College for everyone?...Nope.

Robert Samuelson says "the college-for-all crusade has outlived its usefulness" in a Sunday piece for the Washington Post. I think he's quite right. In fact, I don't think the college-for-everyone crusade has ever made much sense.

About 40% of Americans have some kind of college degree, including two-year associate degrees. Samuelson notes a Labor Department finding that almost 70% of real-life jobs don't require a post-high-school degree………….so, in a very simplistic way, by the numbers only, "enough" people already are getting college degrees.

I realize how explicitly insulting and offensive that last sentence is, for many folks….but let's put it in less provocative language: it would be absurd to argue that every adult in America "needs" a college degree, and it defies reasonable imagination to think that every adult in America is capable of earning a college degree --- you probably know one or two very nice people who couldn't possibly complete a college degree ---- and so the realistic truth is that something less than 100% of Americans with college degrees is "enough"…



I'm ready for the debate about whether 40% is a pretty good benchmark…and then we can continue the debate about which degrees are beneficial to individuals and to society as a whole….

Anyway, read Samuelson's May 27 take on it here.

And then come back and we can talk about whether most folks getting college degrees are actually learning much that's worthwhile…..one study cited by Samuelson reports that only a third of college students "significantly improved their critical thinking and writing skills" after four years of study.

And after that we can get started on the sky-high cost of college….there's not enough money available in America to pay for a college degree for everyone.

No Child Left Behind redux...