Hire Education

The College Board has released its annual report on the cost of a college education in America. It turns out, again, that a higher education is just that - higher... in cost. This year the average tuition increase is 6.5% for in-state four-year public college programs, and 4.4% for private institutions. And what do you, as parents, get in return for the hard-earned dollars you pour into these institutions? (Watch this where you can turn up the volume and listen.)


Mom...Dad... this is what you are getting for your money.

And a quick aside to Suzie Student:

Shut up, sit down, and listen. You are a student. No matter what you may think, you do not have any of the answers. You likely don't even know that the G-20 isn't a move in Battleship. You will one day look back on this video with embarrassment. Maybe you shouldn't have posted it on the internet.

That is what you are getting for the tens of thousands of dollars you are spending on expanding your child's mind. In more cases than not your little one is being instructed by a professor who is qualified to do nothing other than instruct the unknowing. If you've engaged in continuing education in your profession you likely have looked back at your college professors and realized just how unknowledgeable they really were. Well, it ain't getting any better. But we know that.

Still, a child has to have an education. Now, more than ever. Almost all career level jobs out there require a four-year degree, and the ones that don't come with experience requirements that trump anyone under the age of 147 from qualifying. The time spent in college is looked at only as evidence that the applicant completes what he or she starts. A headhunter once informed me that 80% of the people he places are working in fields totally unrelated to their major course of study. Let's take a look at some of those degrees:

Retail Floristry
Adventure Recreation
Physical Education
Peace Studies
Angling

And a thousand other hobbies disguising themselves as college degree curricula. Kids, if it's something other people learn to do on the weekends as a distraction from work, you needn't spend your parents' retirement learning it from a college professor. There are precisely four real jobs in the world where the degrees above might serve you... and three of them are already taken.

Also, when choosing a major, a good rule of thumb is that the more words there are in the title of the degree (i.e.: Psychology of Ancient Greek Mythology as it Relates to Post-Industrial Revolution Arkansas) the fewer jobs there are related to the degree. Keep to degrees with short titles like Finance, but not too short like Dance. And stay away from degrees that preclude required conditions. Philanthropy comes to mind. This is essentially teaching you how to give away money. If you have your heart set on being a philanthropist I'd suggest you start by building a railroad, steel conglomerate, or computer company. Just an idea.

Where do all of these major courses of study come from? Obviously from schools, but why? For years primary and secondary schools have been convincing everyone - students and business leaders alike - that everyone needs a college degree. In an effort to attract everyone colleges have offered more and more varied degree choices, watering them down to the point that a four-year degree is now looked at by the business world as merely an attendance record... a $100,000 attendance record!

When I was in television most of our younger photojournalists had complete four-year photojournalism degrees that held no value whatsoever. Many of them did not know how to use a tripod correctly, set up a shot at all, or even care for a $10,000 piece of equipment... or they didn't care. These guys were making less than twice minimum wage, yet carrying a $15- to $20,000 college loan debt. This resulted in an understandably sour attitude. Most of them, to my knowledge, left the industry. Imagine if they had started training directly out of high school: a $10,000 camera would be an object of extreme value, nearly twice minimum wage would be more than they had ever earned in their lives, they would have no student loan to pay off, and the experienced photojournalists that actually work in television could train them to be real photojournalists. Money would be saved and the on-the-job training would represent actual value.

So why are colleges skewing us away from training systems with real value and toward degree plans that are irrelevant to, in some cases, anything? The College Board itself points out the reason: "More than $168 billion in financial aid is available to students and their families."

There is a lot of talk about the rising price of equipment and facilities, the cost of quality instructors, the improvement in teaching aids and materials, and the overall rise in college standards. With the offering of classes like Philosophy and Star Trek, I'm not so sure I buy that excuse. Over the last ten years or so Pell Grants have increase 123% and Federal Student Loans have increased 107%. Over that same time period the average rise in tuition prices has been only about 22%. That's leaving a lot of federal money on the table. So where do you think future trends will take us?

The fact is college prices have increased because colleges have a way to charge the federal government. And where does that federal money come from? Your wallet. And when students default on their federal loans (do we need a graph to predict the future trend in that?), where does the money come from to refill the coffers you initially filled? Your wallet. With, by some claims, $180 billion in federal money on the table, are colleges going to decrease tuitions anytime soon? Is it in colleges' best interests to bring in more students? Will they have to water degree programs down even more to attract and retain those students? And if everyone in the country has a college degree, will there be much value to any one of them?

Now, am I suggesting that anyone drop out or forego college? No! The reality is you need that degree to get a job. The national average unemployment rate is currently around 9.8%. If you have a four-year degree it's more like 2.6%. If you just hold a high school diploma you are twice as likely to be out of a job, and if you dropped out of high school you are four times more likely to be unemployed. SO STAY IN SCHOOL! It is an investment in your future.

But to everyone, students, parents, and business leaders alike - we need to do some serious evaluation of the post-secondary education system in this country.

Students
Back in the 90s nutty people invested in Beanie Babies, thinking they'd resell them at such a markup that they'd retire off the profits. Ask yourself: is my degree plan a Beanie Baby?




Parents
Remember this phrase: Parents don't let kids major in liberal arts.

Employers
Do you want this guy training your future director of marketing?






And Taxpayers
With Federal money affecting college tuition prices as it is, what do you think is going to happen when it gets a hold of health care?