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Some Vanderbilt students will have $100,000 intotal expenses for the 2024-2025 school year.And the price tag without travel will be more than $90,000 for fourNewEngland universities starting this fall.
More Generation Z workers are going into trades as disenchantment with the college track increases and rising pay in plumbing andwelding compete with a parallel generation of students graduating with degrees and no real direction of what they wanttodo in life.
This, all coupled with the Biden administration desperately retooling another plantobuy votes by promising people they will wipe away student debt,only to have student debtmolditself back into shape like the villain in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”
Boone Willams, 20, brazes a copper pipe during a second-year apprentice training program class at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union 572 facility in Nashville, Tennessee, on Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
Where didwego wrong?How didwegettoa point wherewehave $1.7 trillion of student debt, $1.1 trillion of credit card debt, and $1.6 trillion of auto loan debt?Didn’t high school teach us that if you keeponpilingondebt the inevitability of bankruptcy is justonthe other side of the horizon?
AS US COLLEGE ENROLLMENT DECLINES, TRADE PROGRAMS ARE BOOMING
There may be another option.
How about a “three-track system” for high school education?
All students take two years of general education, including math, science, history, English, language, etc.Then, you choose two potential career tracks in your junior year, followed by a singular focus in your senior year.
VideoTrack 1: College
For those students who can identify a specific field or area of study that they wanttopursue for a career.America needs doctors, lawyers, engineers and a litany of other professions where a college degree is truly necessarytoget the basic educationtobegin your overall career.
For some students, college is more than just a degree.It’s an opportunitytolearn howto”grow up” and become responsible for grocery shopping, laundry, schedule management and taking care of an apartment.However, so many kids are graduating college now with a degree that doesn’t lead themto a real career path and they still call mom or dad for every single decision.
VideoTrack 2: Vocational
Having taken a major back seattothe college preparatory track for the past 30 years because high school funding concentratedongetting studentstodowellonstandardized tests and prepping for a four-year degree, career tech education is making a major comeback in high school.
Itook shop in high school.Itook auto in high school.Itook home economics in high school.I learned that I was bad at all of them, butitopened my eyestoother potential future job opportunities besides goingtocollege.
VideoThe vocational career track should be part of every curriculum in high schools across America.As trade workers are retiring, businesses recognize that there is a massive deficiency in the supply compared to the demandfor these incredibly important skilled workers.
Notonly are some of these highly paid jobs stable professions, but parents should be proudtotell their families, friends and neighbors their son or daughter is a plumber, an electrician or awelder.
I should know best. My oldest daughter runs the operations of a concrete and hardscapes company and this attitude among parents needstochange about howwedefine “success” for children.
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Track 3: Entrepreneur
Wouldn’t this be amazing for students who liketocolor outside the lines, enjoy business (or have started a business already), or have creative ideastoinnovate for the future of America?
In fact, 55% of Gen Zers ages 18to26 and millennials ages 27to42 have a side hustle already and the numbers continuetogrow.Whether people do this part-time, oritbecomes a full-time passion, why wouldn’tweget students exposedtohowtoset up an LLC, run a basic profit and loss statement, and learn howtoread a tax return and a pay stub? Do you think you would have used this type of information more in life than what you did by flippingona Bunsen burner?
VideoThe president is formulating another plantorelieve Americans of more student debt.It’s a classic leadership mistake of tryingtofix the effect and not solve the cause of the problem.
The cause is the outrageous costtoget a college education and our insatiable appetitetobuy into the headline that you need a college degreetobe successful in America. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.
The solution lies in exposing our youthtoreal career opportunities in America the day they hit high school.A college degree just simply isn’t worth whatitusedtobe, and the pendulum is swinging aswespeak.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY TED JENKIN
Ted Jenkin is CEO and co-founder of Oxygen Financial and president of Exit Stage Left Advisors.
