America Turns Its Back On The Value of Education

The student loan crisis illustrates how little value we value education. I don’t understand why there is so little understanding of this fact, or of the general loss of respect as a nation we have for educated people.

If cars were taking the toll on the nation’s finances that the education industry has taken there would be congressional hearings.

Most people need to have cars to get to work, take the kids to school and buy groceries. Unless you live in an inner city that is well served by mass transit a car is a necessity. Even then, not having a car often is seen as a sad consequence of poverty. Even though cars depreciate in value and we routinely find ourselves upside down — owing more than the investment is worth — cars seem to be an acceptable expense.

But cars are expensive…

So expensive that most people cannot afford to buy one outright and gradually ease into ownership by spacing out the rate of which they pay for a car.

That is, borrowing money against their future earnings. Auto loans generally come in two, three or five year repayment plans.

But what about education?

If education were worth its price we would not have a student loan crisis because jobs would pay enough and be plentiful enough that student loans would be a short and transitory expense. But they aren’t. Unlike auto loans it takes decades to pay off student loans, and the increase in income they produce does not shorten the time we spend paying them off.

Even when we have to take out a loan to buy a car we are suddenly able to transport ourselves anywhere a job is and get there any time the employer wants us.

That’s utility.

But education does not supply utility. Most jobs don’t require a degree, (but they do require a car), and they don’t pay enough to justify getting one. The day after you graduate, your job and income prospects are about the same as the day before you started your degree program.

The expense of student loans decreases our standard of living instead of increasing it, restricts our ability to buy a home and save for retirement and constrains every other financial choice and opportunity.

Like cars, education is so expensive that we must mortgage our future earnings and lifestyle in order to get one. Yet, unlike cars, education provides no utility after purchase. It doesn’t increase our income appreciably or immediately and it does not bring efficiencies, convenience or utility to our daily lives.

The argument of the education industry that education increases our income so dramatically that the loans are easily paid off falls flat as soon as you think about it.

In short, borrowing for education is a very bad financial choice.

But this isn’t the only way in which we denigrate the value of education.

We don’t give much respect to the people to have earned educations. Not only do we not pay them well or welcome them onto the labor market with good jobs that contribute to the greater good, we also we actively reject their skills and learning.

The COVID pandemic is an often cited example…

Instead of listening to scientists when they explained facts about viral transmission many people reverted to beliefs, as if it were a religious issue. They completely ignored what the scientists were saying, didn’t bother to learn about the science for themselves and rejected masks and vaccinations because they didn’t “believe” in the virus.

But there is an even more troubling example, this time involving scholars and spokespeople for organizations influencing public policy and millions of people.

Like most Presidents, Joe Biden regularly invites academic experts to the White House to discuss and advise on pressing issues.

In early August Biden hosted a meeting with highly educated historians for a conference on the future of American democracy. Biden wanted to get ideas and perspectives on what lays ahead for the future of democracy. In light of the popularity and power of Donald Trump’s support — which may or may not threaten the basic principles of our political philosophy — he wanted to hear the ideas of highly educated academic professionals.

The reaction?

The panel was insufficiently racially diverse enough to produce information that was valuable. All the scholars advising the President were white, so somehow their professional insights were not valid or honest. The fact that they were the most highly educated and respected scholars in academia was not enough. The color of their skin is far more important than the quality of their character.

That says something very troubling about the value of education in America.

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