Posts Tagged ‘college learning’
We’ve seen over the past few years an explosion of high-profile national conversations about higher education. At the federal and state levels, in regulatory bodies and legislatures, as well as in many foundations and think tanks, policy makers and their many advisers are pursuing ways to increase “student success” by fixing what is wrong with higher education.
I have written before about the problems with how these national conversations are framed. There are, of course, many problems that require urgent action – and, indeed, national dialogue is needed. Read the rest of this entry »
I generally find Paul Krugman’s columns helpful and on target, but I was dismayed to read his recent piece, “Degrees and Dollars” published last week in the New York Times. In reading it, I couldn’t help but think of Jon Stewart’s common refrain when he chastises those with whom he usually agrees, but who do or say stupid things: “You’re not helping!” Krugman falsely suggests an either/or choice between restoring “the bargaining power that labor has lost over the last 30 years” or investing in “putting more kids through college.” Don’t we need to do both these things, Paul?
Krugman suggests that because of globalization and outsourcing, the US job market isn’t, in fact, ever going to be characterized by rising demands for more educated workers. He notes the “hollowing out” of the job market—with both high-wage and low-wage employment growing rapidly, but medium-wage jobs lagging behind. He seems to miss, however, the fact documented so well by Tony Carnevale and his colleagues at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce that both medium-wage and high-wage jobs are demanding higher levels of knowledge and skill. Carnevale has also documented that, even with increased outsourcing of jobs at many levels, the American economy still will face a shortage of college-educated workers in the coming years. In their report, Help Wanted, Carnevale and colleagues suggest, in fact, that, “by 2018, the economy will create 46.8 million openings…nearly two-thirds of these 46.8 million jobs—some 63 percent—will require workers with at least some college education.” He notes further that, “by 2018, the postsecondary system will have produced 3 million fewer college graduates than demanded by the labor market.” This is the reason why President Obama–whom Krugman criticizes in his article–is trying so hard to hold the line against those who want to cut education funding. If anything, we need to increase funding for education at all levels–including funding for higher education. This clearly is as important a public policy priority as maintaining the rights of workers to organize.
Recently, there has been a flurry of articles and reports about higher education and the policy choices that will affect its future. As a communications professional, I would normally welcome the attention to higher education; the whole sector is underreported, in my humble opinion. However, this recent coverage has centered on the wrong questions and the wrong debates—and is diverting attention from some really important trends and problems.
Both the Chronicle of Higher Education and the New York Times have recently published forums on the question, are too many students going to college? This is the kind of question editors love because it makes it easy for them to line people up on either side of a seemingly important debate. But the answer to this particular question is pretty clear-cut: for any individual student, going to college is clearly better than not going. This is why students are flocking to colleges of all sorts—two-year, four-year, for-profit, not-for-profit, public, private.
This is the first posting to a new multi-authored blog launched by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as part of its national initiative, Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP): Excellence for Everyone as a Nation Goes to College. This blog will be a platform for discussion about the future of college learning—why the outcomes of a liberal education are so important in today’s world and how those within and outside of higher education understand these outcomes and the idea of a “liberal education.”
We will try to shine a spotlight on what a liberal education is in today’s colleges and universities, but also the ways that the term “liberal education” is still misunderstood—even by many students and their own college and high school teachers. Read the rest of this entry »
