6 ms·

Honestly, it seems like you'd have to be very out of touch with reality to offer actual bribes to people or engage in obvious fraud. It's just not necessary. W

Honestly, it seems like you'd have to be very out of touch with reality to offer actual bribes to people or engage in obvious fraud. It's just not necessary. When they still had a "writing" portion of the SAT, you could buy a 700-800 by writing an essay ahead of time and adapting it to the prompt. If you had the means to afford a 'test prep' service that would tell you that, you would be head-and-shoulders above the competition without blatantly breaking the law. And that's just one example; the entire system is tilted to make sure that affluent kids get into good schools and stay there until they graduate. You might not get into your 'dream school', but you will get into a world-class institution and have countless barriers swept aside for you over the following several years. It will tear the child to shreds in adulthood once they realize what happened, but that doesn't seem to matter to most wealthy parents. Plus, people entering their 20s don't usually know what will fulfill their lives, what they are good at, how they can contribute to others, their responsibilities as citizens, etc. I'd like to see a re-thinking of our entire educational system, with a focus on lifelong learning. What would be wrong with a cultural tradition of encouraging people to go back to school every decade or two? It seems like a huge waste of human capitol not to.

xyzzy123 8y ago
One problem with lifelong learning via formal institutions is that the less well off are “tapped out” already with debt and expenses while those with good careers (enough to save for an n-year break) face an enormous opportunity cost, hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are lots of people who would love to go back to college already and learn something new but the financial treadmill is running too fast to get off. More flexible learning options can help with this.
- Retric 8y ago
  Going back full time always has a huge opertunity cost. But so does front loading education. Adults often go back for masters degrees which are manageable as it’s less material.
- leggomylibro 8y ago
  It would definitely need to be offset by subsidies, but maybe that could come in the form of something that people could claim every 5-20 years like a tax return. It seems like we have a lot of levers to pull to make life easier on people doing things like that; tuition reimbursement, housing/food/course material subsidies, benefits like health care, child care, help with transit, etc. But I guess you would have to look out for a resurgence of scammy public for-profit institutions.
  - cannonedhamster 8y ago
    You can claim educational loans on your tax returns, but only the interest.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
wutbrodo 8y ago
> It will tear the child to shreds in adulthood once they realize what happened, but that doesn't seem to matter to most wealthy parents. Will it? I grew up around a lot of rich kids, and know a lot of people in Ivy League schools. They generally weren't the smartest kids (those tended to end up at the #1 research universities in the world for the depts/broader areas they were interested in), and yet even now that we're pushing 30, they tend on average to think that the system works quite well.
- gnu8 8y ago
  The thought of #1 research universities crowded with rich dummies just disappoints me. Imagine what research could be accomplished if the universities were populated by smart people instead.
  - chessturk 8y ago
    This is how I feel about college athletics. Make a minor league and pay the players, don't spend millions of govt/tuition dollars on coach salaries that could be spent on education and research.
    - umanwizard 8y ago
      This is how baseball works and it seems to be fine. College baseball does exist, but it's not a de-facto minor professional league like college basketball and football are. Even the lowest level of the professional minor league system is stronger than college baseball, and it's perfectly normal for strong enough players to be drafted directly from high school into the professional minors.
    - LynxInLA 8y ago
      As long as the athletic department breaks even or turns a profit, I don't have an issue with the coach salaries. According to this article, only about 1/4 of schools are running at a loss. That seems lower than expected though. https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/ https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/
harryh 8y ago
It's only a huge waste of human capital if people are actually building a lot of capital in college. There is a lot of evidence that they are not and that it's mostly a signaling exercise.
BurningFrog 8y ago
> What would be wrong with a cultural tradition of encouraging people to go back to school every decade or two? This assumes that the main function of college is to acquire skills. But in reality, it is to "stamp" you as a qualified member of the elite by giving you a College Degree. There is no need to do that twice.

xyzzy123 8y ago

One problem with lifelong learning via formal institutions is that the less well off are “tapped out” already with debt and expenses while those with good careers (enough to save for an n-year break) face an enormous opportunity cost, hundreds of thousands of dollars. There are lots of people who would love to go back to college already and learn something new but the financial treadmill is running too fast to get off. More flexible learning options can help with this.

Retric 8y ago
Going back full time always has a huge opertunity cost. But so does front loading education. Adults often go back for masters degrees which are manageable as it’s less material.
leggomylibro 8y ago
It would definitely need to be offset by subsidies, but maybe that could come in the form of something that people could claim every 5-20 years like a tax return. It seems like we have a lot of levers to pull to make life easier on people doing things like that; tuition reimbursement, housing/food/course material subsidies, benefits like health care, child care, help with transit, etc. But I guess you would have to look out for a resurgence of scammy public for-profit institutions.
- cannonedhamster 8y ago
  You can claim educational loans on your tax returns, but only the interest.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]

wutbrodo 8y ago

> It will tear the child to shreds in adulthood once they realize what happened, but that doesn't seem to matter to most wealthy parents. Will it? I grew up around a lot of rich kids, and know a lot of people in Ivy League schools. They generally weren't the smartest kids (those tended to end up at the #1 research universities in the world for the depts/broader areas they were interested in), and yet even now that we're pushing 30, they tend on average to think that the system works quite well.

gnu8 8y ago
The thought of #1 research universities crowded with rich dummies just disappoints me. Imagine what research could be accomplished if the universities were populated by smart people instead.
- chessturk 8y ago
  This is how I feel about college athletics. Make a minor league and pay the players, don't spend millions of govt/tuition dollars on coach salaries that could be spent on education and research.
  - umanwizard 8y ago
    This is how baseball works and it seems to be fine. College baseball does exist, but it's not a de-facto minor professional league like college basketball and football are. Even the lowest level of the professional minor league system is stronger than college baseball, and it's perfectly normal for strong enough players to be drafted directly from high school into the professional minors.
  - LynxInLA 8y ago
    As long as the athletic department breaks even or turns a profit, I don't have an issue with the coach salaries. According to this article, only about 1/4 of schools are running at a loss. That seems lower than expected though. https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/ https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

harryh 8y ago

It's only a huge waste of human capital if people are actually building a lot of capital in college. There is a lot of evidence that they are not and that it's mostly a signaling exercise.

BurningFrog 8y ago

> What would be wrong with a cultural tradition of encouraging people to go back to school every decade or two? This assumes that the main function of college is to acquire skills. But in reality, it is to "stamp" you as a qualified member of the elite by giving you a College Degree. There is no need to do that twice.