“If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
College in America does not work the way it used to, and Hillary’s New College Compact vision is hopelessly mired in the 1990’s.
First there is the issue of supply and demand. So far in the 21st century there have been about 20,000,000 bachelor’s degrees conferred. However, the number of “breadwinner” jobs has dropped by 2,000,000. Timing is everything, and the Millennials got it wrong. Born between 1982 and 2004 they began entering college just at the time the job market began to undergo a restructuring. If that wasn’t bad enough, then there was the Great Recession of 2008. In this slowly recovering economy there are not nearly enough good jobs available of the type the typical college graduate has historically depended upon, and there is a massive army of potential recruits. According to the Department of Labor only about one in four traditional four-year college enrollees graduates and gets a good job. Another one in four graduate but are underemployed or unemployed. Dr. Richard Vedder, professor emeritus at Ohio University and director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, describes the problem, “Colleges are turning out more graduates than the market can bear.” It may sound like blasphemy, but too many young people are going to college.

This does not mean that most young people do not need post-secondary education. It means that parents and students make ill-informed choices. There is a mismatch of skills demanded and skills acquired. Community colleges (which are readily affordable) can’t fill their plumber certification programs because of lack of interest while universities spew out graduates with art history and archaeology degrees. (High schools have exacerbated the problem by gutting their vocational programs and reflexively funneling their graduates into colleges and universities.)
Finally we come to the affordability issue. Costs have escalated to the point where many traditional bachelor’s degrees do not have an adequate return on investment to justify the time and money required. The problem is compound by inadequate financial planning particularly with regard to debt. Parents and students frequently underestimate the risk involved with college loans. Many recipients of “free” and easy government money end up paying their loans off while working part time at a minimum wage job. (The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan program generously awards up to $31,000 to earn a bachelor’s degree. The ‘C’ student enrolling in social studies is eligible for the same award as the ‘A’ student enrolling in electrical engineering.)
As Ayn Rand said, “We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” The New College Compact is progressive policy at its worst, taking “the skin out of the game” for parents and kids while trying to insulate them from the consequences of bad decisions.