OCCUPY WALL STREET AND EDUCATION

Your Commander draws your attention to a fascinating article appearing in The Wall Street Journal that addresses the real root problem that exists within the Occupy Wall Street movement. I urge you to read the complete article by William McGurn where he takes the position that the Occupy Wall Street group has a good point about student debt, but it is flawed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204394804577010080547122646.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read#printMode

As I mentioned above, the Occupy groups are claiming that student debt is the problem and the big banks are at fault, but the banks and financial institutions are not at fault, but the universities and colleges that present expensive curriculums that deliver students who are not prepared for the available job market place.

The reference to the book “Academically Adrift” by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa is particularly interesting. It states that 1/3rd of the students over four years were showing no improvement in critical thinking, analytical reasoning, or written communications. The authors also look at far too many students ending up with huge loan obligations and degrees that their university or college indicated would be financially beneficial but do not serve the student properly in later years. These programs within the schools are driving up the cost of a solid educational experience and not the banks that provide the loans.

Thus the Occupy Wall Street should actually be meeting on the campus lawns of colleges and universities across the country and not around the major banks.

Which brings me back to a subject that I have been writing about for years: our educational institutions are bloated and if tenure were eliminated costs would certainly be reduced along with the resulting staggering loan obligations.

COMMANDER GRANGER