Knowledge Isn’t Power – NYTimes.com.
Unfortunately, Prof. Krugman writes that there isn’t that much of an education problem. Here is what I wrote. (Please ignore the terrible writing. I was in a big hurry and made too many changes, too fast. Embarrassing.)
“I highly regard Prof. Krugman’s analysis of FACTS. So it is disturbing when equats “highly degreed” and “highly educated” when he writes that “..the inflation-adjusted earnings of highly educated Americans have gone nowhere since the late 1990s..”
That stagnation is for “highly-degreed”, not “highly educated”.
Here are the facts.
According to the landmark “Academically Adrift”, the hours students are required to study went from 25 a week in the 60’s to 13 in 2000. The gain in critical skills is now next to nothing; it used to be one sigma.
There too many schools – that Prof. Krugman probably has little experience with – that David Reisman described in 1980.
“..advantage can..be taken of [students] by unscrupulous instructors and institutions..the student estate often does not grasp its own interests, and those who speak in its name are not always its friends..”
(From “On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism”)
I hope that Prof. Krugman will learn about these schools by reading my blog inside-higher-ed, especially “A Tale Out of School” about teaching math at the “elite” Washington U. in St. Louis. If he reads the blog, he will see how the unaccountable flow of money to colleges has almost ruined our whole educational system. (“Elite” schools grant faux-PhD’s who go on to not be able to teach future high school teachers, who, in turn don’t have the knowledge to teach.)
It is imperative that we get these facts straight.”
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