Education Pays

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On Aug. 18, 2009, Dana Mattioli wrote an article for The Wall Street Journal entitled "Few Gender Differences in a Recession." She quotes the U.S. Labor Department:" 5.4% of men and 5.2% of women age 25 and older with college degrees were unemployed in July." This comment brought to mind similar information that a college instructor shared with me shortly after the May 9, 2009 headlines in The DeSoto Sun: "Eighty percent of DeSoto 10th graders fail FCAT reading test."

The national data, compiled by U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, came with the following graphs:

Conclusion: "Education pays in higher earnings and lower unemployment rates."

A notable exception to this trend occurs in the DeSoto County School system, where the emperor’s loyal serfs are paid in direct proportion to their degree of political servitude as opposed to their level of education!

Conclusion: "Individuals with less education experienced greater percentage point increases in their unemployment rates than their more educated counterparts did."

The federal data reports "the unemployment rate for individuals 25 years and older with less than a high school diploma increased from 7.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 to 10.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. The jobless rate for high school graduates with no college rose by 2.4 percentage points, to 7.0 percent, the highest quarterly rates since the series began in 1992"

The report goes on: "The unemployment rate for those with some college or an associate's degree increased by 2.0 percentage points, to 5.5 percent. Among college graduates, the unemployment rate increased by 1.2 percentage points, to 3.3 percent, equal to the previous peak in the fourth quarter of 1992."

And on: "The current national average rate of unemployment is 10%, with states such as Michigan and Ohio having unemployment rates of 15%. From the graphs, unemployment rates above 5% almost exclusively pertain to those individuals without college degrees."

If we compare these national statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor with the local statistic that 80 percent of our high school sophomores can’t pass a statewide reading test, then it is safe to conclude that individuals in this group will become future members of the lowest socio-economic class in our country. They have directly burdened themselves with a very low-income earning capacity, and, what's worse, they are likely to indirectly cost the rest of society plenty.

The generation that is supposed to be the future of our community is more than likely to become part of the predominant group on welfare rolls, food stamp programs and WIC programs. They join others who have driven health care costs to astronomical levels; they are likely to make up a disproportionate percentage of drug users and felons; and they will be the first group to become unemployed in tough times and therefore the first and largest group to seek and get unemployment compensation. Derek Bok, past president of Harvard University, recognized these sad realities long ago when he said, "If you think education is expensive you ought to try ignorance."

If performance reflects management, and if results speak for themselves, then it is reasonable to conclude that our school board members and school system emperor Adrian Cline have failed at their jobs. Their results indicate their willingness to settle for ignorance over education, making them complicit in the degradation of our society. And yet they display a shameless arrogance when they start school board meetings with the Pledge Of Allegiance. Hypocrites! If they truly cared for this country, they would strive to produce "assets" for our society instead of costly "liabilities," which is what individuals who can't read or hold a job become.
The truth hurts, doesn't it?