Right, college costs too much. Let’s move on.
Imagine the unimaginable. Suppose a Hyundai Sonata cost
$115,000 instead of $21,450. Suppose a Chevy Cruze cost $79,000 instead of
$16,700. That is, imagine that a typical high school graduate or the typical
graduate’s family couldn’t afford to buy a regular car.
Do you think anyone in a leadership position—government,
private, academic—would be calling for increased federal aid programs and more
private charitable giving, to funnel money to “poor” or “disadvantaged” or
“middle class” persons so they could afford car ownership?
Imagine the imaginable. Suppose we abandon the idea that a
four-year, traditional liberal arts college degree is what most people need to
get a good start on life.
Let’s redefine “a college education” and make it meaningful,
make it an affordable, productive, career-building asset for most folks. If we
have to go so far as to forget about the bachelor’s degree part, let’s do it.
Let’s acknowledge that the classical four-year, liberal arts degree is
the right choice for some people, and let them pay for it….and, of course,
let’s use whatever charitable funding is available to pay the four-year tuition
of committed and intellectually apt students who want to walk across the stage,
and get the sheepskin, and do the stuff that liberal arts scholars do.
For example, let’s stop giving Pell grants, and use the
money to build career training centers for high school graduates.
Let’s just redefine the “college costs too much” problem.
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2015
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