Adarq, thoughts?
I 100% agree with this, learning a trade is pretty much better than a degree to an extent. There is boces that you can go to in high school and all that but once you're older the classes they offer aren't really as in depth as what high schoolers get and it will still cost you 3 grand or so depending on what you do. Learning to weld, fab, run heavy machinery, electrical etc etc will give you a more useful skill and a higher paying job than a lot of bachelors or associates. A guy I used to workout with is a boiler maker and works half a year pulling in 80 grand: went to a trade school. I see a lot of posts for electricians at 35hr, construction jobs starting at 15 or so just to hold the stop and slow sign and 20-30 for working the equipment.
Can't say I disagree with much in this post. I wouldn't say trade school is better than higher Ed but I wouldn't say higher Ed is better than trade school... Although i think that's probably what you were getting st by qualifying it by saying "to an extent." The truth about the student debt crisis is it isn't so much because higher Ed is too expensive but rather because it isn't the necessarily the investment it's sold to be...
I saw a very frustrating ad for a for profit school that quoted a statistic that since 1950 those that get a bachelors degree make some amount (I think it was like a million dollars) more over their lifetime than those who don't... The statistic is meaningless because where you have longitudinal data (the 50s, 60s, and 70s) about lifetime earnings getting a college degree was something done disproportionally more by wealthy people. Really, is it surprising that people who are born to wealthy families make more over their lifetime than those who are not? You could easily say that children who do equestrian, rowing, polo, or wear sweater vests make more over their lifetime than those who don't.... Unfortunately the statistic about lifetime earnings and college degrees is as much a that a degree leads to class mobility as it is that America is not quite the meritocracy we wish it was...
I went to higher education for almost 10 years and while it helped me find a career far better than what I would have without it, I fully admit that I was very lucky - a college degree as a means to economic success is not for everyone... We either have to have the people wake up to this or if we are going to push the utility of a college degree as more than just a tool for personal edification (which some may believe useful or necessary in its own right) we have to make it free or affordable like high school is... Getting a college degree has become such a cultural achievement that maybe we can essentially merge trade school and college to an extent... Forgive loan debt and allow everyone to attend college and take a few liberal arts courses - but also offer real trade options to upper classmen so they can graduate with a marketable skill along with knowledge about western civilization - after all not every classics major can be a classics professor...
