Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in Attaining College Degrees

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Adding to a drumbeat of concern about the nation’s dismal college-completion rates, the College Board warned Thursday that the growing gap between the United States and other countries threatens to undermine American economic competitiveness.

The United States used to lead the world in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. Now it ranks 12th among 36 developed nations.

“The growing education deficit is no less a threat to our nation’s long-term well-being than the current fiscal crisis,” Gaston Caperton, the president of the College Board, warned at a meeting on Capitol Hill of education leaders and policy makers, where he released a report detailing the problem and recommending how to fix it. “To improve our college completion rates, we must think ‘P-16’ and improve education from preschool through higher education.”

While access to college has been the major concern in recent decades, over the last year, college completion, too, has become a leading item on the national agenda. Last July, President Obama announced the American Graduation Initiative, calling for five million more college graduates by 2020, to help the United States again lead the world in educational attainment.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/education/23college.html

[DonCoquixote]

1. Here is a problem

Way too many people see how people got College Degrees, and got nothing to show for the work but debt. Meanwhile, idiots who are managers blatantly admire people like Rush and Beck who could not even get A DEGREE.

[OhioChick]

31. Bingo! n/t

[aquart]

2. Anything to do WITH THE INSANE COST OF STUDENT LOANS?

Perhaps I seem bitter.

[bulloney]

12. You can go to some colleges in other countries for free.

College costs in the U.S. have gone up several times the rate of inflation. Plus, where I work, you get an associate's degree which gets you credentials for a $12/hour job.

My younger brother has no college education and he makes six figures a year. That kind of scenario, along with the ridiculous costs of college educations, discourages people.

[Posteritatis]

36. Some other countries, at least. (nt)

[Bandit]

13. Obama addressed that immediately

He immediately went back to the Clinton way of having the Government cut out the middleman and loan directly to students with little to no interest and forgiveness after certain time frame. No it has more to do with education at lower levels and how Americans spend more time watching TV and playing video games than doing school/home work.

[wordpix]

22. ANYTHING TO DO WITH AGE PROMOTION? IOW, who needs academic promotion?

As a K-12 teacher who works with the students who are tagged ADD, LD, etc, I know firsthand that students are moved up, no matter what they've learned in a year. If that is nothing, don't worry---the kids are moved up. Then they hate school b/c they're sitting in algebra and they can't add or subtract. They're assigned papers based on their reading but they can't read, write or do internet research at the level they're asked to do it.

So by the time hs graduation rolls around, there's no more age promotion and many hs grads have had no academic success and see no point in continuing. I'm not surprised by this study AT ALL.

[barb162]

28. That all depends on the school.

Go to a local junior college the first two years and a state school the last two and loans can be considerably reduced. Go to a pricey private university for four years and you'll be paying for it for decades.

[Proletariatprincess]

3. We don' need no edukacion....

we can buy all the help we need cheap from India...or any country that still values education. Stupid is the new kewl in 'merika.
Freeeducation is for socialist commie countries. The Bible teaches 'merikans all they need to know anyway.

[sofa king]

4. I'd take free universal broadband over a return to #1 status.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but the more I think about it, the more I think the Internet is better than higher education, except in one crucial area: a good higher education teaches good thinking skills and gives students different ways to approach the truth.

The Internet, on the other hand, is like one giant tangle of lies, wound in a filament of verifiable facts. It's just as likely to confuse and deceive as it is to edify the inexperienced user.

But within that pile of lies are entire college courses. So the cure is contained within the problem... somewhere.

Give everyone free and unlimited access to that information and the ones capable of making the most out of it... will be watching Japanese tentacle porn.

[Wednesdays]

16. We can't have both?

:shrug:

[Bragi]

27. The internet makes us too easily distracted

Whoa, look at that!

Sorry, what was I saying?

[Bragi]

32. I agree /nt

[Posteritatis]

37. I imagine the top-11 countries all have Internet access too. (nt)

[sofa king]

39. Well, yeah, 'cause they're smart!

(wink)

[pattmarty]

5. Hey, we're still NUMBER ONE in the amount of prisoners.

[Bragi]

15. Yesssss!!!! /nt

[Nikia]

6. But aren't something like a third of college graduates working at jobs not requiring degrees?

While education is good, from the aspect of American economic competiveness, perhaps solving this issue could help. I know many people with college degrees who seem to have a hard time finding jobs for people with degrees. I know that some will say that some degrees are more likely to net jobs that than others. While that may be true to some extent, engineering and business majors are among those who I know who are running a cash register at the grocery store or putting parts in boxes at a factory. Seeing people, in these situations, discourages many from even trying to go to college, especially if going will mean financial hardship.

[tabbycat31]

40. a third sounds very low

I know my college degree in liberal studies was completely useless in the job market in my home county (affluent NYC suburbs). Even for the most basic jobs I was competing with Ivy League graduates for entry level jobs and I could not hold water for them.

One interviewer (at a national rental car company) asked me what activities I did in college. I told her I worked full-time while attending college and I didn't do any due to my work hours. She was like "oh you're one of those people" and I walked out.

My sister, who went to an elite private college (one of the most expensive in the country) had multiple job offers the December before she graduated.

[MikeW]

7. college has become too easy to get into

Some colleges have lowered their standards so much these days that it dilutes

hard work and good grades. All in all they still end up with the same p. of paper

just from different schools. Although I do realize employees look at what school

you went to.

[HughBeaumont]

9. So does that automatically assume that those who got bad grades in high school are stupid?

I graduated High School with a 1.2 GPA. That's what a combination of serial ADHD and serial bullying (and the paranoia that comes with it) does to someone trying to learn.

I made the Dean's List twice in college. Higher standards would have cancelled me out and eventually, out of the work world.

