Conversation I had
What would you think about starting a school in Gary, IN? No. Why? Well the city is fucked up in a way that the whole state of Michigan and a lot of the rest of middle of America will be soon. The steel industry couldn’t compete with foreign competition and now the city is left readjusting, economically deflating, emptying itself of the capacity it once needed to produce the sick amount of steel that it did in its hey day.
“But if you get a good school going you can just send all the kids to college” How does that help Gary? Those kids will probably leave. If they want to go to a fancy charter school they were probably going to leave anyways, and if all I am doing is helping funnel the talent out of Gary faster, I am not going to be happy. The city needs to have a new identity, renaissance if you will, as will most of the Midwest (except cities that rhyme with iago).
This renaissance won’t begin by some really smart people with college degrees who go work somewhere else and send money home. It won’t get started until the large masses of people in gary can get motivated to do something positive with their lives. This implies that the schools for the large masses leave people in a position to do just that. I am not assuming that people just need to go to college, the idea that the whole world will have college degrees is years away, and largely inefficient. What is the point of college? Is it really useful to the economy to have someone spend four years not contributing to GDP so that they can emerge four years later with the ability to write a 5 page paper and integrate a quadratic? If I wanted to start a construction company, will it help me if all my choices for employees are college grads and untrained high school graduates? If I want to start a restaurant in a town full of unemployed people, why does all the help have to be over educated or come from another country? If a fourteen year old comes up and says, “I’m not going to college, but I will do whatever it takes it to be successful as an American adult,” what job should he be doing when he is 18 that is good for him and ofor us. What would he be doing in school from 14 to 18 that would prepare him for that job? Passing standardized tests?
1 comment:
here you have verbalized the problem that will lead to the next great american financial catastrophe. just as companies which overinvested in subprime mortgages went to shit, so will those who overinvested in student loans. students are now taking out loans to pay for college that the jobs they get once they exit college cannot support. law school grads are already experiencing this crunch. if you take out loans to attend a top tier (top 50) school, even if you work during the school year, you will likely be anywhere from 50-100K in debt. that translates into a monthly payment of at least $400 within 9 months of graduation. if you dont get a job paying at least 60K, you will very definitely have trouble making even the minimum payment on your student loan. most government jobs don't pay that, so you essentially must work in a private firm--which is not an easy gig to find, ESPECIALLY if you're not a graduate of a top tier school.
not everyone belongs in college. college (despite what obama would have you believe) is not a birthright. its not even a necessity. trade schools are far more viable options for lots of people. there are a ton of overpaid people in the world, and the gap in america keeps widening. most rich people get rich by exploiting the labor of others. there's nothing new about this, and there's no easy solution.
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