I have often enjoyed thinking in areas that are beyond my call. I muse often as a church leader who in some ways is also a community leader. I have been thinking about today’s college education.
My wife got her degree later in life. We sacrificed (and still are paying off loans) and weathered the storm of her beginning a bachelor’s degree at age 48. We are finding as she is now applying for a new job that those with GEDs and some experience in a field can make as much or more money as she can with a college degree.
My son did a short stint at college. He is brilliant. And I would say very educated in his field. He has done better financially than nearly everyone I know his age who completed college. Of my family none of the college grads make any more money than those who didn’t. Unless they became doctors or other professionals.
This begs the question, are college degrees for more than making money? I suspect so. But is it worth owing 40 to 100k for the experience.
Something isn’t right. College degrees have gone up nearly 25% over the last three years while property values have gone down 25%. What’s wrong with this picture.
The question also rises – is our educational system raising up and training a competitive work force in the U.S.
Here’s my thought. What if we make 12th grade the first year of college and upgrade the level of expectations? What if universities became three years in length and add a fourth for an automatic graduate degree? What if we placed much more money in the hands of jr. colleges to educate the work force with needed skills?
What if we expected that people would go back and get multiple jr. college degrees in their lifetime to stay competitive?
I think the situation requires some radical attention. We are creating a generation of educated people who are enslaved by paying off college debt will never be able to be paid for with the wages the people can earn with their degree.
