Is the value of a university degree worth the cost? A major debate is underway across America over that very question.
That skills can be more important than degrees is a large part of it. Another is the high cost of degrees as student debt has reached an all-time high at $1.62 trillion. The U.S. Government, the nation’s largest employer, has begun moving away from reliance on degrees. The Office of Personnel Management announced in April that it will rely more on skills assessments for tens of thousands of IT jobs than on degrees. This continues an effort begun by former President Donald Trump in 2020 and continued by the Biden administration to focus federal hiring practices on skills and competencies instead of degrees. In Mississippi, the emphasis on skills and competencies also grows. The Ascent to 55% initiative promoted by the MEC and Accelerate Mississippi likens the value of such to community college and universities degrees. The initiative promotes achieving a 55% attainment rate of “postsecondary degrees, certifications, or credentials” by 2030. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, a champion of free community college tuition, preaches that skills and credentials can result in high paying careers without a university degree. Cost is a big issue in Mississippi too. “Mississippi has the biggest student debt problem in the country,” Wallet Hub reported last month. “The average amount owed by people with student loan debt equals about 58% of the median income in the state, the highest rate in the U.S. In addition, Mississippi has the third-highest default rate on student debt, which shows that people are having trouble paying off what they borrow.” All of this contrasts with historic data that continues to show those with university degrees have higher earnings than those without. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in 2022 that those with bachelor's degrees earned a median wage of $1,432 per week compared to $853 for those with only a high school diploma. And Mississippi’s bottom rankings in educational achievement come in part from a low ratio of adults with university degrees. The Wallet Hub report identified a key reason student borrowers struggle with their loans. “They are having a hard time finding jobs. Mississippi has the second-worst availability of jobs to students, and the fourth-lowest share of paid internships.” Compounding the problem – Mississippi has the lowest average wages while in-state tuition and fees at our public universities come in at 20th from the bottom. Proving value for their degrees is the great challenge for our universities going forward. “The excellency of knowledge is that wisdom giveth life to them that have it” – Ecclesiastes 7:11. Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.Sunday, August 11, 2024
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Trollfest '09
Trollfest '07 was such a success that Jackson Jambalaya will once again host Trollfest '09. Catch this great event which will leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Othor Cain and his band, The Black Power Structure headline the night while Sonjay Poontang returns for an encore performance. Former Frank Melton bodyguard Marcus Wright makes his premier appearance at Trollfest singing "I'm a Sweet Transvestite" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Kamikaze will sing his new hit, “How I sold out to da Man.” Robbie Bell again performs: “Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Bells” and “Any friend of Ed Peters is a friend of mine”. After the show, Ms. Bell will autograph copies of her mug shot photos. In a salute to “Dancing with the Stars”, Ms. Bell and Hinds County District Attorney Robert Smith will dance the Wango Tango.
Wrestling returns, except this time it will be a Battle Royal with Othor Cain, Ben Allen, Kim Wade, Haley Fisackerly, Alan Lange, and “Big Cat” Donna Ladd all in the ring at the same time. The Battle Royal will be in a steel cage, no time limit, no referee, and the losers must leave town. Marshand Crisler will be the honorary referee (as it gives him a title without actually having to do anything).
Meet KIM Waaaaaade at the Entergy Tent. For five pesos, Kim will sell you a chance to win a deed to a crack house on Ridgeway Street stuffed in the Howard Industries pinata. Don't worry if the pinata is beaten to shreds, as Mr. Wade has Jose, Emmanuel, and Carlos, all illegal immigrants, available as replacements for the it. Upon leaving the Entergy tent, fig leaves will be available in case Entergy literally takes everything you have as part of its Trollfest ticket price adjustment charge.
Donna Ladd of The Jackson Free Press will give several classes on learning how to write. Smearing, writing without factchecking, and reporting only one side of a story will be covered. A donation to pay their taxes will be accepted and she will be signing copies of their former federal tax liens. Ms. Ladd will give a dramatic reading of her two award-winning essays (They received The Jackson Free Press "Best Of" awards.) "Why everything is always about me" and "Why I cover murders better than anyone else in Jackson".
