I know talking about schools bores most people in Wisconsin, but something interesting has been overlooked for the past few weeks. State Rep. Mark Radcliffe, D-River Falls, has introduced a bill in the Wisconsin state Legislature giving high school students the option of skipping traditional academic classes in favor of vocational ones.
The problem Radcliffe sees is simple—conventional high school classes try to prepare students for college, even though many students won’t be attending one. These students may be misplaced in college preparatory classes, so it would benefit them to be allowed to take classes more relevant and useful to them. In other words, some kids just shouldn’t take math.
However, that’s not what is interesting about this bill. Aside from the merits of the change, the bill also implies something powerful. Currently, too many people are preparing for and going to college. In a world where everyone is encouraged to go to college, this is a heresy, right? Unfortunately for the overly ambitious, it probably is true.
Currently, college is costly and is only getting more expensive. This has been justified with increased wages for college graduates; however, real wages for college graduates have been declining rapidly over the past decade. In fact, even though tuition is increasing, the difference between college and non-college-educated workers’ incomes has been roughly the same, meaning that college is becoming more expensive to attend but not giving any more.
For some, college is barely affordable as it is. The increase in the cost of tuition means some students might be better off without attending college. Since people don’t leave college immediately when it stops being a good deal, that means there are people who are currently attending a college who probably shouldn’t be. In other words, too many people are going to college.
Now, this is only a marginal difference—what if, in addition to this, college degrees have been overvalued for as long as we can remember? This is somewhat harder to believe, but it’s reasonable.
An education obviously gives a student useful skills, but a degree also gives a student a way to signal to the world that he or she is a valuable worker. It’s debatable which effect is larger, but it’s not controversial that they both matter. While the actual education is hard to replicate outside of a school, the signal of accomplishment is easy to create. For example, innovative tech startups in Silicon Valley have begun looking at profiles of the projects developers have worked on as well as—or instead of—resumes since these tell hiring managers more about the potential employee even with the college degree on the resume.
In a world where the qualities conveyed by a college degree can be accurately conveyed without one, a college degree is less valuable than it could be. This is because people will be more willing to opt for a college alternative, as the cost of not attending college has decreased. Just like before, if the value of going to college goes down, fewer people should be going to college.
In fact, the case might be even stronger. If innovative tech companies are looking at something before a college degree, that implies that college degrees aren’t reliable indicators of skills required by these companies. For some, colleges aren’t teaching the right skills for workers entering these industries. Not only does this devalue the college degree, but the actual college degree devalues the college degree.
This problem isn’t limited to the tech industry; hence, the existence of Radcliffe’s bill. Given that some estimates indicate only 25 percent of incoming students are prepared for college, there is a considerable opportunity for a worthwhile alternative; since not every student is cut out for every job, it shouldn’t even be debated that some students would be better served by a different curriculum. However, traditional high school classes are aimed specifically at preparing students for college—at least, in America. European countries (including top-performing Finland) have extensive vocational education.
This probably won’t fix education in Wisconsin—the problem of affordability and teacher quality runs deep in its veins. However, a lack of ambition isn’t a reason to reject it. With Wisconsin’s legislature properly gridlocked by partisanship, a little fix is exactly what we need.
Zach Thomae is a freshman majoring in computer science. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
