Education, Education, Education

Famously the 1992 election was all about the economy (I never call people stupid). This one is actually all about education, more specifically the crisis in higher education, although no-one except Bernie Sanders seems to have figured that out yet. Sanders' campaign has focused on college towns trying to get those millennials who are then going to buzz about him on social media. His number one policy - the one that gets cheers and incredulity and even laughter is, wait for it...FREE college! He wants to make state and community college free for everyone (just like Scandinavia and many other places). He is going to pay for it by putting a tax on Wall Street speculation - OK now we are laughing - but he's really serious. Apparently, he can't win but he is making a fair crack at it.

Education is the most significant difference between Sanders and Clinton. Yes they differ on healthcare, but who can really blame her for not wanting to go down that road again, and sort of on guns but not really in principle - Sanders does not think restrictions on gun sales are unconscionable - and of course the differ on Wall St but that is just part of the same thing. 

But in addressing the crisis in higher education the difference is huge. Hooge, Sanders would say, in almost the same accent as Trump. Clinton says she wants to make college more affordable (yawn they have been saying that for years and its just getting more expensive) but on the PRINCIPLE of free education she asks if we really want to pay for Trump's kids to go to college? 

And Yes actually I do because that is why this election is really about education. Because it turns out that the Trump supporters are mostly people who did not get to go to college or finish college. I want to pay for his kids and him and his supporters to go but only if I can get some assurance about the quality of education they are going to have - not some business degree that will teach them how to avoid paying their debts by declaring bankruptcy willy nilly all over the shop - but a degree that might include some classes in ethics or philosophy, a bit of constitutional history or at least allow them to recognize a snake oil salesman in full pitch. If this stat is not an indication that education is a public good I don't know what is?

So what's the problem? - Americans have always paid for college and they have some of the world's best colleges and one of the highest rates of college education in the world right?

But the cost of college has increased by over 1000% in thirty years. You still have a very high number of high school graduates going to college (about 68%) but half of them drop out before they finish. Its because it costs too much: According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2015–2016 school year was $32,405 at private colleges, $9,410 for state residents at public colleges (but that's an average - a UC college about $14,000), and $23,893 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. Its impossible. Unsustainable. Its just inconceivable that it could be worth the money!

So a lot of people are not getting to go to college or they go, spend lots of money and then don't even get a degree. And all the people with degrees are taking all the jobs that people without degrees used to do. Now that would make you angry. But its easier to think your job is being taken by immigrants than by overqualified graduates.

This is why people are so disillusioned with the American dream because it is supposed to be that if you work hard you can succeed but now all that happens is that you work hard and you end up with a huge debt you are never going to pay off and you have to pay stupid government interest rates and you can't even declare bankruptcy like Mr Trump does.

What is most dangerous is that the education they are paying huge sums for is not what it was. It might be said that what is driving up the cost of education is that the colleges are hiring the best and the brightest from all over the world, and certainly private US colleges pay better than anyone in Europe (ha!) but the colleges are cutting costs at the same time as driving up fees, and hiring adjuncts to teach destroying the whole idea of a university as an academic community that can further human knowledge. 

There is an immense snobbery about education - about which college you go to that drives the fake meritocracy - and what you are buying is not education but entrance to a team playing in a national success league based on the image of your college. You do two years at a community college and then transfer to UCLA and you only have to pay the big bucks for the last two years. But you are still a UC graduate. Studies show that graduating from an elite college is not the key to success - only getting admitted! suggesting for all those high fees the schools really don't add value.

So its not surprising if the sensible people are starting to question the whole idea of higher education, Like Warren Buffet saying you should invest the money instead and Bloomberg recommending training as a plumber.

Anyway that's my 2 cents worth. The New Hampshire primary is on Tuesday so I'll explain why a primary is different from a caucus and why Bernie Sanders is going to win in New Hampshire. Soon.