WARNING: Really Long and Lengthy Article
Programs Listed in Paragraph 9
What’s the Point of Education?
College today seems like an almost mandatory part of life or something that goes as much with being an adult as having a full-time job, paying your bills on time and having enough money left over so you can go out with friends and don’t end up homeless over missing one or two paychecks.
College wasn’t always included in the definition of adulthood. In the mid 90s, college was reserved for the middle class and wealthy. High performing minorities and other inner city youth were often given a “full ride” scholarship to become a student at a college. This meant a low income college attendees had their membership dues paid for by the college, out of the membership dues paid for by all other attendees. This meant the scholarship process was selective, not only on academic performance but on personality, diet & exercise habits and socialization skills. The upper middle class did not feel it was fair for low income inner city youth to go into debt with an expensive personal loan over membership dues at an academic institution. The middle class wanted inner city and working class youth to feel included in American culture and to teach at least a handful of people how to self govern their own communities. In addition to the membership dues or tuition, there were other expenses associated with college attendance. These expenses included fashionable, well fitted, comfortable clothing, transportation charges, cost of books and instruments for extracurricular activities as well as membership dues for sororities and fraternities. The membership dues for sororities, fraternities, sports and other activities were separate and in addition to the tuition paid to the academic institution. Some of the professors also required excessive books and references for their courses which students had to pay for out of pocket.
College was traditionally a place to make friends and to form relationships outside of the home. It provided students a separate home away from their parents who were often times intrusive into their adult children’s lives. It also provided a place to make business contacts or find employers so young adults would have a little more economic freedom than that offered by their economically stifling parents who often used finances as a form of economic imprisonment. College also provided a place for students to explore sexuality, religious beliefs and spirituality among their peers in an open and non-judgmental environment.
College libraries along with the main lecture hall were often the center of college because they usually provided a vast archive of collections on nearly every topic and the main lecture hall was shared between all the professors. The goal was to have the student explore as many topics as possible in the main lecture hall during their first two weeks and then move on to study groups for their areas of interest which were usually done in classrooms. Library books could not be copied or taken off campus and students often prepared for the exam through notes from lectures given by the professor. Each classroom had a set of books that lasted around 5 years on average that students were free to take to their desk in the classroom but not to the dorm or library. Students were free to purchase a copy of the classroom books but were discouraged from doing so. The library also allowed certain sets of books to be kept inside a fraternity or sorority house as long as access to the books was not restricted to other students attending the college. A student interested in the book would be informed that those specific books were kept in a fraternity or sorority house and it was up to the student to introduce themselves and request access to the books. The library book would then lent out of the fraternity or sorority house or the student wishing to access them would have to be allowed to visit with the house during a one month evaluation period to see if the student was a good fit for the house and for the student to decide if they wanted to be part of the house.
The History of Academia
Academia can be traced back to at least 400 B.C. with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle teaching at the Academy of Athens and continued through to the founding of Oxford University in 1096 and Cambridge University in 1209; both in England, UK. Moving forward through time, Leonardo da Vinci, Nostradamus and El Greco continued to contribute to Academia in the 16th century. While these three studied and taught different subjects, they engaged in creating and explaining objects within their areas of study. In America the first Universities in the USA were established in the 17th Century. These were Harvard in 1636 and William & Mary in 1693. The 18th Century established Yale in 1701, University of Pennsylvania in 1740, Princeton in 1746, Columbia in 1754, Brown in 1764, Rutgers in 1766 and Dartmouth in 1769. These were the 9 colonial colleges established before the Declaration of Independence was signed. Rutgers and William & Mary are both Public Research Institutions still operational in 2020. They are the oldest public research Universities in the USA. The rest of the colleges are all Ivy League and Self Funded Private Institutions. The Last Ivy League, Cornell University, was established in Ithaca, NY in 1865.
