The Upwardly Mobile Barista – The Atlantic

The Upwardly Mobile Barista – The Atlantic.

I commented.

“I’m a former math professor. (I last taught at Wash. U. in St. Louis.) This article describes a wonderful and laudable effort by Starbucks’s Howard Schultz. But it never asks the question: What’s between the buns? Is there really any beef wrapped up in those degrees? Will the graduates get jobs? Has Starbuck’s done their due diligence? I don’t think so. Here is why.

If Howard Schultz had done his due diligence, though I’m sure he would continue with his program, he would also realize that, yes, young people generally need to go to college to get a decent salary; but its just a tax on them and the country. I can’t explain all of that here. (You can read about it on my blog inside-higher-ed ) Instead, I will quote from the recent issue of The Economist on Universities. It stated what I have pointed out before on my blog;

“…returns [to individual students] have held up not because graduates have done so well but because those with only high-school degrees have done so badly…”

That is an important point that I have observed for over 20 years. It cannot be stressed enough that the poor performance of high school grads is largely because of the poor education colleges deliver to everyone – from future high school teachers to those high school teachers’ future faux-professors (graduated under lucrative grants made to “elite” schools). Thus, even k-12’s lack of quality is largely due to the corrupted values of higher education. (On my blog, there are several cases and examples of how all of this works.)
The reason why a college degree pays more is that college has managed to dumb down high school faster than it has dumbed down college.
Mr. Schultz, look into this. You have the power to expose it and truly make change for all of us.”