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College: Big price tag, no guarantee
Op-Ed by Brian Kirwin, Daily Press – 4/26/2011
Before professors find the time in their busy, two-class-per-semester schedule (like at William and Mary) to write a nasty response, explain to me why this high-dollar industry encourages a generation of debt with less of a warranty on their product than a DVD player from Best Buy.
College tuitions are skyrocketing, and more young people start their futures under a mountain of debt that for many will be too much to overcome.
Old Dominion University's tuition, room and board has jumped 33 percent in four years. Virginia Tech's students will face a 9.6 percent increase this fall. W&M students get a deal! Only a 7.7 percent increase.
Some offer scholarships aplenty, the academic equivalent of Groupon.
Mostly, students just borrow and cross their fingers. For some, the investment will be worth it. For others, a college education is the most expensive non-guaranteed purchase a person can make.
Car buyers have lemon laws to protect them from shoddy products. Colleges convince students to invest over $50,000 in a degree, frequently in majors that have little or no hope of creating an income worth the investment.
Would today's colleges offer a warranty for the education they sell?
Somehow, the basics of the free market haven't made it to the college classroom. While information technology has revolutionized the impartation of information in virtually every major industry in America, our collegiate educational experience still revolves around renting a shared dorm room and sitting in class to learn.
Two billion electronic transactions happen every day, and colleges still act as if we must listen to Socrates in person.
Makes me want some hemlock.
Colleges still construct new buildings, new dorms, new weight rooms, new entertainment areas and still rely on the model that a student needs to be physically present to learn.
Some distance learning happens, but that's like praising the Titanic for having some lifeboats.
The private sector, normally the source of innovation, hasn't helped education in this regard. Too many for-profit colleges offer the academic equivalent of a strip mall, and it just doesn't compete with the educational offerings at a major university.
So, what to do?
I have a few ideas.
First, if a student doesn't excel in high school, they have no business being accepted into college.
Sorry, but the politically correct notion that everyone deserves to own a home, whether they can afford it or not, almost bankrupted the entire nation. College entry should be an accomplishment, and if someone is taking reading classes or remedial math, they don't belong anywhere near college.
As Judge Smails said in "Caddyshack," "The world needs ditch diggers, too"
Second, imagine the look in these stuffy college bureaucrats' eyes if they had to stand behind their product. If you paid top dollar for a chemistry degree, and the most you can use it for is analyzing the hamburger you're flipping, someone owes you a refund.
Third, government money should be tied to major structural reform of college education. In the world of the Internet, the discussion shouldn't be the percentage of in-state versus out-of-state students. The discussion should be why aren't there 1,000 times more students learning online than sitting in that lecture room.
Then someone can ask why we have all these colleges in the first place.
Contact Kirwin at brian@rourkpr.com; read more at BearingDrift.com.
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