Graduates Equal Growth. Yeah, right!

If anybody ever reads this blog, well, it will be clear that I am not a rah-rah fan of college for everybody. Having this view while being a college professor puts me in a tiny minority, I suppose. Not that I am with a solid majority on this topic outside the academic walls either. Therefore, I feel much better when educators write essays skeptical of college for all, or about how China and India are producing college graduates. Such as this one in Change, which is published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching:

President Obama wants everyone to go to college. This is an estimable goal: as he and everyone knows—including any high school drop-out—education is critically important for individual success. Moreover, college can still open people’s minds and feed their souls. But as a solution to recession? Forget it.

The author, Alison Wolf, is a chair professor of Public Sector Management at Kings College, London. Professor Wolf writes that:

There are three reasons why we cannot simply assume that a year in college, or a college degree, automatically makes everyone first more skilled, and then more productive, and so more prosperous. The first is that education is about sorting people out, not just about teaching and learning. The second is that not all degrees are created equal. And the third is the nature of the job market.

No different from my op-ed, eh!