Guaranteed: A PhD for every American!

[Why] not aim to have every American receive a college degree? Better yet, why not aim to have every American earn a Ph.D.?

Thus writes Michael Rizzo.

We are way too preoccupied with a college degree. And with college education. As far as I understand it, there are supposedly two reasons for college:

• To enhance the economic productivity of people
• To help them have an enriched life

Yes, education helps with economic performance. With few exceptions, literate people are more productive than illiterates. With few exceptions, high school grads are more productive than those who have completed only six years of schooling. But, division of labor and the increasingly complex society does not mean that everybody needs a college degree--not at all. I am more and more worried about students who graduate from college with huge loans to pay and with no real jobs upon graduation. And we won't even go near the topic of overproduction at the PhD level!

When we begin to point out such facts, then the pro-higher education lobby (yes, every single one is a lobbyist, whether registered as one or not) then quickly falls back on the much higher value that education delivers but, unfortunately, which economic calculations cannot capture. This is where I think to myself that it is becoming f***ing crazy. Why? It takes on a seemingly religious posture--just as religions promise eternal life and peace that nobody can verify because, well, it is after death, these education fundamentalists want to deliver sermons from the ivory towers with the message that such education is good for the soul. Secular fundamentalists these are.

Even if we want to achieve these two objectives, I cannot keep asking the same question over and over again: what is preventing us from realizing these within the K-12 system? If high school graduates do not seem to have an idea of how education is good for their soul, well, how is that magically going to happen in the 13th year of education or the 14th? And, BTW, is there anybody who believes that all those partying away as undergraduates went to universities because they believe higher education will lead them to a richer understanding of life? Please!