From the East Coast colleges and universities expanded westward, most likely to Ohio and down to Alabama and Mississippi before expanding along the Oregon Trail and Santa Fe Trail. The first colleges in California were established in the 1850s about 17 years after the last Catholic Mission ended. The Catholic Missions in California lasted from 1769 to 1833 and there were 21 Catholic Campaigns in California during the 18th and 19th century. The ultimate goal of the Catholic Church was to convert Native Americans to Catholicism possibly so that the Native Americans could engage in campaigns with the newly established United States of America on behalf of the Catholic Church. Christian Missionaries from the East Coast, who are today known as WASPs, traveled on the Oregon Trail in an attempt to convert Native Americans to their religion as well. Colleges provided a way to bring literacy to the masses and steer society away from blind superstition.
The first Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) were also established in the late 19th Century after the Catholic Missions in California came to an end. They include Cheyney University of Pennsylvania established in 1837, Lincoln University in 1854 and Wilberforce University in 1856. These Black Colleges provided black communities an opportunity to experience Academia in their own communities without feeling like they were competing with white settlers. These colleges grew to a total of 121 during the 1930s. Today there are 101 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the numbers are seen as having declined due to the civil rights movement in the 1960s which ended with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlaws discrimination, the colleges and universities were no longer able to enroll black students exclusively.
The history of Academia is important because it gives an overview of how Academia has shaped society and describes why Academia and education have traditionally been important in the United States. It’s also important to acknowledge that the Church of England was established in 1534 in defiance of the Catholic Church, that Colonial America was established shortly thereafter in the 1600’s due to settlers seeking religious freedom and that colleges and universities in California began to flourish shortly after the Catholic Missions came to an end in the 1850s. The Salem Witch Trials also occurred within this time period of Early American Academia. The Salem Witch Trials lasted from 1692 to 1693, and while those on trial were accused of witch craft and being possessed by the devil long before the bill of rights established freedom of religion; the journals of the accused state they were persecuted by religious zealots because the men allowed their women to study politics, business, literature and math which the religious oppressors viewed as a threat to the tithe collections that that they imposed on the people.
College as an Academic Industry
This is probably what you are looking for if you came here due to the Article Title.
The Federal Assistance
History
There aren’t many Federal Assistance programs for Academia and that is expected considering the history of Academia. In the mid 90s, the Federal Government attempted to integrate Academia into Federal Government programs like food stamps, WIC and Section 8. The Federal Government was mostly interested in integrating Academia’s career planning and business contact portion into Federal Government programs. However it didn’t go to well for the Federal Government because Academia was highly selective of its candidates and most people were in college to waste time for 4 to 8 years. In contrast, the people the Federal Government was most interested in helping had an urgent need to earn income right away. The colleges suggested these individuals needing assistance apply for entry level jobs and apply to college later in life. The Federal Government suggested more scholarships and then went with expanding personal loan lending. These personal loans were initially serviced by Sallie Mae which started a subsidiary Navient in 2014. Student Loan Planner has an article on the differences between Sallie Mae and Navient. CNN’s archives has an excellent article about issues that occurred between 1993 and 1998 regarding student loans. Cappex also has a good article about the history of discharging student loans in a bankruptcy and the US Department of Education has a 30 page PDF that addressing student loan interest. The PDF by the Department of Education appears to be written in 1998, addresses the 1998/99 school year and concludes loan interest is too high.
Accessibility to Academia was addressed between the 1970s and 1990s with the last major revisions to Federal Assistance for Academia made in the late 1990s. It is important to examine these documents in full because many of these student loans have defaulted and legislation regarding student loan lending is being examined for a major revision. Many people feel that expansion of student loans is connected to the G.I. Bill due to legislation being enacted at the end of the Vietnam war. History.com has a good article on the history of the G.I. Bill and it addresses other issues veterans face outside of education that are covered by the G.I. Bill.
Opportunities
Regarding educational opportunities available to U.S. Citizens in the United States, minors and young adults are allowed to attend public schools free of charge almost anywhere in the USA. This covers schooling from the age of 3 to 17 (head start, preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, jr. high school and high school). During this time period, students should receive enough education and physical exercise to be responsible, independent adults and begin entry level jobs at the age of 18 or before. Most states restrict employment of minors to part time work between the ages of 16 and 17 and only summer work at the age of 15. However, states like South Dakota allow minors as young as 14 to work part-time year round which does not seem like a bad policy.
