Opinion

College costs aren’t academic

The Issue: Whether there is a good return on investment for all graduates heading off to college.

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Karol Markowicz states that “parents want to give their children a competitive edge, and for the last century that has meant attending college” (“Exactly Why Is College Worth It Today?” PostOpinion, May 14).

Not exactly. In the first half of the 20th century, parents were well aware of their children’s capabilities and did not send unqualified students to college. However, more recently parents succeeded in creating a new market for non-academic college-bound students — an oxymoron of the highest degree.

For these students, college is not worth the expenditure. With readily available student loans, legitimate colleges have created high-school-type courses and new “colleges” have popped up all over the country to feed on the non-academic over-18 frenzy.

One only needs to look at colleges trading the stringent SAT exam for the easier ACT exam and community-service hours as part of the college-acceptance criteria.

Only a small percentage of graduating highschool students are capable of studying at the college level. The rest need to get into the market place.

If you want jobs for these youngsters, don’t elect President Obama.

Elio Valenti

Brooklyn

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The idea that every high-school graduate will be well served by a college education is nothing but liberal conceit.

Forget the poor labor market for graduates and the appalling cost of the attempted education, and concentrate on the fact that not everyone has an interest in learning uninteresting things with time out for navel- gazing. Even panty raids, a high point of campus life some 50-odd years ago, are no longer a challenge.

What we need is what we once had: vocational schools with an emphasis on usable skills. Liberals may want to see a sheepskin nailed to every foreclosed house, but I don’t.

Paul Bloustein

Cincinnati