Here’s an interesting article by Phyllis Schlafly, referencing the latest issue of US News & World Report that lists the best  careers for young people.  Among them?  Jobs that require no college diploma. 

Schlafly eludes to something that I’ve said before:  The skyrocketing price of a college education for our children isn’t paying off, anymore.   

While the price of a college education has skyrocketed far faster than inflation, many careers for which colleges prepare their graduates are disappearing. U.S. News’ Best Careers guide concludes that “college grads might want to consider blue-collar careers” because bachelor’s degree holders “are having trouble finding jobs that require college-graduate skills.”

Incredibly, U.S. News is telling college graduates to look for jobs that do not require a college diploma. Among the 31 best opportunities for 2008 are the careers of firefighter, hairstylist, cosmetologist, locksmith, and security system technician.

Yet, politicians and those government employees we call professors and teachers are continuously telling us how important a college education is to our children’s futures. 

I find it odd that an institution that places so much stake in the future is ignoring the reality of where America’s current job market is headed.  Could it be that the greater concern is keeping their heavily-funded government jobs?  If not, it’s quite concerning that the most educated among us can’t see these trends and come to the conclusion – albeit begrudgingly – that not every child was meant for college, and that the climbing price of a college education is not worth the increasingly common scenario of graduating with no chance of a job in their fields of study.   

Society has been telling high school students that college is the ticket to get a life, and politicians are pandering to parents’ desire for their children to be better educated and so have a higher standard of living. Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., wants the taxpayers to guarantee every kid a college education, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney says more education is the means for Americans to compete in a global economy.

But it doesn’t make sense for parents to mortgage their homes, or for students to saddle themselves with long-term debt, in order to pay overpriced college tuition to prepare for jobs that no longer exist. Tuition at public universities has risen an unprecedented 51 percent over the past five years.

I have often stated that I don’t want my children to go to college.  I’ve received angry emails, nasty looks from my friends and family, and have even been called “ignorant” for my views. 

The reality is that as a hiring professional, I keep a close eye on the job market, and future economic trends.  I have seen an increasing demand for skilled laborers and entrepreneurs.  I have also taken note of the ever-growing reality of off-shoring jobs in the engineering, marketing, and other professional fields, as Shlafly talks about in her article. 

Foreign engineers, for example, who are as equally bright as Americans, are willing to work for much less than an American college graduate who is strapped with financial debt, and who has been told their whole lives that the ticket to the good life is a college education.  Their hopes are high.  Maybe too high, it would seem. 

I cannot in good conscience encourage my children to be strapped with financial debt after college graduation, or deplete my own nest egg, when the very real possibility exists that it could all be for nought.  I also cannot ignore the harsh reality that although a college education brings certain benefits to the development of a young adult’s mind, the real  purpose of that education is to prepare them for their adult life.  How can we adequately prepare them if we are blowing smoke up their rears with unrealistic visions of job prospects that no longer exist? 

On the bright side, non-profit and government jobs are in high demand, as well.  That’s great, until the proverbial economic wheel stops turning and there’s no funding left to pay for these non-producing, leeching “industries”. 

Maybe it’s time for the education establishment and politicians to start concerning themselves about the real future of our children and America as a whole, rather than simply being concerned with their own.  While I don’t see that happening anytime soon, it appears as though they may not be able to hide their self-serving agendas much longer. 

It’ll be fun to watch them try.

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