For Adults, the Federal Government offers college students Pell Grants and there is the apprenticeship.gov program which is great for career planning and will probably be the main career planning program to be used in conjunction with American Job Centers. Two other programs available include WIOA/OJT and Los Angeles GROW both of which will probably be funded and managed under apprenticeship.gov. The reason to manage all job training and placement programs under apprenticeship.gov is because it would provide centralized accounting and reporting to the Congressional Budget Office and the program can feasibly integrate with accounting and reporting at Department of Labor’s BLS. Banks can then use BLS data to decide which college major’s are feasible to fund for career advancement personal loans. The potential students would have to provide a career plan similar to how a business provides a business plan when they need funding to start or expand a business. Dislocated workers, those needing to collect unemployment, those new to the labor market and those switching careers would also have a centralized place to seek employment and obtain training. This policy separates the need for gainful employment from Academia which has traditionally been a collection of membership based clubs for those exceeding the requirements of public education.
Introduction to the Workforce
The Federal Government relates college to employment because gainful employment is the entire point of going to college from the Federal Government’s point of view. This is because the Federal Government can collect taxes from those that are gainfully employed instead of emptying out the United States Treasury to provide humanitarian aid to its own citizens (i.e. welfare). Gainful employment, self sufficiency and adult independent living is the reason the Federal Government backed student loan expansion for college accessibility between the 1970s and 1990s.
In this context, 20 to 40 year old adults have an incentive to earn income beyond the point where they get a full tax refund at the end of each year and start to consider where tax money is spent and how much of it to use to fund things like college, universities, career training, job certification, public schools and community colleges. The 20 to 40 age group will always be the primary working group, workforce and education policies should therefore focus on that age group and design policies that work for them so they have incentives to earn enough money to be in the tax payer group. Policies should also aim to have young adults in their final years of high school realize that they are about to enter the workforce and have them understand how to vote for proper allocation of their tax money through Congress.
Mid 30s, policies should be geared towards young adults winding down from aggressive career advancement and constant training . This gives other people, usually younger, a chance to work and earn money. Adults normally have to work until 65 (possibly 70) to save for about 30 years of retirement. Being mid 30 is should not be a cue to quit all work endeavors but young adults should have enough money by their mid 30s to take 6 months off of work, work at an entry level job for a while or to return to college for a career change without it suffering major financial hardship. High School students should enter the workforce with these concepts in mind.
Regarding age discrimination, the 20 to 40 age group has the most energy and are the best at socializing and discussing new ideas which in turn makes them the best age group for solving difficult problems. Because of this, they will always be the primary focus group for employers. Adults also reach their physical and mental peaks during that age range with both the body and brain completing growth and maturation around age 25. The optimal age to have children is between 28 and 35 when the body and mind are at their healthiest. Having children during this age range of 28 to 35 breeds the healthiest most intelligent children and also shortens the human breeding period so the world does not become to overcrowded or overpopulated. The government has a vested interest in having a healthy birth rate that is neither too fast nor too slow and in US Citizens producing the healthiest offspring possible. In order for people to start families at the optimal age, they need an influx of cash in their twenties so they can save for a home and have stable housing for their offspring where they face no evictions or shortage of cash while they are raising a child. In addition to home ownership and cash security, young adults wishing to start families will need a few years of steady income after having the children to get them through the child’s developmental lifespan and to ease into jobs where they can save for at least a modest retirement. If career training leads to a job where the mortgage is at least halfway paid off when the first child arrives, it is likely a retiree will only need money for food, utilities, transportation and medical care which savings should be able to cover.
Continuing with age discrimination and policies that focus on the 20 to 40 age group, humans lose both physical strength and ability to process and retain information as they age. Muscle fatigue, dementia, macular degeneration and increased risk for high cholesterol, high blood pressure stroke and heart attack are the realities of aging. Employers are interested in hiring the highest performers first for the most difficult jobs and those jobs tend to come with a higher salary. Salary should always be based on performance and not on seniority, mandatory inclusion or compliance with ADA and EEOE. Those covered under ADA or EEOE should be able to prove that they can complete the job at the same or better level of performance than employment candidates not covered by ADA or EEOE. Government has a vested interest in employers doing well and not being overburdened so they can produce healthy profits and pay healthy taxes on those profits. Government also has a vested interest in young adults being independent and self sufficient as soon as possible because this reduces the need to distribute monies from the US Treasury to people who are able to produce revenues independently. As a society, we collect taxes to assist people who are not able to perform well enough to meet all their needs and these taxes are distributed through various programs that will need to be shut down if there are not enough people paying taxes.
