It was recently in the news that our new secretary of
education, and the people surrounding her, think that it is a good idea to ease
the accreditation process on private high education institutes…
It was around
the same time that one of my friends told me how her grandson did not like his
out of state public university and wanted to move back, but prefers a prestigious
private school that is willing to accept him, rather than risking not being
accepted to a state university.
So here is my dilemma... our state has a large variety of
public universities, and every student who wants to learn can find the right
place... Some of the schools are better, best in the country, some are just ok,
but there is plenty of choice. If a student is not doing great at the present time then
he should work his way up through the community colleges. A reasonable
performance there will guarantee his accepted to at least some of the state
universities. Why go to a private school? And if a private university is the choice
for the not so great students, then the last thing we want is easing its accreditation
process. We want to make sure that a student who is willing to pay hundreds of
thousands of dollars for a degree gets the very best education, the sort that
is above and beyond of what state universities offer.
People are putting too much weight in to which university
they, or their loved ones, go. They feel that their path to opportunities in
life all starts with the university from which they graduate. There might be
some truth to that, I agree, but mainly only for their first job. On their next
job, they will be judges by their experience and past performance. If a person
wants to start a career with a debt of a quarter of million dollars then by all
means, especially if they believe in their ability to pay it back in a
relatively short time, but they have to make sure that the prospects the university
is advertising are solid, and should research potential future earnings… It is
a hefty price to pay if the returns are not as great…
Yet, one’s choice is his business… Our business, as a nation,
is to see that private universities don’t bring false expectations as to future
careers, and their ability to make up for their expense, to their graduates. And
our responsibilities is to see that a university that charges so much is also
that much better than one that does not. We are (still) a country that expects
its graduates to earn their degree with hard honest work, and not by purchasing
it for a heavy price…
