The absurd insistence on a four-year degree

It's an absurdity that a four-year college degree has become the only gateway into the American middle class, writes Robert Reich for The Christian Science Monitor. Not every young person is suited to four years of college: They may be bright and ambitious, but would get little out of it and would rather be doing something else, like making money or painting murals. Yet they feel compelled since they've been told over and over that a college degree is necessary. If they start and drop out, they feel like failures. If they get the degree, they're stuck with a huge bill they may be paying down for years. All too often, jobs they land after graduating don't pay enough to make the degree worthwhile. Last year, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that 46 percent of recent college graduates were in jobs not requiring a college degree. The biggest frauds are for-profit colleges, raking in money even as their students drop out in droves, and whose diplomas are barely worth the ink-jets they're printed on. America clings to the conceit that four years of college are necessary for everyone, and looks down on people without college degrees. This must stop. Young people need an alternative: a world-class system of vocational-technical education. A four-year college degree isn't necessary for many of tomorrow's good jobs. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

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Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.