Obama's Delusional Stance On Higher Education

In the 2015 State of the Union address, President Obama said that "by the end of this decade, 2 in 3 job openings will require some higher education.  2 in 3!  Yet, we still live in a country where too many bright, striving Americans are priced out of the education they need".

So, as is always with this President, his solution is to throw money at the problem by providing free community college tuition.  However, despite what Obama says, we don't have a real funding problem for higher education; especially for the poorest among us.  There are enough federal and state grants, scholarships, and low interest student loans to send any "bright, striving" American kid to college.

The major problem is that there are too few bachelor and associate degreed jobs for the number of graduating students.   In the latest projection for those completing a 2-year or 4-year program in 2014, 31% will not find a job and will wind up living at home with Mom and Dad.  Of those who do find work, 45% of the 4-year degreed students and 57% of the 2-year degreed students will end up only finding jobs that don't require the degrees they hold.  Simply, trying to graduate more college students will only exacerbate these statistics unless, and until, more college level jobs are created.  Something that just isn't happening with Obama's over regulation of the economy.

There's another problem with higher education in this country, and why graduates can't find work that is equal to their educational level, and that is their chosen course of study.

All too often, students graduate with majors that give them little or no chance of finding related employment.  Very few businesses are interested in hiring someone with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature or Poetry, or some obscure and specialized antiquities' degree.

Beyond that, too many college students are being graduated without the necessary business skills of "critical thinking, analytical reasoning, document literacy, writing and communication".  A College Level Assessment test by the Rand Corporation found that 40% of those graduates being tested lacked those very critical skills.  Another study found that the average college student can only read at a 6th or 7th grade level.  As a result, those students get weeded out at job time by presenting a poorly or illogically written resume or by coming off as less well-educated in the interview process; leaving them to only find non-degreed work.

Additionally, because our students lack skills, 65,000 jobs a year go to legal immigrants with H-1B work visas that require a college degree.  Thousands more are taken by L-1 Transfer visas that allow foreign workers to fill U.S. jobs as long as they are transferring in from within the same company.

Essentially, Obama's "free" community college proposal makes a false promise that he is solving a problem when, in fact, the real problem lies with our broken pre-college educational system, plus the fact that he has failed miserably in creating quality high-paying jobs.

References:

Obama: Community college should be ‘as free and universal in America as high school’: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/community-college-tuition-top-theme-state-union-speech/

 More Than Half 2014 College Grads Are In Jobs That Don't Require Degree: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2014/10/09/more-than-half-2014-college-grads-are-in-jobs-that-dont-require/

Test Finds College Graduates Lack Skills for White-Collar Jobs: Forty Percent of Students Seen Ill-Prepared to Enter Work Force; Critical Thinking Key: http://www.wsj.com/articles/test-finds-many-students-ill-prepared-to-enter-work-force-1421432744

The average college freshman reads at 7th grade level: http://campusreform.org/?ID=6174

Nearly three-quarters of hiring managers complain that millennials – even those with college degrees – aren’t prepared for the job market and lack an adequate “work ethic": http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/01/29/Surprising-Reason-College-Grads-Can-t-Get-Job

Obama Imposed 75,000 Pages of New Regulations in 2014: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/19803-obama-imposed-75-000-pages-of-new-regulations-in-2014

Work Visas: http://www.immigrationvisausa.com/Immigration_Law/Work_Visas.aspx

Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html