mortgaging education

[mellowtigger]

Higher education is mandatory to participate in the workforce. The U.S. Department of Education publicizes (page N-36) the results of a Georgetown study that predicts (page 13) "By 2018, 63 percent of job openings will require workers with at least some college education." An educated population has become a requirement for a functioning American economy. College is no longer an optional path of opportunity; it is a requirement for basic participation.  As such, it becomes as basic a necessity as high school education.  It should be publicly funded.

Both the Washington Post and Alternet are publishing stories today that college debt exceeds credit card debt in America.  That debt in excess of $1 trillion is a huge problem.

First, future income is being siphoned away, lowering all of the earnings of these future workers to invest in other immediate matters.  Eliminating such debt for millions of Americans has become a goal for some of the people in the #OccupyWallStreet movement.

Second, however, is the problem of matching the right skills to the right jobs.  I see no quick and easy solution to the problem of various segments being unable to find fulltime, relevant employment.  My own former boss remains unemployed after nearly a year, and I consider her a talented and effective supervisor for technical support staff.  I don't know her age, but she is older than me.  Like me, she has on-the-job training rather than a college degree.

Media are quick to spin the college debt problem as freeloaders trying to get an easy "out" from payments.  Seen in a larger context, though, I hope it's obvious that there is a fundamental problem with requiring Americans to mortgage their future in order to obtain any employment at all.

Here is video from #occupyMN that addresses the education debt problem.

As a gentle reminder, I hope that you avoid relying on traditional media for news about the Occupation movement.  What I have seen is rarely neutral.  Web search engines are your friend.  Find original sources such as people posting videos or photographs themselves.  Find reliable sources, knowing that some people will deliberately propagate misinformation on the web.  Trust nothing, but investigate everything for yourself.  :)  I know that my link-burdened posts are difficult to read, but I try to point you to original sources to double-check my accuracy.

Comments

[furr_a_bruin]

While I understand your remark about the traditional media in general, I feel moved to point out that Keith Olbermann (on Current) and Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and Chris Hayes on MSNBC have been very positive about the Occupy movement - Keith in particular. (And I wouldn't be surprised if Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC has been as well, but I haven't had time for his show lately.)

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, in the past I tended to go to CNN to get my news from mainstream television. The Occupation experience, however, leaves me wondering about the relevance of CNN as a news source. I hate to go to clearly partisan sources, but I do trust Rachel Maddow to clearly state corrections when she errs.

[mellowtigger]

p.s. The Atlantic released an article today that shows a year of Princeton university education costs less than a year of incarceration in prison. It's an interesting juxtaposition of priorities.

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/10/chart-one-year-of-prison-costs-more-than-one-year-at-princeton/247629/