Tag: college

Quote – College Dropout Factories

As a result, without much thought, we’ve applied a binary mindset to education: elementary and secondary students are children; if they fail, it’s the fault of the schools. College students are adults; if they fail, it’s the fault of the students.

Ben Miller and Phuong Ly from the Washington Monthly article “College Dropout Factories”

Quote – The Red Herring Crusade against For-Profit Colleges

our aim is not to defend the questionable practices of for-profit colleges, but rather to draw attention to the fact that colleges of every stripe are soaking up tons of societal resources and saddling students with excessive debt loads in the face of dubious job prospects.

“The Red Herring Crusade Against For-Profit Colleges” by Daniel L. Bennett and Zac Bissonnette @ Forbes.com

Lose your career? Here’s a voucher!

Caught this from one of my favorite sites: “Colleges not training students to growing fields“.  It’s interesting to me because on NPR this morning (DC) there was a guy talking about the lose of jobs due to computers vs. the oil rig fiasco in the Gulf.

Either way, he proposed, out of work American’s should get vouchers to go to school, get life coaching, trade schooling, certificates, etc. because “an individual knows better what to do in order to find work” than some government agency.  I’m not proposing the opposite, but it seems to me that sometimes the individual doesn’t or can’t really know what job or career path they should be pursuing.  Passion is one thing, but getting knocked out of a job due to IT integrations doesn’t necessarily mean that the person had a good fix on what they wanted to do before either.

I’m all for developing the out of work workforce, but guidance is a necessary endeavor (there’s a reason the 50s/60s had such a high focus on math, science and engineering; and it wasn’t individually driven.  It was a national goal).

Just saying.

Quote – “Mandate…the right to attend college”

Under the rules of unemployment insurance, which has been extended to millions more people since the financial crisis hit, recipients must confirm that they are actively looking for work and generally are not allowed to enroll in college. Last year, the president urged states to loosen these restrictions. But lawmakers can, and should, go much further. The next time they extend unemployment benefits, they should mandate that anyone eligible also has the right to attend college, as long as they’re enrolled full-time in a one- or two-year degree program.

From the Washington Monthly article, Degrees of Speed – Jamie Merisotis and Stan Jones

Quote – Daniel Bennett, Forbes.com

Let’s make all student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, but instead of the taxpayers taking the hit when student loans go sour, colleges should absorb the loss, or at least a portion of it.

This would incentivize colleges to focus on providing educational value and help their students launch a career–knowing that if they fail in their mission, there are real consequences. Maybe then colleges would be more attentive to helping their students succeed.

Daniel Bennet, “When Good Loans go Bad” (http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/25/student-loans-bankruptcy-leadership-education-bennett_2.html)

Pretty interesting concept.  It certainly would be opposed by most higher education institutions I believe.  I imagine that it would severely alter U of Phoenix and the other for profits recruiting efforts.