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Peter Kang's avatar

I think a simpler (but possibly more difficult) solution would be to stop the flow of easy money to the universities by dismantling the student loan system as it stands now. Student loans should NOT be backed by government guarantees, explicit or not.

Also, employers should stop looking at the university degree as a way of conferring credentialing for most jobs. Instead, perhaps third party testing/certification for knowledge base and skills (or a portfolio of products generated, like IT does) would be the way to weed out candidates. If we can make universities irrelevant to the job market, we can decrease their power.

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Mark Miles's avatar

Yes, I think guaranteed student loans are the main driver of bureaucracy bloat at universities.

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Cara C.'s avatar

I read somewhere that jobs that used to be filled by high school grads now require a college degree. Perhaps that's due to the deterioration of education in high schools (what one used to know after graduating now requires an extra few years) but I think the availability of poorly-educated college grads has caused this. It's ridiculous that many jobs require a college degree just because they can. College shouldn't be for everyone (and that is not elitist, just fair).

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Reverend Paul's avatar

Sort of... the college degree took the place of the IQ test, deemed to be too 'racist' in employment determination.

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Padre Dave Poedel's avatar

I concur! Thank you!

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Sandra Pinches's avatar

"If we can make universities irrelevant to the job market, we can decrease their power."

They're doing well at this on their own, except for jobs in DEI.

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Tommaso di Maria's avatar

For many types of employment, the replacement of degrees by skills testing is occurring - in many cases where everyone applying has a degree. Many businesses must make good hiring decisions, and cannot afford/would not benefit from executive/managerial-class "virtue signaling.

This does not apply to those businesses in the "crony-capitalist" sector.

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Brian Villanueva's avatar

Good economic research establishes that student loans have significantly raised university prices by making purchasers less price sensitive. The used car dealer always wants to talk monthly payment instead of total price for the same reason.

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Shannon Swindle's avatar

Great idea!!!

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