Letter to the editor: Not everyone needs college

Commentary

OPINION:

For years now, I’ve been fuming over the sad state of higher education, a setup that has featured slowly deteriorating product quality and public confidence since the 1980s.

Now, as a new Washington Times subscriber, I’m happy to see a shared concern expressed in “Recapturing the ivory tower” (page B2, Nov. 25).

Everything cited in the piece — the bloated school bureaucracies, tuition increases running far ahead of inflation, the costly and ineffective Department of Education and the misplaced academic priorities — needs fixing.

Another major problem on the demand side merits mention, though. Given the modern, ill-advised “every child to college” mindset, over 4 million are graduating every year into a job market with openings near the same figure.

But according to a pre-pandemic Georgetown University study, only 36% of positions require a four-year degree, while another 30% just some college or a two-year degree. We’re priming more than 1.5 million graduates for disappointment each year (indeed, witness those disturbing surveys finding that up to 52% of recent graduates are underemployed).

Some of this comes back to taxpayers in the form of government tuition loan defaults. Like the dropouts, underemployed or unemployed graduates are at greater risk.

As part of the 2025 re-reckoning, the rechanneling of less academically inclined teens into the trades and elsewhere is an essential piece. And it can’t come too soon.