The goal for those over 40 would be that between 38 and 45, those still in the workforce can transition to consulting or part time work and phase out into retirement by the time they are 60. After that, they should be able to work if they want and are able to perform based on the job requirements but should not be required to work or be dependent on work for basic necessities like food, water, shelter, utilities and doctors appointments. While human lifespan has increased from an average of 60 in the mid 90s to almost 100 in 2020; seniors still require a lot of rest, relaxation and medical care. This makes it difficult for employers to make reasonable accommodations for them even if they are willing to create a small percentage of jobs that are prioritized to seniors and labeled as “senior friendly”. In these jobs, the seniors still need to perform to a certain minimum level in order for the accommodation to be considered reasonable by both the employer and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division or the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In discussing workforce policies based on age, its important to respectfully acknowledge that many of the current generations of seniors did horrible with their finances because a senior citizen should ideally have their house paid off and have around $500,000 in savings as a minimum before retiring at age 65. The 20 to 40 age group needs to think about senior citizens current standard of living, our desired standard of living during retirement, and the goal for the next generation of seniors after us. We would then have to implement some of the policies we desire with the current generation of seniors to see if those policies would actually work, to determine if they are sustainable long term, and to examine different options in implementing the most humane and cost effective care for seniors possible given current resources. This planing for the entire human life is a basic part of college education.
Education as a Business
Up until the 1970s college attendance remained a goal reserved for the wealthy or affluent in all communities. Students at HBCUs were often the children of black business owners, black property owners, black diplomats and black ambassadors. Black Ministers were also considered affluent during this time period and their children were sometimes allowed to go to university or college rather than required to attend seminary school. At HBCUs, college was not a place for poor people as recent as the 1970s. At all colleges, while full ride scholarships were expanded to the general public during the 1970s rather than being invite only and requiring references, they usually had a lengthy and cumbersome application process with minimal advertising. Prior to full ride scholarships expanding, references needed to be obtained that weren’t from the alumni or faculty that nominated you for membership into their academic institution. After the expansion, you would often need a reference from an alumni or faculty if you were filling out a general public application and those were difficult to get.
To get around these obstacles, the Federal Government focused on personal student loans but during the 1990s enacted legislation to not make them dischargeable in a bankruptcy. From their point of view, this would allow to Federal Government to get people off of welfare without incurring any risk in financing their college education.
An overview of student loan financing can be found on LendKey’s Blog and Lumina Foundation has a web based eBook regarding student loans. There is also an archive with summaries of student loan legislation from 1944 to 1995 by the US Department of Education. It is an 11 page essay and a good read on what lead to the current state of colleges and universities being used to generate revenues instead of being used to educate students.
These policies of education as a source of revenue led to schools like ITT Tech and Corinthian College, both of which have been shut down, taking advantage of people seeking a formal education. The student loan default rate has shown that student loan financing is best left to banks and that bankers should have current job market data in order to make proper risk assessments on those wishing to attend college for career advancement. Both the college and the student should provide a career plan to the bank and all three should be willing to accept some of the risk. In cases where the student is unable to obtain employment due to unforeseen circumstances regarding the job market, the loans should be dischargeable or the student should be allowed to study in another field at the same college for no additional charge as long as the pay rate is similar between the two fields.
The Future of College Financing
The internet has largely replaced the need for lecture halls and co-working spaces, online tutorials, forums and free Massive Open and Online College Courses (MOOCC) have done away with the need to attend college for supplementary information needed to excel at work or for personal enrichment. There are also inexpensive gyms that cost as little as $10 a month and free meetings for group hiking in forests or swimming at lakes and oceans which have done away with the need to attend college for physical fitness programs.
Community colleges are also offering inexpensive bachelor degrees and an associate degree can be obtained for as little as $5,000. Colleges in California even offer associate degrees completely free of charge for low income individuals since many California community colleges offer the first two years of college at no cost to residents and that is how long it takes to obtain an associate degree.