[n2doc]

20. bull. Look at the admissions rates for the top schools

Maybe the glorified community colleges (most of which are really renamed cc's) are. But not the name places.

[Posteritatis]

33. "schools" and "the top schools" are hardly synonymous. (nt)

[pattmarty]

21. Certainly not financially easier.

[HughBeaumont]

8. R.O.I., R.O.I., R.O.I.

What's the point of getting a degree when, even with a Masters/MBA, you no longer stand out among the other thousands that already have them?

What's the point of spending thousands upon thousands upon thousands (often times, not your own money, which means interest out the ass down the road) of dollars when you come to a job market that doesn't hire?

What's the point of the time and money investment when the career becomes either instantly obsolete or offshoreable/inshoreable?

What's the point of giving up so much of yourself when America only cares about the needs of it's major shareholders and it's wealthy?

"The Children are our future". Gee, we sure have a cruel way of showing it - telling them to go to endless busywork/presentation-laden schooling, only to have them graduate multiple thousands in debt, enter a shit-lousy job market, see their careers being sent overseas, causing them to be underemployed and chained to the launch pad . . . and then have the balls to ask them to do it . . . all . . . over . . . again . . .

Face facts; there simply ain't enough living wage jobs to accommodate our overpopulated country.

[raccoon]

18. Not only that; there simply ain't enough jobs that require a college degree

to accommodate all those people who have a college degree. I think that's been true for like DECADES.

Great post, Hugh. :hi:

[UpInArms]

29. spot on analysis

and we haven't seen the worst of this yet.

:grr:

[LanternWaste]

43. Betterment of oneself through education?

"What's the point of getting a degree..."

Betterment of oneself through education?

I'm still taking night classes here and there, despite having nothing to do with my career field for no other reason than I'm interested in what the classes have to offer me.

[w4rma]

10. Other nations offer free college, too. Here, fewer and fewer people can afford it. (nt)

[Marthe48]

11. daughter graduated in 1995...

...we are paying off her loan this year.

[The2ndWheel]

14. We get twisted into such knots over these artificial rankings

Passed us by? Oh no! We have to catch up. We have to get there before they do.

[Wednesdays]

19. Ya have to admit, from 1st to 12th is a pretty big drop.

Do we have to start looking like a 3rd-world country to become concerned?

[No Elephants]

24. No explaining why silly people get upset by things like less education, higher mortality, etc.

btw, what exactly about a ranking is artificial?

[Bragi]

17. How many degreed people does a security-based economy need?

Seems to me a country with an economy based on the military, on prisons and on domestic security doesn't really need a lot of highly-educated people. In fact, a dumbed down labor force seems more suited to such a country.

Accordingly, a reduction in educated people down to the lowest number possible makes perfect sense for the U.S, which has far more need for police, soldiers and jail guards compared to scientists, economists and educators.

[No Elephants]

25. Way to make lemonade!

[Proletariatprincess]

38. You are spot on the mark, Brag.

This isn't an accident. The USAers have always been anti-intellectual. The first thing to go was the Humanities. Now ignorance and stupidity is celebrated. Smart informed citizens are not to be trusted. It is just plain Anti-American to know about the world or it's history or to question American Imperialism...if they even have an inkling of what it is.

[lakers4life24]

23. Or maybe it's The Extreme Right and Faux News telling

these gullible morons about how their kids are being indoctrinated and being brainwashed by such evil Liberalism that they are pulling their kids out of school or if you are like Texas trying to rewrite history and denying these kids an education due to their misguided beliefs. Thus making them unprepared for College.

[go west young man]

26. So true. I have some Russian friends who are all between 25 and 35.

They all speak at least 2 languages. Two of them speak Russian, English, French, Japanese, and German. Those two both have a masters degree in linguistics and they all went to regular Russian colleges. They just have a strong desire to learn and they actually want to change the world. Apathy is a serious problem in the states due to the way the system works. Sadly in the U.S. the crap rises to the top. Not the cream.

[No Elephants]

30. Between 8 years of Reagan and 12 of members of the Bush crime family--and

not the smartest members, either, I'd say that is sometimes a fair statement as to our government. then again, I don't know when I've heard a smarter man than Clinton speaking (aside from movies or recordings of folks who were dead when I first heard of them). And Carter and JFK. And the Roosevelt lads. Not all perfect human beings in every respect by any means, or even perfect Presidents, but certainly intelligent.

Or were you speaking of American private industry? If so, that's a fairly mixed bag, too, IMO, but, then again, a lot of crap rose to the top in Russian public and private sectors, too.

[daleo]

34. Work harder, not smarter

That's getting to be the plan these days.

[burnsei sensei]

41. A society of Boxers saying

"I will work harder."

More proles!
More proles!

[ieoeja]

35. 3 decades of "there is such a thing as too much education" and "college is evil and liberal".

Propaganda works. We won't need immigrant workers or higher pay if we just get the citizens poor and ignorant enough.

John Adams' claim to fame was fighting the appointment (he lost) of a judge who fought against public schools claiming they were failing and that private education (which most people would never be able to afford) would do a better job. Stop me if any of this sounds familiar.

Decades after king and judge were safely in their graves, private correspondence showed that they were actually trying to shut down public education because educated people would not "listen to their betters."

[knitter4democracy]

42. Access is directly related to completion.

Too many grants and scholarships only pay for the first year or two. It gets awfully difficult to keep getting money to pay for an increasingly expensive degree, especially if you end up in a decent job (in trying to keep your head above water and pay the bills the grants/loans/scholarships don't pay) and don't need that expensive degree.

If we made it more affordable, completion rates would go up.

[defendandprotect]

44. Our "owners" feel threatened by educated citizens . . .!!