<\/p>\n

In the old days, getting into college was a big deal\u2014you had to be a good student, have some solid extracurricular activities and generally pass an entrance exam as well as demonstrate you can write a decent \u201cWhy I Want To Go To College\u201d essay.<\/p>\n

When the Federal government decided to back student loans, giving them to every degree seeking student, it was hailed as a good thing, but a big mistake was made: the loans were for \u201ctuition,\u201d not for a set amount, so colleges could charge whatever they want. Eager to make ever more money, our leaders in higher ed raised tuition to whatever felt right, and \u201cmoar\u201d always felt right.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long before our leaders realized that restricting admission was a problem: it was cutting into the loan money. Turning away even one student means a loss of $25,000 or more (today), and that\u2019s basically a free car for the Dean. Turning away 16 such students because of poor grades, a poor essay, or any reason, really, and now you can\u2019t get even hire a $400,000 a year diversity officer.<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, old accreditation mandated entrance requirements, but such rules were cutting into the student loan loot, which as the gentle reader can see piles up fast. So they got rid of entrance requirements. What has that done to the quality of the average college student?<\/p>\n

The average college freshman in America reads at a 7th grade level<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

While this is old news, it\u2019s queer how nobody has done the math here. A student coming into college at the 7th grade level, will, assuming he theoretically graduates in 4 years, will be at the 11th level\u2026still not a (theoretical) high school graduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are spending billions of dollars trying to send students to college and maintain them there when, on average, they read at about the grade 6 or 7 level, according<\/a> to Renaissance Learning\u2019s latest report on what American students in grades 9-12 read, whether assigned or chosen,\u201d said education expert Dr. Sandra Stotsk<\/em>y.<\/p>\n

Even though it\u2019s old news, I bring it up to mention just how deep the fraud is in higher education. Our college textbooks are not written at the 7th grade level\u2026but our students read at the 7th grade level? How is nobody seeing the problem here? The conclusion is quite straightforward: the average student has essentially no chance of getting a legitimate college degree, at least in 4 years. He\u2019ll need a few years to catch up (5?), and then he can handle the writing in the books.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve known this for years, but nothing\u2019s changed.<\/p>\n

The study also found that most high school graduates don\u2019t do much with mathematics past eighth grade\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

This is an unusual study. Most studies of this sort of thing find mathematics to lag behind more qualitative skills\u2014usually because our students have little choice but to practice English regularly just in their daily communication (it\u2019s not like they\u2019ll learn it in school\u2026). But here we have math at the 8th grade, and reading at the 7th. I guess you can quibble, but this is dismal.<\/p>\n

Of course, the question still remains: how are these students making it in college?<\/p>\n

There are two parts to the answer. The first part of the answer is \u201cmost don\u2019t\u2026\u201d We talk quite a bit about how expensive a college degree is, but students are charged the same tuition whether they get a degree or not. Only about half of college students get a degree in 5 years<\/a>\u2026you can bet it\u2019s the half that reads at better than the 7th grade level. We never seem to talk about all the dropouts, even though they represent a large percent of our citizens with unpayable debt.<\/p>\n

The second part of the answer is \u201c\u2026and many get bogus degrees.\u201d This is the part that we read about, all the students getting their utterly worthless degrees in Gender, Sexuality, Diversity, and a host of other fields that, bottom line, won\u2019t generate revenue enough to pay off the student debt. We read about this often in the news, but do realize for every \u201ccollege graduate with worthless degree and student loan debt\u201d horror story, there\u2019s another \u201ccollege dropout with nothing and a massive student loan debt\u201d who never makes the news.<\/p>\n

While the endless personal health horrors sap my will to write, do keep in mind how trivial it is to see immense fraud in our higher education system, fraud that has been going on for years.<\/p>\n

Fraud paid for by the student loan scam. End it.<\/p>\n

www.professorconfess.blogspot.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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