Friday, February 8, 2013

Making college cheaper…


We've got to find ways to do it.

One way is to create a three-year bachelor's degree. Don't call it "college degree lite." Call it "the professional degree."

I love the liberal arts. For those of you who care about these things, I cling to the Trivium and the Quadrivium.

But the ancient and honorable concept of the liberal arts is not for everyone.

Here's a take on this from Jonathan Last, in The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 2, 2013:

"Since 1960, the real cost of goods in nearly every other sector of American life has dropped. Meanwhile, the real cost of college has increased by more than 1,000%.
"If college were another industry, everyone would be campaigning for reform. Instead, politicians are trying to push every kid in America into the current exorbitantly expensive system. How could we get college costs under control? For one, we could begin to eliminate college's role as a credentialing machine by allowing employers to give their own tests to prospective workers.
"Alternately, we could encourage the university system to be more responsive to market forces by creating a no-frills, federal degree-granting body that awards certificates to students who pass exams in a given subject."

That's what I'm talking about: the professional degree.


2 comments:

  1. Once again you have missed the point. College expenses have increased do to gov't intervention. If it wasn't for grants, cheap student loans deferred for years and in fact straight gov't funding the tuition would not have ballooned along with administrative staff and expenses. If the gov'y butted out and the market forces were allowed to work it's magic the students who should attend college would be attending and those students that weren't quit up to speed would be seeking alternative education or entering the trade market. Keynesian theory doesn't work never has.

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    1. Too bad Anonymous can't resist injecting "the magic of market forces" into the discussion, and frankly I don't see any connection to Keynesian theory here.....
      "Market forces" don't work their "magic," "market forces" are the micro and macro effects of powerful and not-so-powerful individuals and organizations doing their thing, all at the same time. Anonymous just wants to bitch about this issue, and has done so....

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