The Roots of Obama’s Ambitious College Plan – NYTimes.com

The Roots of Obama’s Ambitious College Plan – NYTimes.com.

I will have more to say, but I commented as follows.

“”If 13 years of education — K-through-12 — was the right amount of education for the typical citizen back then, it surely is not still the right amount today.”

There is a plethora of evidence that shows that equating “years of education” “back then” with “years of education” now is just plain wrong.

Here are some examples of why.

The AP exam in calculus (I’m a former math professor.) was dumbed down by the early 70’s. (If you know some calculus, you can look at my post “Your Grandmother’s Calculus!” (on my blog, inside-higher-ed} for a link to a calculus course from 1970; or see the AP category.)

Here is an article from the NY Times, American Dec. 3, 2013 “15-Year-Olds Lag, Mainly in Math, on International Standardized Tests”. That is across all levels of students. (See my post “PISA Results (Program for International Assessment)” for details.)
To see data that indicates that the difference between high school salaries and colleges salaries are not what they seem, see my posts “Median Starting Salaries for College Graduates $27,000 or $40,735?” and “Is College Worth It? Over Today’s “College Dumbed Down” High Schools, Maybe.”

Why has all of this happened? It starts with giving money to colleges and not holding them accountable. That is mainly what my blog describes: what happens when colleges – those institutions upon which the quality of our whole educational system hinges – sell their soul for their own self-aggrandizement.”