With these low costs an ready availability of a college education, campuses are increasingly wonder what the costs of college should be at physical campuses in order to keep their doors open and what their role in society should be.
Knowledge for certain professions still require physical attendance for example, doctors and dentists can benefit from mock surgeries or dental surgery done in class. Criminal justice majors would benefit from firearms training, defensive driving, offensive driving and practice arrests of high risks suspects done in a classroom setting, a campus shooting range or campus field. Attorneys can benefit from mock trials using case law or mock congressional meetings in a university setting. Computer science majors can benefit by being given access to mainframes and supercomputers at a university rather than being given a laptop to learn how to do the 5 minute install of a WordPress site over the course of a whole semester. Athletes who wish to play group sports can also benefit from collegiate teams as it gives them a larger pool of competitors to measure themselves against.
For these professions it makes sense to provide shared equipment for training and to charge a fee for access to that equipment.
In the case of computer science, often times, the colleges give students a $500 laptop for more than double the cost on a high interest loan bundled into tuition fees. Access to a mainframe or supercomputer and having students pay for a laptop out of pocket would benefit society more in the long run and a similar scenario would probably be beneficial for medical professionals, law enforcement, attorneys, IT professionals and professional athletes. It would definitely make sense to have accountants training to work on large projects and agricultural professionals working and training inside a college environment during the first few years of their professions as well.
In all these scenarios, a personal loan from a traditional bank would work best for everybody because it would teach professional responsibility and financial accountability early in a career. It would also allow the Federal Government to focus more on finding the right candidates for the right professions and monitor ADA or EEOE complaints rather than focusing on banking and giving away loans to people who have no intention of paying them back. The bankers would ensure that a job market exists through BLS reports and their confidential business plans for different fields of study. Colleges would reduce the number of enrollments for students attending college strictly for career advancement in a field that doesn’t have any job openings and this would reduce their risk at the banks while increasing their credibility. When one of the college graduates has problems paying their loans, the college would be able to demonstrate due diligence during enrollment. Those attending for personal enrichment would sign a waiver that states employment is not a condition of loan repayment and the bank would treat this as a personal loan someone makes to take a vacation or start a new hobby. This type of comprehensive college financing policy is possible thanks to new programs like apprenticeship.gov and America’s Job Center that are combining existing programs such as WIOA/OJT into a workforce solution policy administered through the Department of Labor.
Accreditation and Certification
Currently, there are over 7,000 colleges and universities in the United States which averages out to 140 colleges per state. As a start, shutting down every college that is not regionally accredited would reduce the number of colleges to a more reasonable, but still excessive number of 3,597 which averages out to 72 per state.
There are 6 Regional Accreditation Agencies which are considered the most prestigious and have the highest standards. In addition to these, the Council for Higher Education Certification (CHEA) states there are 80 accrediting organizations in the USA certifying 8,200 institutions and 44,000 programs. In contrast, CHEA lists 550 accrediting organizations across 170 countries which averages out to 3 accrediting agencies per country.
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Some of the accrediting agencies make sense for example in addition to the 6 regional accrediting agencies it makes sense for colleges to have their programs accredited by the American Bar Association, American Psychological Association, American Board of Medical Specialties, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs, Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. Each college should align its programs with the requirements of regional accreditation agencies as well as of the requirements for the program specific accreditation agency and make sure each program that is career oriented lines up with one NAICS code issued by the Office of Management and Budget.
The University of Phoenix has a good list of what a University’s accreditation page should look like. This simplifies the college selection process because a potential student would have to only ensure that the college they are interested in is regionally accredited and that their program is accredited by the appropriate professional organization. This in turn simplifies risk assessments for banks providing student loan financing and reduces the likelihood of default or bankruptcy due to non-employment.
The ACBSP mentions that their certification leads to better articulation agreements and that is the ultimate goal of this assessment; for students to understand the financial implications of going to college, for colleges to make clear the available job market and describe how their programs fit into the job market, and for banks to be able to make a practical risk assessment prior to financing loans.