In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.
In order to help clean up the legal profession, Adam Kilgore of the Mississippi Bar will be giving away free, round-trip plane tickets to the North Pole where they keep their bar complaint forms (which are NOT available online). If you don't want to go to the North Pole, you can enjoy Brant Brantley's (of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance) free guided tours of the quicksand field over by High Street where all complaints against judges disappear. If for some reason you are unable to control yourself, never fear; Judge Houston Patton will operate his jail where no lawyers are needed or allowed as you just sit there for minutes... hours.... months...years until he decides he is tired of you sitting in his jail. Do not think Judge Patton is a bad judge however as he plans to serve free Mad Dog 20/20 to all inmates.
Trollfest '09 is a pet-friendly event as well. Feel free to bring your dog with you and do not worry if your pet gets hungry, as employees of the Jackson Zoo will be on hand to provide some of their animals as food when it gets to be feeding time for your little loved one.
Relax at the Fox News Tent. Since there are only three blonde reporters in Jackson (being blonde is a requirement for working at Fox News), Megan and Kathryn from WAPT and Wendy from WLBT will be on loan to Fox. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both and a torn-up Obama yard sign will entitle you to free drinks served by Megan, Wendy, and Kathryn. Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required. Just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '09 is for EVERYONE!!!
This is definitely a Beaver production.
Note: Security provided by INS.
Wrestling returns, except this time it will be a Battle Royal with Othor Cain, Ben Allen, Kim Wade, Haley Fisackerly, Alan Lange, and “Big Cat” Donna Ladd all in the ring at the same time. The Battle Royal will be in a steel cage, no time limit, no referee, and the losers must leave town. Marshand Crisler will be the honorary referee (as it gives him a title without actually having to do anything).
Meet KIM Waaaaaade at the Entergy Tent. For five pesos, Kim will sell you a chance to win a deed to a crack house on Ridgeway Street stuffed in the Howard Industries pinata. Don't worry if the pinata is beaten to shreds, as Mr. Wade has Jose, Emmanuel, and Carlos, all illegal immigrants, available as replacements for the it. Upon leaving the Entergy tent, fig leaves will be available in case Entergy literally takes everything you have as part of its Trollfest ticket price adjustment charge.
Donna Ladd of The Jackson Free Press will give several classes on learning how to write. Smearing, writing without factchecking, and reporting only one side of a story will be covered. A donation to pay their taxes will be accepted and she will be signing copies of their former federal tax liens. Ms. Ladd will give a dramatic reading of her two award-winning essays (They received The Jackson Free Press "Best Of" awards.) "Why everything is always about me" and "Why I cover murders better than anyone else in Jackson".
In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.
In order to help clean up the legal profession, Adam Kilgore of the Mississippi Bar will be giving away free, round-trip plane tickets to the North Pole where they keep their bar complaint forms (which are NOT available online). If you don't want to go to the North Pole, you can enjoy Brant Brantley's (of the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance) free guided tours of the quicksand field over by High Street where all complaints against judges disappear. If for some reason you are unable to control yourself, never fear; Judge Houston Patton will operate his jail where no lawyers are needed or allowed as you just sit there for minutes... hours.... months...years until he decides he is tired of you sitting in his jail. Do not think Judge Patton is a bad judge however as he plans to serve free Mad Dog 20/20 to all inmates.
Trollfest '09 is a pet-friendly event as well. Feel free to bring your dog with you and do not worry if your pet gets hungry, as employees of the Jackson Zoo will be on hand to provide some of their animals as food when it gets to be feeding time for your little loved one.
Relax at the Fox News Tent. Since there are only three blonde reporters in Jackson (being blonde is a requirement for working at Fox News), Megan and Kathryn from WAPT and Wendy from WLBT will be on loan to Fox. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both and a torn-up Obama yard sign will entitle you to free drinks served by Megan, Wendy, and Kathryn. Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required. Just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '09 is for EVERYONE!!!
This is definitely a Beaver production.
