[Vision2020] Lets' Be Ignorant

[Art Deco]

[image: Campaign Stops - Strong Opinions on the 2012
Election]<http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/>
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January 10, 2012, 12:13 amRick Santorum’s Anti-College RantBy CHARLES M.
BLOW <http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/author/charles-m-blow/>

Hey, I get it: Republicans have to reject and condemn virtually everything
President Obama proposes, no matter how noble, to satisfy their base. This
is our political predicament.

Rick Santorum, however, has followed that logic out the window. In New
Hampshire last week Santorum accused President Obama of “elitist
snobbery<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c65WNw84HRY>”
and “hubris<http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2012/01/07/santorum-obama-s-a-snob.html>”
for suggesting that “under my administration, every child should go to
college.”

Who are you? Who are you to say that every child in America go … I mean the
hubris of this president to think that he knows what’s best for you. I …
you know there is … I have seven kids. Maybe they’ll all go to college.
But, if one of my kids wants to go and be an auto mechanic, good for him.
That’s a good-paying job – using your hands and using your mind. This is
the kind of, the kind of snobbery that we see from those who think they
know how to run our lives. Rise up America. Defend your own freedoms.

First, the facts: I can’t find a single instance where the president has
actually said that. The president has consistently framed the
discussion<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-falls-in-global-ranking-of-young-adults-who-finish-college/2011/08/22/gIQAAsU3OK_story.html>as
one of making high school graduates both college- and career-ready.
And
even when speaking about learning *after* high school, he has often
included both higher education and vocational training.

For instance, during a joint session of Congress in February 2009, the
president said:

It will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has
access to a complete and competitive education – from the day they are born
to the day they begin a career.

He continued:

And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more
of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a
four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship.

A question, Rick: How does a person become an auto mechanic without either
vocational training or an apprenticeship? Does he just spring forth from
the womb knowing how to drop the transmission on a Dodge Durango? I didn’t
think so. Moving right along …

The president has called for the reauthorization
of<http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-calls-new-steps-prepare-america-s-children-success-college-and-care>the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act and challenged states to
“develop standards and assessments that will help America’s children rise
to the challenge of graduating from high school prepared for college and
the workplace.”

The president has also unveiled
plans<http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=106636657&m=106658845>to
help more students graduate from community college, a main tenet of
his
education agenda, saying,

We know that in the coming years, jobs requiring at least an associate
degree are projected to grow twice as fast as jobs requiring no college
experience. We will not fill those jobs or even keep those jobs here in
America without the training offered by community colleges.

Now that we’ve established some facts, let’s turn to the larger question:
Is it a bad thing to want more students to be prepared for college, to have
access to college and to in fact attend college? Of course not.

As The Washington Post pointed out
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-falls-in-global-ranking-of-young-adults-who-finish-college/2011/08/22/gIQAAsU3OK_story.html>in
September, an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development report
released that month found that

America’s global rank in college completion among young adults is slipping,
according to a report released Tuesday, signaling that the higher education
ambitions of other nations are progressing at a swifter pace.

The Post continued:

Instead of gaining ground, the United States has fallen from 12th to 16th
in the share of adults age 25 to 34 holding degrees, according to the
report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It
trails global leaders South Korea, Canada and Japan and is mired in the
middle of the pack among developed nations.

The stagnant U.S. performance on this key international benchmark reflects
at least two trends: the rapid expansion of college attendance in Asia and
Europe, and the continuing emphasis on four-year degrees in the United
States while other nations focus far more on one- and two-year professional
credentials.

Sounds to me like the president’s plan is designed to address this. But
then again, I’m applying regular logic, not “I-hate-Obama,
stick-my-fingers-in-my-ears, say ‘la-la-la-la-la’ ” logic.

An even more disturbing finding in the O.E.C.D report is how poorly
Americans perform in the job market without a college degree. Among
Americans aged 18 to 64 whose highest level of education is “upper
secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary” — the equivalent of high school
and perhaps some vocational or community college training — the percentage
of the employed is among the lowest of all O.E.C.D. countries. We rank 30th
out of 34 countries, just above Greece, Hungary, Poland and Turkey.

Oh, the hubris and elitist snobbery of wanting a more educated, more highly
employed work force.


-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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