The higher education bubble is about to pop. And that’s not all good news.
By Rachel Lu
The bubble hasn’t popped yet, but the writing is on the wall. America’s higher education system is bloated and ineffective and needs a dramatic overhaul. The good news is that it will get one. Unsustainable things eventually cease. The bad news is that Americans may have learned the wrong lessons about the four-year university degree. They are in danger of deciding that it’s simply a waste of money, when the reality is that a sensible approach to the extended liberal arts education requires more elitism than people today want to accept.
Americans are converging on two areas of consensus concerning higher education. First of all, they want it to be more affordable . In a recent Gallup survey, 74 percent of respondents said that the cost of higher education is beyond the reach of the average American; a 2011 Pew survey had similar findings. Secondly, they want college to be more reliable in preparing graduates for the workplace. In a slow economy youth unemployment will always be a problem, but this problem will only be worse if, as many contend , our education system is not targeted on the needs of employers. READ MORE HERE