Is college worth it? Increasing numbers say no

[rangerrebew]

Is college worth it? Increasing numbers say no
by Michael Barone | Jun 8, 2017, 12:01 AM
 

"Too many people are going to college," writes my American Enterprise Institute colleague Charles Murray. That's not a response to the mob of students that attacked him and the liberal professor who had invited him to speak back in March at Middlebury College. It's the title of the third chapter in his 2008 book Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality.

Since Murray wrote those words, higher-education enrollment has in fact declined, from 20.6 million in 2011 to 19 million in 2006, according to Ohio University economists Richard Vedder and Justin Stehle writing in the Wall Street Journal. That 8 percent drop is concentrated in community colleges and for-profit schools.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/is-college-worth-it-increasing-numbers-say-no/article/2625304

[thackney]

higher-education enrollment has in fact declined, from 20.6 million in 2011 to 19 million in 2006

Uhm, those numbers are an increase, not a decrease.

Judging from the text, the author likely mixed up some of the numbers.

[Free Vulcan]

Time to force colleges and universities to focus. No med FedGov money for any major that isn't directly linked to a career and a job in that field. For the fluff and the SJW majors to be funded with endowments and donations. Wildly expand online opportunities and applicational or tech majored institutions.

[Applewood]

In my day, a college education was all the rage.  People of my parents' generation had no hope for a college education for themselves (Mom didn't even finish high school), so parents worked, slaved and sacrificed to ensure the kids had a college education.

Today I wouldn't send a kid to college.  Go to a trade or technical school and learn a practical skill that will get you a job.  Today's colleges and universities are cesspools of liberal/socialist/communism ideology.  They don't teach; they indoctrinate. The result is that graduates are totally unprepared for life and don't have any marketable skills. Many of them can't read or write. But boy, can they recite the liberal talking points.

[roamer_1]

Time to force colleges and universities to focus. No med FedGov money for any major that isn't directly linked to a career and a job in that field. For the fluff and the SJW majors to be funded with endowments and donations. Wildly expand online opportunities and applicational or tech majored institutions.

fixed

[roamer_1]

In my day, a college education was all the rage.  People of my parents' generation had no hope for a college education for themselves (Mom didn't even finish high school), so parents worked, slaved and sacrificed to ensure the kids had a college education.

Today I wouldn't send a kid to college.  Go to a trade or technical school and learn a practical skill that will get you a job.  Today's colleges and universities are cesspools of liberal/socialist/communism ideology.  They don't teach; they indoctrinate. The result is that graduates are totally unprepared for life and don't have any marketable skills. Many of them can't read or write. But boy, can they recite the liberal talking points.

It hasn't been 'worth it' for years. I can't even tell you how many times I've been digging ditches or loading freight alongside somebody with a bachelor's degree. I can point to three people right off the top of my head that are living hand-to-mouth, and that meagerly, not able to get shook loose of debt, and not protected from that debt, even by bankruptcy.

There are some pretty sad stories out there.

I have never generated all that much money I suppose - compared to what I could have done with a couple pieces of paper.. But I also never had to pay the huge outlay in money that paper would have cost either.

[Applewood]

Uhm, those numbers are an increase, not a decrease.

Judging from the text, the author likely mixed up some of the numbers.

Maybe he meant 2016

[Bigun]

In my day, a college education was all the rage.  People of my parents' generation had no hope for a college education for themselves (Mom didn't even finish high school), so parents worked, slaved and sacrificed to ensure the kids had a college education.

Today I wouldn't send a kid to college.  Go to a trade or technical school and learn a practical skill that will get you a job.  Today's colleges and universities are cesspools of liberal/socialist/communism ideology.  They don't teach; they indoctrinate. The result is that graduates are totally unprepared for life and don't have any marketable skills. Many of them can't read or write. But boy, can they recite the liberal talking points.

Lots of tradesmen these days are doing lots better than many people with multiple degrees and the debt that goes with them.

[mirraflake]

Still worth it.

Without papers you hit a glass ceiling in any form of company without a degree. Even all the local utility companies now require at least a associates degree and anything above line foreman requires a 4 year degree.

The only people who get by without a degree today are working in a family business or farm or the very small amount who hit it really lucky.