CNBC Producer on Why He Might Not Send His Kids to College
If I had kids in high school right now, I’m not sure I’d want them to go to college.
Jake Novak of CNBC makes a valid point here.
Why I may not send my kids to college
Why is it that every time I make a contribution to my kids’ 529 college-savings plan, the news seems jammed with embarrassing and disturbing stories from American college campuses?
This week alone, my personal news feed is dominated by the racist video incident at the University of Oklahoma, the frighteningly anti-Semitic “vetting” of a student government candidate at UCLA, students banning the American flag in one location at UC Irvine, and a missing female student who was last seen in the area where other women had been attacked at Cal State San Bernardino.
Oh who am I kidding? These kinds of negative stories from U.S. colleges come out every day. And the funny thing is, the second-most frequent type of story I see about college is how to save on the monstrous cost of tuition.
As the parent of two girls who will be college age in the coming decade, I find that I now need to be sold again on the idea of a formal higher education before I agree to make the most costly purchase of my lifetime. And it’s really not all about the money. Because I wholeheartedly embrace the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and the acquisition of marketable job skills. But I’m becoming less and less sure that a formal four-year college education is the best way to do it at any price.
Comments
The problem is that students are treated as a captive audience for further indoctrination. One can’t combine that with high costs and useless majors and then expect those schools of higher learning to have produced productive, independent citizens. The current system will put itself out of business and students as crave for better paths to prosperity.