Posted on 09/04/2014 6:57:52 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This week, millions of young people head to college and universities, aiming for a four-year liberal arts degree. They assume that degree is the only gateway to the American middle class.
It shouldn’t be.
For one thing, a four-year liberal arts degree is hugely expensive. Too many young people graduate laden with debts that take years if not decades to pay off.
And too many of them can’t find good jobs when they graduate, in any event. So they have to settle for jobs that don’t require four years of college. They end up overqualified for the work they do, and underwhelmed by it.
Others drop out of college because they’re either unprepared or unsuited for a four-year liberal arts curriculum. When they leave, they feel like failures.
We need to open other gateways to the middle class.
Consider, for example, technician jobs. They don’t require a four-year degree. But they do require mastery over a domain of technical knowledge, which can usually be obtained in two years.
Technician jobs are growing in importance. As digital equipment replaces the jobs of routine workers and lower-level professionals, technicians are needed to install, monitor, repair, test, and upgrade all the equipment.
Hospital technicians are needed to monitor ever more complex equipment that now fills medical centers; office technicians, to fix the hardware and software responsible for much of the work that used to be done by secretaries and clerks.
Automobile technicians are in demand to repair the software that now powers our cars; manufacturing technicians, to upgrade the numerically controlled machines and 3-D printers that have replaced assembly lines; laboratory technicians, to install and test complex equipment for measuring results; telecommunications technicians, to install, upgrade, and repair the digital systems linking us to one another.
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Yeah, Reich, thanks to you and your good buddy Obama!
This is a private college with tuition less than your typical state university charges for in-state students.
No government loans allowed; they have their own group of private lenders lined up.
Graduates typically find work so quickly that the default rate on their loans is near 0. As a result, their lenders charge less for the loans.
To top it off, they have endowments on a per student basis which rivals most of the Ivy Leagues.
A few colleges and universities have or are close to adopting many aspects of the Hillsdale model including Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., Grove City College in Grove City, Pa. and Brigham Young University (3 campuses).
North Dakota has a State Bank which makes all their state higher educational loans. Utah, Wyoming and Idaho have a joint venture which does the same with theirs. Tuition in all four states are affordable compared to the national average and default rates are likewise near zero.
The sole disadvantage of above models, as I can see, is that there is a very limited offering of Fluff Studies majors and, subsequently, no strong educrat unions.
Robert Reich is behind the curve. Mike Rowe has this covered, AND is putting his money where his mouth is. Profoundlydisconnected.com
First time that I ever agreed with Robert Reichchch about anything. But he is spot on here.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.
Agreed. And the mere notion to spend all that money to get such a degree should place these dudes on a “watch” list as perhaps they should be redirected somewhere else more meaningful and useful for themselves and society. Limit the output.
From the turd who supported the rapist’s quote form 1992 about how it is an Inalienable right to go to college. Now that he colleges are pumping out idiots the asstroll wants to recant his thoughts.
Explains why colleges are now mostly the domain of liberal women. The men have moved on, particularly since the liberal faculties are hostile to men anyway.
I was a nice girl.
/johnny
I don’t hold that against you.
In the German company I worked for, EVERYONE in management had a DOCTORATE degree. They told me is was assumed to be needed by all.
“He’s right, people with a liberal arts degree in most areas have few choices about work. But then, many are seeking the prestige of a college degree regardless of the marketability.”
A couple of decades ago, one of our younger relatives coined the phrase, “Instant Unemployment Degrees”, “IED’s” for those, who wasted 5 years of their lives and a lot of money for a worthless degree.
His wisdom then continues to be more on target each year after his early analysis.
Get hard skills.
When my brother in law was in university, he told his adviser, who was a sociology prof, that he too wanted to major in sociology.
The prof took him to the window and pointed to a 20 year old car (his) and said, “this is what a degree in soc gets you”.
He graduated with a degree in finance and accounting.
I was speaking from an article I read some time back, which I can’t locate. I will defer in the meantime to your actual experience. :)
I’m sure you will agree, however, that they do a better job of providing apprenticeships and such.
One problem, among many, with Reich’s plan for a Federal training program is that the government is completely inept at figuring out what fields or knowledge will be most in demand in the next 5, 10, or 30 years. Take a look at the Labor Department’s occupational outlook projections from 30 or 40 years ago. They are a riot.
I agree about technical schools and such. They actually value that line of training, and move people to it early.
I’m in the chemical business.. maybe, it’s a quirk for people in my line of work. But, yea... if you’re not a DR with them? You’re basically a clerk.
He is the reason for the destruction of college. The man is a leftist loony.
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