By Professor Doom
I often request an
end to the student loan scam, but I seldom discuss why we have so many of our
kids ready and willing to destroy themselves with student loans. Even if we
destroyed the supply (student loans), we’d still have immense demand for accredited
college degrees.
So as I sit here
being pumped through gallons of assorted drugs to stop a cancer a doctor first
told me would be “no problem” in 2004, I thought it best to review how we ended
up in this mess, particularly since it involves the Supreme Court (the
composition of which is a major concern of late).
“ Yet
records for new college enrollment continue apace.”
I should point
out this article is a little old; in 2014, perhaps, enrollments were rising,
but there’s been a clear trend the last few years where enrollments dropped
(especially at converged schools). Ignoring the dated information, there are a
few relevant things said here.
The only
thing Americans, Right and Left, seem to agree on is that college is an
unquestionable good.
The above, of
course, is part of the reason for the huge demand. It is, of course, wrong.
Experienced welders can make $100,000 a year because of the demand for such
skills, and it takes less time to get experience as a welder than it does to
get a 4 year degree, the latter of which is deeply unlikely to lead to a job
paying anywhere near $100,000…not even factoring in the debt, of course.
Yes, it’s crass
to equate a college degree to money, but that’s part of the problem.
“Education” and “college” are being treated as synonyms today, even though
anyone who wants can get a free education by going to the library (or this
“internet” thing people are buzzing about), whereas college generally requires
a large and massive debt…and doesn’t promise an education.
Now, I do
believe education is an unquestionable good…but where does the Supreme Court
come into this?
…overturning Griggs v. Duke Power Company…
This 1971 court
case planted the seed leading to the destruction of higher education today. I
concede I’m not one to follow the Supreme Court closely; the only reason I even
cared a little about Kavanaugh was because of the outrageous treatment of him in
response to the utterly baseless accusations, many of which were irrelevant on
the face of it (seriously, who cares what he did in high school?).
The basics of the
case:
The saga began in 1969 when
Willie Griggs, a black man born in the segregated South, decided he was
overdue for a promotion. In order to get one, per Duke Power Electric
Company rules, he had to pass two aptitude tests and possess a high school
diploma. Griggs smelled racism. The tests surveyed employees on basic math and
intelligence questions. None of Duke’s fourteen black workers passed. Griggs
and twelve others sued the company for discrimination. A district court and
federal appeals court accepted Duke’s claim that the tests were designed to
ensure that the plant operated safely. Duke bolstered its case by pointing out
that it offered to pay for employees to obtain high school diplomas and that
white applicants who failed to meet the requirements were also denied
promotions.
Bottom line: companies used to use internal aptitude tests to
determine who could advance. The weapon of RACIST, blunted today after decades
of heavy use, was quite sharp 50ish years ago:
Griggs found that if blacks failed to meet a standard at a higher rate
than whites the standard itself was racist—a legal doctrine known as disparate
impact.
And…game over. Just like that, companies
were hard pressed to use aptitude tests, unless those tests gave the same
results for blacks as whites. I really feel the need to point out that, in
higher education, blacks and whites are not equal, either (and do note any two
different groups are “not equal,” as that comes with the territory of being different)…but for some reason our
government won’t charge itself with racism by pushing the wildly disparate
impact of student loans on blacks. For some reason, indeed.
“What is required by Congress
is the removal of artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers to employment
when the barriers operate invidiously to discriminate on the basis of racial or
other impermissible classification,” Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in Griggs. “Diplomas and tests are
useful servants, but Congress has mandated the common sense proposition that
they are not to become masters of reality.” Burger may have intended to free
America of bureaucracy, but his decision in fact bestowed that title—“masters
of reality”—on college administrators.
So instead of letting companies determine
who should work for them based on tests and demonstrations of ability, they had
no choice but to rely on the integrity of college administrators to supply that
information.
Suckers.
The solution for businesses
post-Griggs was obvious: outsource
screening to colleges, which are allowed to weed out poor candidates based on
test scores. The bachelor’s degree, previously reserved for academics, doctors,
and lawyers, became the de facto credential required for any white-collar
job.
With now the only way to advance in life
restricted to “first, get a college degree” the demand for higher education
sky-sky-skyrocketed. Our kids coming out of high school had it drilled into
their heads that college was the only choice for a decent human being…while,
quietly the pay for trade skills headed up, due to basic supply and demand.
Diplomas do little to alter the
dynamics of innate ability and intelligence—even less so now that institutions
have lowered standards. The knowledge gap between college seniors and freshmen
is negligible (see: Academically Adrift:
Limited Learning on College Campuses). Other studies have found
that class ranks at graduation closely mirror testing ranks upon matriculation.
If businesses could recruit and screen candidates using testing metrics, it
would allow workers to begin their careers earlier, advance quicker, and do it
debt-free.
This is such a great article, filled with
important information. Not only does it provide a workaround for the huge
problem facing higher education, it even clears up a myth I’ve been told, many
times:
The lie that props up our Big
Education regime is that the GI Bill, which paid for World War II veterans to
attend college, produced the upward mobility and economic boom of the postwar
period. It’s a heartwarming story, the veteran who would have been a dust
farmer but for the grace of government generosity. But it just isn’t true. Only
one out of every eight returning veterans attended college. The rest, the vast
majority, benefited from something even more egalitarian: aptitude testing. The
format favors raw talent above all else, allowing companies to hire
high-potential candidates from any background and groom them to fit the
company’s needs.
Now, see, 1 out of 8, the top 12.5%, is
probably about the right percentage of people who should be going to college.
No, I’m not being elitist, and considering the marginal pay of most college
degrees I’m certainly not trying to shut people out of college, but our current
system where most high school graduates go to college, and most leave years
later deep in debt, with no useful skills, and often without even a degree, is
obviously wrong.
Now, the demand to go to college was
great, but how to pay for it? Here come the student loans…
Colleges,
aware of their newfound utility and the easy money pouring in from student
loans and Pell grants, jacked up prices. Education costs, as George F. Will has
noted, grew 440 percent in the post-Griggs era.
That trend continues today. The Project on Student Debt found that total
college loans increased 6 percent annually between 2008 and 2012. The average
student today takes out nearly $30,000 in debt to buy a ticket to the good
life.
Again, this is dated…but imagine starting
life deep in debt with nothing to show for it. This is the fate of most of our
kids in college today, and it all started with the cry of RACIST, which the
Supreme Court heard and responded to (improperly) in 1971.
How the Supreme Court
Created the Student Loan Bubble
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