Quote of the Day
Anyone can sympathize with
the sufferings of a friend,
but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize
with a friend's success.
Oscar Wilde
If You Build It, They Will Come
No, I'm very aware this a common mistaken variant of the real line from 'Field of Dreams' about one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Shoeless Joe Jackson, with the third highest career batting average. whom once hit over .400 and was Babe Ruth's batting idol, thrown under the bus and banned from baseball for life after the 1919 Black Sox scandal, although he hit .375 with 4 extra-base hits and 6 RBI's, no errors,, leading the best-of-9 series lost 5-3. (Allegedly Jackson admitted receiving $5K of a promised $20K bribe and in some cases purposely striking out or hitting into an easy out with runners on board; but Jackson recanted his confession and there are some key reasons to doubt the story)
There is no doubt that there is serious money made in technical training: I have a PhD, 18 years as a professional DBA with employers like IBM and Oracle and hold one of Oracle's certifications (and was tempted to get another but Oracle made a prerequisite of one of its $3K-plus one-week classes). Back in 1996 when I did some SAP Basis Administration (a DBA-applications administration role), relevant classes cost even more.
It's not hard to see why entrepreneurs look at today's bloated cost structures (e.g., in one of George Will's columns he made reference to such an indulgence as a provost of diversity and climate (you can't make this stuff up!), up to six-figure salaries for profs whom sometimes teach small numbers of lightly attended classes, etc. Some of these, including former colleagues, had lucrative consulting businesses on the side). There are some companies which offer courses of lectures by highly respected professors, sometimes at costs competitive with some textbooks--see here, for instance.
I can't say I'm familiar with for-profit colleges, and to some extent Obama is responsible for the hype in conceptualization of college as little more than glorified job ticket. To be frank, I've not hired many people (I've done tech screens), but I would have a difference from many IT managers; I see my role as more of a professional problem solver. I'm not saying current training is without value, but if basketball coaches say you can't coach height: you can't teach intelligence and creativity. I could give examples of Oracle-trained DBAs whom caused or prolonged outages. Oracle's technology mix constantly changes; I'm more impressed with the abilities to adapt and problem solve. I have found my intellectually demanding majors in math and philosophy and experience with original research have served me well.
There is obviously a vested interest in government protecting its own educational "investments" which are funded by force vs. private sector alternatives. There have always been, of course, private colleges. But they don't face the same progressive venom as for-profit. It's apparently fine for government-operated colleges to fritter away money on top-heavy bureaucracy or sports that don't pay their own way, but progressives like my current Congressman Elijah Cummings (don't get me started on this guy: I haven't supported him) want to hypocritically target non-profits, thus serving the crony interests, say, of community colleges.
One thing is certain: for-profit schools must rely on persuasion to recruit and they will find it difficult to recruit students on an ongoing basis if they are unsuccessful at improved student achievement and placement at a competitive price.
So, yes, if you make taxpayer money available, qualifying schools of all types, state/local, nonprofits and for profits, will find a way to grab "their fair share of the pie".
But no doubt the nationalization of college loans and a government committed to promoting college for political purposes create an opportunity that schools everywhere want: throwing money at colleges exacerbating the college cost bubble by pushing students who probably have little business being in college with minimal chance of completing and being hired, to enroll in programs where professional opportunities are limited and college ends up being little more than a glorified high school diploma? No doubt.
I suspect the targeting of for-profits is both ideological and little more than a diversion tactic, I oppose crony colleges but the bigger issue of the student loan bubble is taxpayer risk due to nationalization of the loan business. the answer is to privatize the college loan business.
Barack "The Ponz" Obama
George Mason economics professor/Cafe Hayek blogger Don Boudreaux discusses a variation of what economists call the freeloader problem in his latest biweekly column here. To use a simple example, if the Rolling Stones perform in an open stadium, people in areas around the stadium will get for free what other people have paid money to hear. In short, many existing and upcoming beneficiaries will get far more in social security then they and their employers ever paid in. (The problem is even worse with Medicare, because among other things (e.g., failure to adjust for longer lifespans and higher health costs), Bush never paid for the prescription drug benefit. However, Clinton and Obama also failed to reform Medicare.)
In essence, current beneficiaries are draining resources paid for future beneficiaries. Either future generations will pay or the government will try to print worthless dollars igniting inflation, an indirect tax on the economy.
Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective
Andy Williams Show with the Osmonds, "Silver Bells", etc.
