To ashok – No one disagrees with the importance of being educated. And, this is not discussion over the importance of teaching skills vs teaching liberal arts. This is about structuring a society where young adults start life $50,000 – $100,000 in debt and labor for thousands of hours to have any access to basic economic opportunity. We allow the educational establishment to engage in outright extortion. Not only do we allow it, we glorify it as something noble.
The answer is simple, training and certification need to be managed independently. There is inherent conflict of interest when the two are married. If certification was divorced from training, there would be tremendous advantages:
1) Competition would force a revolution in teaching procedures and options. You would no longer be locked into a 4 year curriculum, but could pursue whatever learning style is effective for you.
2) You could learn at your own pace.
3) The proper customer/supplier relationship would be established between the student and the school. Today it is distorted. Why should I have to apply and be accepted so that I can purchase a service?
4) Capacity constraints in the labor market would be eliminated since schools could no longer control the rate of graduation. Why are there not more doctors?
Unfortunately, there are powerful vested interests who would never allow this to happen. The special interests who cling to this system are not interested in the high ideals of liberal education. The modern American educational system is structured to optimize the political and economic power of those in charge. It is not about learning and education.