Note: Security provided by INS.
Trollfest '07
Jackson Jambalaya is the home of Trollfest '07. Catch this great event which promises to leave NE Jackson & Fondren in flames. Sonjay Poontang and his band headline the night with a special steel cage, no time limit "loser must leave town" bout between Alan Lange and "Big Cat"Donna Ladd following afterwards. Kamikaze will perform his new song F*** Bush, he's still a _____. Did I mention there was no referee? Dr. Heddy Matthias and Lori Gregory will face off in the undercard dueling with dangling participles and other um, devices. Robbie Bell will perform Her two latest songs: My Best Friends are in the Media and Mama's, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be George Bell. Sid Salter of The Clarion-Ledger will host "Pin the Tail on the Trial Lawyer", sponsored by State Farm.
There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.
If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!
This is definitely a Beaver production.
Note: Security provided by INS.
There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.
If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!
This is definitely a Beaver production.
Note: Security provided by INS.
20 comments:
Actually, and this is a fact, the US Government, through its DOL Regulatory Agency and the Justice Department, have, for years, been anxious to do away with an employer's right to require a diploma or degree.
The same is true of an employer's right to run criminal background checks and refusal to hire applicants who have hot hits on those checks.
Liberals hang their hats on the age old 'disparate impact' theory, claiming that degree requirements and criminal background checks tend to weed out blacks at a higher rate than whites.
And that has nothing to do with the value of a degree or the discipline/school in which it was received.
The goal of the liberal hold-overs in those federal agencies, the NAACP and the ACLU is to restrict employers' hiring practices to whoever comes into the lobby first, with, of course special preference for people of color. And, of course, schools that administer certain forms of discipline must be required to discipline the same (or more) number of whites as blacks.
Don Drane you are exactly right but you will never convince Bill Crawford of these facts.
I can assure you that this will be a nightmare for the college scam program as it reaches mainstream
This also factors into the PERS problem. If the state will pay new grads 35K when market rate is 50k not only does it make getting anyone worth having apply hard it also doesn't contribute much to the system.
Most people that tell you not to get a college degree have a college degree. They like being your boss.
I know some state workers who are very bright and work very hard. I know other state workers who are lazy and would be overpaid with a 50% pay cut. Yet they whine about how hard they work. We need more accountability to cut the workers who are lazy and increase the salaries of those who truly contribute.
Let private schools and private employers do what they want. But I suspect if public universities would simply do away with economically unfeasible degree programs across the board, that would make a big difference in Mississippi. Also worth more than a mention is that student loans should be predicated on courses of study likely to not only pay off the loan, but sustain the recipient for an employment career. In other words, no public money for mostly Leftist studies that nobody would willingly pay you to do.
I'm a graduate of a Mississippi community college and university and was fortunate to not take loans out. My job would probably pay more elsewhere but I've stayed in the state and generally don't regret the decision (most days).
That being said I know of students who entered college, borrowed money just because it was available, then either dropped out by choice or were forced to for family or personal reasons. Those are the students who generally have difficulty paying back loans, not those who graduate with a degree. Of course, there are also those students who get degrees in areas where there is a true lack of available jobs or find themselves in careers like teaching or social work that pay very little yet they owe lots of money.
The dumbing down of America continues. Equity not excellence.
I’m a recent federal retiree and watched in dismay as my agency adopted an attitude of “anybody can do any job”. In practice this was more like “anybody can be paid for any job” and it worked for a while until the ratio of competent workers to incompetent ones fell too low for the competent ones to pick up all the slack.
You're right, 12:18. But the gaggle of geese who make up our state legislature and who are much smarter than commoners like you and me, have started hanging their hat on "But the retirement is attractive".
Show me a 22-year-old college graduate who is looking at retirement 45 years in the future who is willing to accept a job that's 30% to 45% lower than market, betting on the come of a speculative and highly volatile retirement almost half a century down the road.
Regardless of Young Shad's advertisements, he will not attract and retain anybody at state salary unless they didn't learn basic math tables.
