This article persuades by staying solidly in the stasis of fact. The tone is very business-like but written in language understandable to anyone. The only flaw I found in the article is when Walbert pulls some statistical sleight-of-hand in the first two paragraphs. The first statistic is that a college grad will earn a million dollars more in a lifetime than a high school graduate. The second statistic is that unemployment is about ten percent, "However the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that for people under the age of 24 who had dropped out of high school, the unemployment rate was about 30 % (Walbert, pg 32)." It's completely misleading to compare high school dropouts under the age of 24 to the complex demographics of everyone else, which includes high school and college graduates, as well as people entrenched in their jobs as people under 24 are not.
From there the article walks a straight line and gives some useful background information about government loans, private loans and several savings/investment plans. It's not very specific; you couldn't go about applying for a loan or starting a savings plan with this information. It does set up the last paragraph touting the G.I. Bill:
This Bill provides for a total of 36 months (four school years) of tuition. It also partially covers housing and book expenses. Check it out at GIBill.va.gov (Walbert, pg33).
Of course the G.I. Bill stands out as vastly superior to any of the loans or savings plans. There is no doubt of that but my concern is this: Is this the best we can offer our children?
When I was a young man of military age we had a lottery to decide who went to war. Now we have a volunteer military and who is to say which is better? The business of war has been sanitized in that no one goes that didn't volunteer. Don't mistake my point here. I absolutely believe in the benefits of the G.I. Bill and would never seek to limit it in any way. But there is something wrong when people feel compelled to potentially risk their lives in exchange for educational benefits. It's especially egregious when our national leaders are bemoaning a lack of qualified college graduates. We need to do better for our children.
I submit that the first two years of college should be a matter of public education, that is, an associates degree for anyone that wishes it. This could be vo-tech training or general studies toward a bachelor's degree. We need to consider some alternatives to military service, such as a Youth corps that involves public service, perhaps even paid internships with educational benefits accruing much as they do in the military.
The G.I. Bill, as wonderful as it is, cannot supply our nation with the raw numbers of college graduates we need, especially graduates in the hard sciences and math. We need to fundamentally rethink our positions on higher education and align our policies to serve our priorities.
Works Cited
Walbert, June, "Saving for College How you can afford a brighter future," National Guard Soldier & Family Foundations, Sept/Oct 2010,Volume 2, Issue 3, pg 32-33
