More on the Education Bubble
I’ve been closely following the education bubble, not as a participant (I have no plans to get a higher degree) but as a consumer. In a relatively short time my son will have to decide when, where and whether he wants to go to college, and I will be on the hook to pay for it. Both of my parents suffered through the 1930’s Depression and imprinted upon me an almost pathological craving to stretch my money as far as it will go. I’m also someone who acquired a BA in a field that is completely unrelated to the ones I’ve worked in for the past 20+ years. I have no regrets about my education since I gamed the system, got a low-cost University of California degree thanks to the California taxpayer (thank you Jerry Brown!), and left the state 9 months later with student loan debt that I was able to pay off in less than 3 years. It’s just as well since the fields that I’ve worked in, ESL and IT, have very low correlations between degree attained and salary – at least from what I’ve witnessed in those fields.
So studies like this give me pause:
(A)pproximately 60 percent of the increase in the number of college graduates from 1992 to 2008 worked in jobs that the BLS considers relatively low skilled—occupations where many participants have only high school diplomas and often even less. Only a minority of the increment in our nation’s stock of college graduates is filling jobs historically considered as requiring a bachelor’s degree or more.
This is something that I’ve suspected for a while and am deeply troubled to see verified. The purpose of education isn’t to employ teachers, administrators and bankers; it’s to expand one’s economic and intellectual opportunities. If education is failing at either of those two tasks then something is terribly wrong with the system.
The Razor » Blog Archive » Chosen Paths: Why I Don’t Resent People Making More Money Than I Do:
[...] meddling in the labor market. I worry about things like the cost of education and the future value of college degrees. Just like many liberals I too resent seeing the same people who caused the financial meltdown [...]
5 October 2011, 5:21 pmWatchers Council | therightplanet.com:
[...] meddling in the labor market. I worry about things like the cost of education and the future value of college degrees. Just like many liberals I too resent seeing the same people who caused the financial meltdown [...]
14 October 2011, 11:05 amTrevorLoudon.com: New Zeal Blog » The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watchers Council Results – 10/14/11:
[...] meddling in the labor market. I worry about things like the cost of education and the future value of college degrees. Just like many liberals I too resent seeing the same people who caused the financial meltdown [...]
14 October 2011, 2:09 pm