, that a bachelor's degree no longer guarantees you a good job. Especially since, as you pointed out, most students are at least attempting to make it through college. Most of those irresponsible students will not make it through with practices like you described, though. They will end up in a city college and be stuck there. My daughter just got her AA and she has commented on how many people are there who have little chance of making it out. She says it's not that most are stupid, they are just lazy and would prefer to party rather than excel in school.

 

I didn't mean to turn this into a political/policy discourse, but she makes her own recommendations at the end of the article (2nd to last paragraph) and they include what I mentioned.

I don't disagree with the author that too many people are going to college without a clear understanding of what they are getting into financially and their prospects once they are done, but I don't need to hear some academic with a PhD in English wax poetic about economic issues she has no training in. If she wants to tell me something about Voltaire I'd be happy to listen.