Debt Relief for All Former ITT Students
"The Education Department announced Tuesday that a total of $3.9 billion in student debt will be forgiven for all former ITT Technical Institute students. The department will also initiate a process to hold DeVry University, a for-profit that was found to falsely advertise job-placement rates, accountable to recoup $24 million to the department for borrower-defense claims." – Inside Higher Ed, 8/17/22
Student-Loan Forgiveness Is Bad Policy
"The White House is gearing up for another installment of its interminable debate over whether to forgive some student loans. ... There are numerous ways we could make repaying college loans less burdensome to those who took them out, such as programs that tie repayment to household income. But conservatives should avoid misplaced compassion. Holding a firm line against executive action to cancel student-loan debt is the politically popular and prudent stance to take." – The American Conservative, 8/17/22
State educational gag orders targeting colleges are on the rise, report finds
"State-level bills that seek to restrict topics colleges can teach, like race-related subjects, are on the rise this year compared to 2021, according to a new report from PEN America. The free speech nonprofit tracked 137 state bills this year and found nearly 40% of them target colleges and universities. This represents an uptick from last year, when state lawmakers introduced 54 bills, and 30% of them were aimed at higher education." – Higher Ed Dive, 8/17/22
Students lose access to books amid ‘state-sponsored purging of ideas’
"The start of the 2022-2023 school year will usher in a new era of education in some parts of America — one in which school librarians have less freedom to choose books and schoolchildren less ability to read books they find intriguing, experts say. In the past two years, six states have passed laws that mandate parental involvement in reviewing books, make it easier for parents to remove books or restrict the texts available at school, according to a tally kept by nonprofit EveryLibrary. Five states are considering similar legislation." – Washington Post, 8/17/22
A Better Way to Teach Law
"If you want to learn law and be a working lawyer in the United States, you have one option: earn a J.D. (Doctor of Laws) degree, which requires three years of study in law school. You’ll also need a four-year bachelor’s degree first. ... Is there an easier and less costly way to educate future lawyers? Well, maybe not easier, but certainly less complex, less costly, and much faster." – The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, 8/17/22
Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Take Over the University of Tennessee, Report Finds
"The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has released a new report examining the implementation of the Diversity Action Plans at the University of Tennessee (UT). The Anatomy of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Takeover: A Case Study of the University of Tennessee finds that the University of Tennessee’s series of plans further entrench the dominance of diversity, equity, and inclusion, espousing an ideology that makes narrow identity categories a central learning objective." – National Association of Scholars, 8/16/22
National Endowment for the Humanities Announces $31.5 Million in Grants
"The grants, which total $31.5 million and are the third round awarded this year, will support projects at museums, libraries, universities and historic sites in 45 states and Washington, D.C., as well as in Canada, England and the Netherlands." – New York Times, 8/16/22
College-shopping students have a new query: Is abortion legal there?
"Teenagers ponder many questions when they draw up college application lists. Should they go for rural or urban? Cold or warm? Big or small? Public or private? Pricey or affordable? Near home or far away? Now comes, suddenly, another variable. Abortion: Protected or banned?" – Washington Post, 8/16/22
COVID-19 Gutted College Attendance. Now, a Solid Labor Market Is Convincing More High School Grads To Skip It.
"While COVID-19 certainly played an outsized role in the drop in college attendance, with high school seniors wary of online school or unable to pay high tuition after their parents faced financial hardship, the pandemic doesn't tell the whole story. ... The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a bustling labor market, seems to be the main thrust behind why more and more students are skipping out on college." – Reason, 8/16/22
Price-fixing lawsuit against 568 Group of top-ranked universities can continue, judge rules
"A lawsuit accusing 17 wealthy universities of price fixing can continue, a federal judge said Monday, ruling against efforts by the top-ranked institutions to dismiss the case. The universities criticized evidence filed by plaintiffs — who were mostly students who have attended or are attending one of the institutions. But the institutions didn’t show the allegations are implausible, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly wrote in court documents." – Higher Ed Dive, 8/16/22
Yes, it is a money chase. That characterizes it the problem, but it does not identify the cause. It is an imbalance between the number of adequately prepared applicants and the number of four-year institutions. Nearly 40 percent of high school graduates require some post admission remediation. In aggregate, our secondary schools are certifying too many of their graduates as college ready. That is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. On the other side of the imbalance, there are too many institutions fighting to stay alive. A measured tightening of four-year admissions standards could prompt a positive rebalance.