If you can’t pay cash for it, didn’t get a scholarship, or don’t have benevolent benefactors (ie parents or grandparents paying for it), then no, it’s probably not worth it unless you’ve got a slam dunk plan to justify taking debt.
The government spent millions on public information campaigns and student grants with the goal of enrolling as many students as possible in colleges and universities. Over time, the trade industry began to suffer. Now the government admits that not everyone is college material and wants to walk back what it pushed for, and go in another direction. A similar thing has happened in the auto industry. The government EPA forces automakers to make specific changes in how they build vehicles, and when that results in the vehicle being less reliable, that same government forces the automaker to issue a recall. The government swings a stick, but never pays the tab.
@ 8:29 - That's what happens when people vote Left and when you have popular elections for US senators instead of having them appointed by the state legislatures.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-colleges-cutting-majors-slashing-040120430.html
Modern day US education, another leftist Democrat lives destroying scam.
What percentage of Democrats that can afford private school tuition instead send their kids to the public schools they destroy? Public school advocate Matt Damon sure didn’t, did he?
Plenty of working families that were unable to afford college on the hook now for the Biden Harris vote buying student loan forgivingness add it to the debt scheme.
Are these so-called educators and opinion writers too stupid to understand the laws of nature i.e. supply and demand, or just corrupt enough to believe 6 figure student loans are ok for degrees that don’t offer adequate returns on said 6 figure college experience?
Regardless, the HVAC, electricians, plumbers, appliance repair folk making multiple 6 figure annual incomes sure are thankful for the supply demand imbalance.
An education has more value than the money you make later.
That not only includes not embarrassing yourself publicly with declarations that are ridiculous but helping you make better choices in daily living so as to avoid being duped by con men.
It not only opens doors socially, but also opens windows to the world.
In a college or university you meet others from different places and realize not all people or places are just like the place you grew up and "different" is not necessarily bad.
It helps wake excited to do your work, instead of having to work just to stay alive .
It helps you lead and not depend on others for your future.
It helps you know the difference between the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
And, it keeps you from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations.
I say this having more than a few family members and friends who thought they could just run the family farm or business just by having worked for dad or they sell the family business and think they could live off their " inheritance" forever and maintain the same lifestyle. Indeed, two lost Wallstreet listed corporations through hostile takeovers and another lost 10's of millions in less than a decade in 1978 when a million was still "rich". Now you need more than a million to maintain a middle class lifestyle in retirement with zero debt.
And, IF the HVAC, electricians, plumbers and appliance repair folk are making 6 figures, they could be making 7 if they ran the business and had more employees working for them and what will happen when they get too old or too sick to work. They will have need the good fortune of wise investments to grow their savings or else their kids who worked for themselves only now have to take care of two families, not just one.
The first sentence in a finance text book is " If you have others manage your money for you, they are managing it to make money for themselves". And, that last sentence is one of the biggest hints about why you feel you have lost ground economically in this country.
The Universities will not do away with, or scale back the degrees with a low Return on Investment(IE: the moneys you spent on the degree vs the salary you make) until and unless the government stops the money train of the student loan. Make the loans dis-chargeable in bankruptcy. If those that gave out the loans thought they would not be paid back, they wouldn't make the loan. Stop making GOVERNMENT Backed Student loans. Ole Miss, State, Southern and all the other schools out there would be a lot less expensive if they didn't have a flood of government backed loans where every Tom Dick or Harry is competing for the limited slots at the universities. Go back to when the university was there to provide an education, not an experience. At a recent incoming freshman event, the University Spokesperson was bragging about all the "FREE" stuff that the students could do while at the University. As a Dad that was paying for all this FREE stuff I took exception to that comment and told my kid that they were there to get an education, get out and get a job. That free stuff is expensive and made getting a degree even more costly.
If people in Mississippi voted 'Left', we would not have republican US senators, notwithstanding the fact that republican governors have appointed the last two.
You wanta talk about useless degrees, look at the thousands of people who graduate from law school and either fail the bar or never intend to take it. All that degree is good for is propping up an argument on Facebook.
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