Don't go to college if you don't need to

So, the board of the Oregon University System approved the tuition increase across all the campuses.

The following is a letter in the Oregonian.  The writer, "Wes Shoger lives in Beaverton. He is an unemployed graduate with a bachelor of landscape architecture."

Oregon universities recently proposed an average 7.5 percent increase in tuition for undergraduates, and no community in Oregon is without debate on what to do with their schools and lack of funding. Even with rising costs and school closures, most parents and educators are still touting the value of higher education as the only option to success.

In debating education reform, little has been discussed on the value that vocations play in our schools and economy. Higher education and attaining a degree have been pushed on our youth as an economic panacea, while "lesser" forms of education that highlight practical skills are swept into the corner. Schools have turned into a one-size-fits-all factory with few options for those who cannot afford the outrageous price of college, those struggling with high school, or even individuals who dare question the efficacy of a degree in today's world.

In elementary school, I was told by my teachers that attaining a college degree would allow me to earn a million dollars more than my high school-only counterparts. That sounded like a lot of money back then. In middle school, disdain for practical skills couldn't be more apparent, where the transformation of a wood shop in the sixth grade became a computer lab by eighth grade. In high school, little was discussed about trades for students who don't care about college or simply have a difficult time plugging into school, where learning welding part time might allow that student to flourish.

Like so many graduates, I am closer to 30 than 20, I have a five-year degree from a university, attained in 2009. I have been sparsely employed with no real career to speak of, and I live with my parents. What hurts most is that I have no hands-on skills to fall back on.

Heed my advice: Don't go to college if you don't need to, and learn a trade instead. Don't cast aside education, but make yourself useful in the labor market by learning a skill. As for the educators and politicians who have hindered skilled labor with the idea that higher education is the only answer to prosperity: Please wake up from your delusional thoughts, as recent graduates seeing little in return from their degrees are growing in numbers.

This is not a warning message or a feel-good essay. This is a call to order that we need to fundamentally change the way we think about education and work in America. Oregon should take note and lead the way in pushing for trade schools as a solid option, or we can keep having this perpetual discussion as to why schools are barely graduating half of their students on time, or wonder in amazement that college is not returning what it originally promised.