Gay Bowlin, Manager

Temperatures have reached the lowest of the season and the National Weather Service states that these cold temps will be the norm for most of the winter months.

We should not expect anything much warmer than the low 40s through midweek next week.
The fruit prices were incorrect in last week’s article – here are the correct prices listed below
We are taking orders for fruit again this year – the prices are as follows
Grapefruit – 4/5 bushel – $25    2/5 bushel – $15

Oranges – 4/5 bushel – $26       2/5 bushel – $16

Tangelos – 4/5 bushel – $25      2/5 bushel – $15The fruit orders must be received no later than November 24 and will be delivered the week of December 15.

Pecans sell for $9.00 1 lb bag and chocolate covered pecans are $8.00 for 12 oz – they will be available for pick up before Thanksgiving and we are taking orders.  Call the office at 435-3616.

Attention all Franklin County Farm Bureau Members – take the time to mark your calendars for Monday December 1 and to call the office to make your reservations for our County Annual Meeting.  The meeting will be at the Benton Civic Center with food served at 6:15 p.m. There will be a Silent Auction and this year we are pleased to announce that Magician Chris Egelston will be this year’s entertainment.  Call the office at 435-3616 by November 21 to make your reservations.

Drive through rural parts of Illinois and you’ll see them everywhere … on farms and at grain elevators. Piles of corn. Lots of them. Huge piles. Never before has this much corn been harvested in the U.S. In fact, the 2014 growing season was so successful that state officials have approved temporary storage for 107 million bushels of grain (hence the corn piles) because of the likelihood that storage silos will be full both on farms and at grain elevators.

Those piles of corn are symbolic of many things.

They symbolize farmers’ resilience. Just two short years ago, much of the nation’s corn crop burned up in the field as the country’s midsection experienced a punishing drought.

They symbolize farmers’ productivity. This year’s U.S. harvest will set a new record – in excess of 14 billion bushels of corn. For years there has been a trend away from making goods and toward service-industry jobs in this country. Yet farmers have never stopped delivering a tangible product.

They symbolize ingenuity and resourcefulness. Those kernels of corn will become food ingredients both here and abroad. They’ll feed livestock, ultimately nourishing populations around the world that are becoming more prosperous and desiring higher-quality protein. They’ll be converted into fuel in the form of ethanol, which provides jobs for American workers, is better for our environment and moves the U.S. closer to energy independence.

In this crop is food, feed, fuel and fiber. Produced humbly and quietly by farmers who, for generations, have done the same. Benjamin Franklin said, “Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.” All these years later, his words are true at a magnitude he surely never imagined.

With more corn in the U.S. this does not necessarily mean that farmers are making more money – the price of corn per bushel has fallen from over $7 per bushel in 2012 to just over $3 per bushel today. The price to grow corn has not fallen just the selling price. Farmers are not making more money just because they are growing more corn.

American consumers are putting together more meals at home — though not necessarily cooked meals — and eating fewer meals out, according to an a new study by the research firm NPD Group.

This makes for one of the biggest changes in eating patterns of Americans over the past five years, concludes the comprehensive study of more than 7,000 consumers, the 29th Annual Eating Patterns in America Report.

Visit us at www/fcfbil.org.

Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let us know.

By Walter V. Wendler

My reflection on October 6, “I’m Mad, too, Eddie,” (IMTE) criticized the notion of entitlement – not the common political understanding that refers to programs that look after people in old age, like Social Security, or assist with health care through affordable health insurance, such as Medicare – but rather benefits given to someone in public or private employment based on privilege, rank,  prerogative, or some other “due,” such as whom you know, not what you have earned or achieved.

The nature and purpose of the university require that anything the university provides to anyone should be earned, never given. Merit and accomplishment must rule, not time in grade, friends, or personal relationships.

People at every level of university life have accepted or created expectations beyond what any institution is capable of delivering. A recent Master’s thesis at Eastern Michigan University investigates self-entitlement among students. High grades for minimal work are frequently expected and often demanded in the face of second-rate performance. Males reportedly have higher expectations for low-work rewards than females. As students progress in study, their sense of entitlement for lackluster effort diminishes.  Students should come to the university with a clear understanding of expectations, but honest assessments of ability and attainment are withheld by loving parents, fearful teachers and administrators, and a culture that deifies dime-a-dozen-deeds.      Earnest honesty is entitlement’s elixir.