The regional and professional accreditation agencies should work with BLS, OMB and standards bodies such as ISO, ANSI, NIST, UL and W3C to ensure their programs meet a baseline requirement for each industry. There should be no grading curve and graduates averaging a 3.0 or above should be able to earn at least the median salary for their profession. Those with lower grades will have transparency about why they have lower pay compared to their peers as entry level pay can be tied to GPAs upon graduation.
This simplified process will allow American Universities and College to have more consistent curriculum across the nation and in turn be able to compete better globally. The University of Louisville has an article regarding regional and national accreditation which makes it clear that national accreditation should not be desirable for any university or college although it does make sense that professional organizations certifying or accrediting programs within a university for a specific field would be nationwide organizations.
Ideally, every regionally accredited university or college should have a direct link to their accrediting agency showing that their status is active at time of enrollment. The University of Phoenix links to the Higher Learning Commission from its official enrollment website that verifies the website is part of the university. When the “full details” link is clicked the applicant can view the number of programs that are accredited, that it completed a comprehensive evaluation in 2019 and that its next comprehensive evaluation is due in the 2022-2023 school year. This is what evaluating a college should look like and not reading a “best colleges” report in a newspaper during an era when most newspapers mostly publish satire and opinions.
Ideally ABET would expand its accreditation to graduate programs to be professionally equivalent in its accreditation process like other organizations such as ABMS, ABA and ACBSP. All 6 regional accreditation agencies should also have a revocation list like the one hosted on WASC Senior College and University Commission Website so regulators can easily find schools not in compliance and ensure they are not enrolling new students. It would also be ideal if all 6 regional accreditation agencies and all professional standards organizations listed above had a way to search by the school’s Federal School Code required on FAFSA applications. The Federal Government should not be funding attendance at schools that do not meet the above requirements and that do not adhere to or exceed global business practices.
In the IT Industry, there are various private corporation certifications like those issued by Microsoft, CompTIA and RedHat. These certifications began before there was an industry standard and an organizations like ABET weren’t well known. Today, ABET or a similar organization would best set the the standards for the requirements specific to Information Science and Technology and ABET is definitely the best organization for the fields of Electronic Engineering and their other focus areas. Regarding IT, colleges should teach according to the standards and best practices set by these organizations. A course on managing servers in an information science and technology degree should be taught by a professor who is certified in these technologies in addition to holding a degree and teaching credential. Many of the concepts found in IT are interchangeable and a specific technology should be left up to the student. As an example, web hosting can be done on Microsoft, RedHat or Amazon Cloud. A student at a university should take an intro to web hosting class where they are introduced to the core concepts and then select a specific technology to focus on as an elective. At the end of the elective course, the student should be able to certify for the specific technology they took as an elective. This is realistic with the modern pace of business as most certifications take an industry professional two weeks of study and the test can often be done in under 4 hours.
Community Colleges
The Western Association of School’s and Colleges provides a good framework for having all school’s accredited by a regional agency. In addition to the revocation list, this would be a good standard to implement at the remaining 5 accreditation agencies. The accrediting agencies should ensure that an associate degree is transferable so that if going to a university to get a bachelor degree the student would only need to complete 2 years of college. When standardizing against NAICS, this should be feasible. As a national standard, community colleges should then leave G.E.D. and Adult High School diplomas to schools accredited for K-12 education.
- WASC ACS accredits K-12 and Adult Schools (should expand to preschool and head start)
- WASC ACCJC accredits community colleges that issue associates degrees.
- WASC WSCUC accredits universities and colleges with bachelors degrees or above.
- WASC WSCUC also accredits 10 foreign universities.
International Transfers
- NECHE accredits 11 foreign universities.
- MSCHE ended international accreditation in 2008.
- SACSCOC refers to the Department of Education for transfers.
- NWCCU accredits 9 tribal colleges. It does not accredit foreign universities
Between WASC and NECHE, the USA has 21 schools that should offer a direct transfer to study in the USA if all other VISA requirements are met. The Department of Education leaves this process up to schools and it should have a more direct transfer program. For example, Oxford, Cambridge, University of Tokyo and other well known and prestigious universities should be accredited by either WASC or NECHE to simplify student visa applications and foreign exchange programs.