Notes from the political hustings: Rick Santorum is "spot on" when it comes to dropout factories but he didn't go far enough...

Finally someone has the fortitude to state what many are thinking but aren't saying because doing so would be "politically incorrect."

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, Rick Santorum accused President Obama of "snobbery" for promoting the notion that every American should have at least some higher education.

While campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire, Santorum said:

We are leaving so many children behind.  They're not ready to go to [college.]  They don't want to go to college.  They don't need to go to college.  I was so outraged that the President of the United States [said] every student should go to college.

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.

The Motley Monk thinks Santorum is absolutely correct.  "College" never has been nor should it be "for the masses."  Call The Motley Monk a "snob" but the simple fact is that undergraduate studies have been and should be for the express purpose of providing capable young adults the mental formation needed if they are to further the pursuit of truth and to expand the body of knowledge in the next generation, not to be trained for well-paying jobs.

As The Motley Monk has noted in previous posts, what Santorum is rightly railing against is the pervasive utilitarian understanding that higher education is a "means to an end" (jobs) rather than an "end in itself" (a mental formation).  The WSJ article even succumbed to this understanding when it noted that some higher education is now becoming necessary for many manufacturing jobs that once would not have required it.  Properly speaking, that's "technical training" not "mental formation."

What Rick Santorum didn't state, but The Motley Monk will state, is that this expansion of access to higher education is predicated upon Congress having expanded the number of federal loans to "qualifying" students.  In this instance, that adjective denotes income level not academic achievement.

And where is this expansion of access to higher education headed?

The Washington Post reports has reported a study of collegiate “dropout factories” in the DC area, ranking the colleges with the lowest completion rates, based upon a 6-year period of time to earn a bachelor's degree.  The "Top 10" dropout factories:

1. University of Phoenix, Northern Virginia Campus. Graduation rate: 6%.
2. University of Maryland, University College. Graduation rate: 6%.
3. University of Phoenix, Maryland Campus. Graduation rate: 7%.
4. University of the District of Columbia. Graduation rate: 12%.
5. Strayer University, District of Columbia. Graduation rate: 15%.
6. Baltimore International College. Graduation rate: 15%.
7. Coppin State University. Graduation rate: 16%.
8. Saint Paul’s College. Graduation rate: 18%.
9. Sojourner-Douglass College. Graduation rate: 22%.
10. Southern Virginia University. Graduation rate: 25%.

If 80%+ of those admitted to institutions like these are not academically qualified for admission, why were they admitted in the first place?

One answer is that several of the "Top 10" dropout factories are for-profit institutions.  They understand the notion of "cash flow" and as long as the cash is flowing, what should they or their shareholders care about admission standards and/or graduation rates?

But, that's to miss the point and the real answer to the question.

Insofar as The Motley Monk is concerned, these findings validate what Ward Connerly has been arguing for decades, namely, that affirmative action is a form of racism and that young people do not need preferential treatment in college enrollment to be successful.  Yet, to criticize a college which functions as a "Dropout Factory" and boasts a large Pell student population or to call into question the expansion of Pell grants is to open the door to accusations of being "insensitive," "ignorant," and "racist."

Talk about a pile of bovine excrement!


Let the discussion begin...



To read the WSJ article, click on the following link:
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/01/07/santorum-all-students-shouldnt-be-pushed-to-go-to-college/

To read the Washington Post article, click on the following link:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/some-local-colleges-have-few-grads/2012/01/03/gIQAH1ASkP_story_1.html