Kerry Looks to Boost College Graduates
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) says if he’s elected president, 1 million more students will graduate from college during his first five years in office and he will bring a special focus to boosting opportunities for low-income and minority students.
Okay, obviously I think higher education is important. Not only did I spend a total of ten and a half years acquiring my degrees, but the food that feeds my kids is purchased by dollars I earn teaching students at a university.
However, this proposal by Kerry is plain silly. While the idea of boosting the number of minority gradautes is a noble one, not only is it not the President’s job to deal with these things, but just providing money for people to go to school does not necessarily translate into more graduations.
Further, speaking as a professor teaching in one of the poorest states in the union, it is my experience that if one has the qualifications to attend college, there are ways to do so. Not only are community college quite accessible, but there are a number of programs available (not to mention working to pay one’s tuition) to help worthy students to go to school. In other words, I question the implicit assertion in the Senator’s proposal that there aer serious barriers to entry for students who wish to obtain a degree.
And not to rain on the Senator’s parade, but it may indeed be the case that there are currently too many students in our colleges and universities who aren’t ready to be college, and in some cases never will be.
Really, I don’t see the great crisis here.
And you have to love the math:
Kerry’s campaign says nearly half the hike in graduation rates will come from population increases, and he’ll achieve the other half by bringing down the cost of education and creating other incentives to bring students to college and keep them there.
So by this logic, if the next President does nothing at least 500,000 more students will graduate, so his proposal is only for half a million.
I wish the Senator would repeat after me: Presidents don’t create gradautes, Presidents don’t create graduates… He can meditate on that one after he writes President’s don’t create jobs 200 times. He also needs to write a 10 page essay on why Presidents have no control over the cost of education.
Though, if they can get Congress to agree, they can affect who pays for college…and by what rationale they “take” the money they give to favored groups.
Comment by Jem — Tuesday, June 29, 2024 @ 10:19 am
Two things:
1.
“…if he’s elected president, 1 million more students will graduate from college during his first five years in office…”
So not only is his election a given (John Kerry President signs, etc), but so is his reelection?!
2. Increasing the number of students going into college does not necessarily increase the number of graduates. From the people who I’ve seen going to school despite numerous obstacles, I would have to say that people not going to school because of the financial obstacle are fairly unmotivated. And if they lack the motivation to earn the money to go to school then they are probably lacking the motivation to work through school. Similarly, from what I’ve observed, the average student who is paying for school out of their own pocket is a slight bit more motivated than the student who has it paid for by someone else. From this I would have to say that a plan that merely increases the number of incoming students would serve to increase the number of dropouts.
Comment by Charles Fenwick — Tuesday, June 29, 2024 @ 10:40 am
If only presidents can increase college graduates, only college students will be president.
Comment by John Lemon — Tuesday, June 29, 2024 @ 11:18 am
Beltway Traffic Jam
The Tuesday linkfest: Kevin Aylward celebrates one year of crap at Wizbang. Bill Hobbs displays Condi’s note to the Prez on soveriegnty. Steven Taylor is skeptical of Kerry’s plan to make more people graduate college. Spoons has a new genie…
Trackback by Outside the Beltway — Tuesday, June 29, 2024 @ 3:42 pm
I’m confused… how do you increase the rate of graduation by increasing the pool of college attendees?
I can see how you would increase the number of graduates, but greater enrollment does not lead to a higher graduation rate (if anything, I suspect it leads to a decrease as more students get lost in the shuffle, unless you build new colleges–which people aren’t really doing any more).
Comment by Chris Lawrence — Tuesday, June 29, 2024 @ 4:20 pm
Actually Chris, with a huge influx of incoming students there is a corresponding huge pressure from college administrators to free up seats in classrooms and hence pressure for grade inflation and “social promotion/graduation.” This is something that I’ve noticed here for at least five years now (and I’ve been “here” much longer than that).
Comment by John Lemon — Tuesday, June 29, 2024 @ 11:15 pm
Gee, I don’t know about anywhere else in the country, but in California, college tuition and fees are going way up. Community colleges are cutting classes because of the budget slashing.
All of these cuts and price hikes affect not only the ability to college, Steven. They also affect the drop out rate due to simply not being able to pay for it and eat and work at the same time.
Really, I guess there must not have been much cuts in education in all your budget problems out there in your state. But just a casual googling shows a different story
Maybe life was all well in good back in the Clinton boom times, but in the Bush economy, higher education is getting the ax country wide.
And if you don’t think that drastically affects education, or the rate of graduation, then I think you’re bonkers. . .
Comment by Hal — Wednesday, June 30, 2024 @ 2:19 am