Robert Reich: Back to college, the only gateway to middle class

[LuckyTheDog]

This week, millions of young people head to college and universities, aiming for a four-year liberal arts degree. They assume that degree is the only gateway to the American middle class.

It shouldn’t be.

For one thing, a four-year liberal arts degree is hugely expensive. Too many young people graduate laden with debts that take years if not decades to pay off.

And too many of them can’t find good jobs when they graduate, in any event. So they have to settle for jobs that don’t require four years of college. They end up overqualified for the work they do, and underwhelmed by it.

MORE HERE: http://wonkynewsnerd.com/robert-reich-back-college-gateway-middle-class/

[Adam051188]

1. the only gateway to an american middle class is a time machine.....

i'd settle for a passport and green card to the first world

[DCBob]

2. This article is about the two-year technical degree as a better alternative for many students.

from the article..

"Consider, for example, technician jobs. They don’t require a four-year degree. But they do require mastery over a domain of technical knowledge, which can usually be obtained in two years.

Technician jobs are growing in importance. As digital equipment replaces the jobs of routine workers and lower-level professionals, technicians are needed to install, monitor, repair, test, and upgrade all the equipment.

Hospital technicians are needed to monitor ever more complex equipment that now fills medical centers; office technicians, to fix the hardware and software responsible for much of the work that used to be done by secretaries and clerks.

Automobile technicians are in demand to repair the software that now powers our cars; manufacturing technicians, to upgrade the numerically controlled machines and 3-D printers that have replaced assembly lines; laboratory technicians, to install and test complex equipment for measuring results; telecommunications technicians, to install, upgrade, and repair the digital systems linking us to one another."

Makes sense.

[hobbit709]

3. Gateway to the poorhouse is more like it after going into massive debt.

[daredtowork]

4. This is Ultimately "Live Within Your Means"

What makes me uncomfortable about the emphasis on a healthy and happy middle class is it always posits a sad, unhappy lower class doing the scut work to hold them up.

This article is about easier creating paths to the lower class. The lower class shouldn't be paid more to go to a 4 year college - they should "live within their means" and go to the 2 year technical school. Test scores show that a lot of people just "don't belong" in 4 year colleges anyway: but that couldn't possibly be because of differences in family environment and school quality in different areas, could it? The middle class economy needs more plumbers! The poor people need more money! This solution to route poor people to a less intellectually challenging track is a win win!

Why does this smack of a Brave New World to me?

I know Robert Reich is a supercool labor guru, but I think he's wrong on this. We should universalize access to 4 year education as a matter of cultural citizenship and make tech credentialing extra-curricular.

[LuckyTheDog]

5. I work for a community college

I have seen first-hand how alternative forms of post-secondary education can change lives.

It's not necessarily a path "to the lower class." A good welder can make $100,000 a year after a few years. There are other technical trades that start people in the $40,000 to $50,000 range. That would make graduates of those programs better paid than the a lot of the adjunct faculty at the college -- and some of them have doctorates.

[Hemmingway]

6. Gateway to bankruptcy more like.

Those in the middle class these days make their way there; they don't buy their way there. Degrees are becoming a scam for the 1% to make even more money from us plebs.

Higher education, well, isn't.