Student-Loan Forgiveness Is Really a Bailout for Woke Higher Ed

It will perpetuate the racket of selling degrees that aren’t accompanied by marketable skills

By Allysia Finley of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"recent bachelor’s degree recipients earn a median $44,000, which is about $14,000 more than young people with only a high-school diploma."

"The median earnings for a recent Columbia grad with an anthropology degree ($85,967 annual sticker price) was only $29,201"

"Employees at the lowest end of Deere & Co.’s pay scale earn $22.13 an hour ($46,030 annually), and the company’s more-skilled workers such as electricians make $33.05 an hour ($68,744). Construction and maintenance staff at the University of Southern California make more than twice as much as the school’s recent graduates in English."

"41% of 22- to 27-year-old college grads work at jobs that don’t require degrees."

"College completion rates have been increasing since 1990, which a study last year by Brigham Young and Purdue professors linked to grade inflation. The authors noted that instructors who give higher grades get higher student ratings, which are considered in tenure decisions and contract renewals.

Higher-grading departments also draw more students and thus more institutional funding. This could explain why grade inflation is more acute in the humanities and social sciences, where teaching positions are more precarious."

"Over the past two decades, the number of Americans over 25 with a master’s or doctorate has more than doubled. About half of the $1.6 trillion in federal student debt is now held by Americans with graduate degrees."

"A recent recipient of a master’s in film from New York University earns about $30,581 and has $113,180 in debt. Recent recipients of humanities doctorates make on average of $55,000. Most work as college lecturers, positions that don’t pay especially well since the academic labor market is oversaturated."

"students in coding boot camps and many trade schools aren’t eligible for federal aid."