Wednesday, May 30, 2012

The Exact Wrong Policy Proscription Regarding Education

From Carpe Diem:


"The college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness. Time to ditch it. Like the crusade to make all Americans homeowners, it’s now doing more harm than good. It looms as the largest mistake in educational policy since World War II, even though higher education’s expansion also ranks as one of America’s great postwar triumphs.

.....

MP: The chart above shows graphically the results of the "college-for-all crusade."  In the 1970s and 1980s only about one out of three high school graduates went on to college.  Now about half of all high school graduates attend college.  And most of them now graduate with student loan debt of $25,000 and many are having a hard time finding a job.
  

For reasons unknown, the US political right has a big problem with educating people.  Whether it's the "threat of liberal indoctrination" (ever talked with professors in the business school ?) or some other such nonsense, the lack of respect for education and educational achievement is palpable -- and grows more and more every year.

The problem with the above statement is this chart:



The more educational achievement you have, the lower your unemployment rate.  And this is not a matter of .5% here and there, it's a noticeable difference.