Please differentiate between elementary-trained teachers, and their secondary counterparts (and the Liberal Arts teachers from the Math and Science teachers). Not ALL teachers rank low on the scale.
Ah, but this is only confusing if we somehow still believe that the purpose of College is education…the production of an informed citizenry….lux et veritas. If that were true, yes, we’d be absolutely baffled by the abysmal failure so evident in the reality we all wrestle.
But if the mission of College is NOT education, rather the production of degreed graduates….well, that’s another matter.
Obama made this abundantly (some might say absurdly) clear way back in ’09 declaring that “by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” And of course to do that, we would have had to more than double college enrollments, to about 40 million students as of two years ago. Fortunately, that idiocy did not come to pass…. but the enthusiasm to produce just lots and lots of people holding sheepskins….that obsession (revenue driven) is with us still. And obviously, even to maintain the graduation rates for our current 20M we must continually reduce our standards (for entry & completion) and remove the hurdles (like writing and reading competency) which otherwise would stand in our way.
By God we will produce college graduates by the bushel! That is our job!
Unfortunately those who would employ our newly minted alumni continue to tell us they can neither read nor rite nor handle rithmetic. Hmmm. Perhaps we should hire another VP in Marketing? Or maybe offer remedial courses, on-site, for brand-new corporate hires??? Just think of the revenue possibilities!
Well said. “Higher” education has become just another industry.
In a word, money.
I’d agree with both EB and George Leef. The main reason colleges admit them is for the money. I remember years ago when I was working at a fairly selective public university and being appalled to hear the university president at the time talk about the need for “not just K-12 education, but K-16 education,” meaning, college for all. A few years later, Obama was elected and started pushing the “college for all” narrative, rationalized largely on the misinterpretation of basic statistics about the relative incomes of college graduates vs. those of high school graduates, as though the degree and not the ability to do college level work accounted for their subsequent career success. College administrators always seem to be in favor of growing enrollment because it means more funds flowing to their campuses, even if many of those students never graduate or accrue a fortune in debt while they are enrolled.
Beyond that, though, are factors such as grade inflation and calls for increased diversity on campus. Grade inflation frequently means that students who are incapable of doing college level work look like they are qualified or capable as a result of their grades in high school, but when they get to college, they are not able to keep up. And the topic of skills mismatches following from affirmative action in admissions has been well-established by researchers.
Yup. If thy say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.
Obama was talking about increasing the proportion of HS grads who go on to any type of post-secondary education, and he included (and emphsized) certificates that can be earned in 3 months to a year. That is where continued emphasis should reside (along with technical 2-year programs), but the 4-year and 2-year institutions and programs, especially liberal arts, are fearful for their futures if they don’t fill those seats.
Money. Colleges have to fill their seats, and they also have spent the last 50 years expanding in a never-ending competition. At the same time, they refuse to realize that the education they are offering is not appropriate for HS grads in the bottom half of their class. While it’s true that post-secondary education in the past failed to make room for well-prepared but low-income students, they have now over-compensated and are admitting poorly-prepared students from all economic levels.
I think that, given the dumbing down of the curriculum and pressure for grade inflation over the last several decades, the problem is less that the students admitted can’t do the work (such as it is), but that many of them just don’t want to. They’re used to schooling that’s easy and expect college to be more of the same.
Why does John Leo ask a question that he doesn’t answer in his opinion piece? Education doesn’t need more rhetoric; it needs answers to questions and solutions.
And you just perfectly summarized the entire problem, Professor Tommy. You can put it back to committee and see if they can help you out.