Sadly, in the last 45 years American students rate themselves 10 to 20% higher than their peers from 1965 in areas such as achievement, intellectual self-confidence, leadership ability, social self-confidence and writing ability. They bought the bluster. Conversely, cooperation, an appreciation for others, and spirituality saw little change or decreased over the same period of time according to a BBC report on the American Freshman Survey. Even to the uninitiated it seems like mushrooming narcissism. Parents, teachers, guidance counselors and university personnel must muscle-up and be honest.  Average is average, not a curse as commonly held. Not everyone is a genius. The most comforting words I ever heard on the occasion of the birth of our first son:  “Everything is normal.”

Student athletes may feel entitled through the culture of celebrity that exists everywhere in our nation. The Boston University hockey team is an unfortunate example.  The team was encumbered by a multitude of sexual assault allegations and it was purported that they lived in environment of “sexual entitlement.”  Boston University president Robert A. Brown confirmed this in his report on the Report of the Men’s Ice Hockey Task Force two years ago.

Old fashioned values help inoculate the inflated sense of entitlement of too many young people and those who lead, nurture, and mentor them.  Honest values foundational to the Christian faith:  love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, are the basis of a measured life as articulated by St. Paul is his Epistle to the Galatians, four of which are described in a Huffington Post piece that proposes a shift from an “entitled to empowered culture.” St. Paul and The Huffington Post in the same sentence: What is the world coming to?

Leadership can espouse the needed values:  Unapologetically.  Leadership at home, at places of worship, at schools and universities, but too frequently leadership falls into the entrapment of entitlement.  Mike Myatt, the author of Leadership Matters… The CEO Survival Manual says exactly that.  Leaders of every stripe feel they deserve whatever they can get.  The sense of entitlement is especially strong in universities says Mark J. Drozdowski in Inside Higher Ed.  Universities should smother it not spawn it.

Trickle down entitlement contaminates many aspects of institutional life.  Why even a scintilla of surprise when followers, a.k.a. students, are infected by the culture in the Petri dish.  The idiom, “Do as I say, not as I do,” never works on university campuses, in commerce, or in civic leaders, anywhere.   Whatever leadership “wants” a campus to be is of no consequence according to the Markula Center for Applied Ethics. Instead, the campus, like any human organization, emulates and eventually becomes what leadership is. A more hurtful realization for too many organizations is impossible to imagine. For example a state with a corrupt governor, or university with a corrupt president, becomes what that governor or president is, was, or will be.

Followers become what leaders are and if we don’t like what we see the mirror identifies the culprit.    Entitlement is present in students who expect too much for too little, but homes, houses of worship, schools, universities and businesses shoulder part of the blame.  Like him or not, Marshal McLuhan had it right, “We become what we behold,” reflecting on the impact of media on our lives.
Likewise, students anticipate entitlement when they behold it all around them.

SPRINGFIELD — Republican Bruce Rauner said he’d shake up Springfield if voters gave him the chance.

 

Here’s a link to the column by Kurt Erickson.

Mark Twain once said there are ‘lies, damned lies and statistics.’  After watching yet another election cycle where the politics of personal destruction is more important than the truth, maybe we should update Twain’s words to ‘lies, damn lies and politics.’

Certainly, we are all election-weary.

We’re tired of robo-calls, umpteen signs dotting the landscape and vicious attack ads, chocked full of lies, interrupting our nightly television viewing.  Heck, it’s gotten so bad that you can’t even listen to a song on YouTube without first having to hear yet another negative, throw-some-manure-against-the-wall-and-see-if-it-will-stick advertisement.  Sadly, it appears that the election cycle where a candidate actually tells us what they have done and why they should be re-elected are long gone.

The single issue that I find most irritating and dead-wrong is the belief by many folks that one party holds all the answers and has all the qualified candidates.  And it’s my belief that this type of flawed thinking is the single factor that makes election campaigns interminable and makes voters feel like their head is about to explode.  This line of reasoning also plays into a belief that I have that our elected officials count on two things from voters to remain in office – ignorance and apathy.  In short, some people vote for any candidate just because they belong to a particular political party while others are so sick and tired of the system that they don’t bother to vote at all.

Let me state unequivocally that I’m an independent voter and I’ve voted for many Democrats and many Republicans.  I try to learn about candidates, read how they vote and what they believe and certainly if they toe-the-line for the party bosses and not their constituents.  Without exception I believe there are good Democrats and bad Democrats and good Republicans and bad Republicans. No political party has a lock on good candidates. And while it may sound harsh, I also believe that anybody that votes a straight party ticket – either way – is a fool.

This point was driven home recently when I trudged off for my daily visit to the post office – another location that is not safe during an election.  In the mail that day I received a letter and a sample ballot from Kevin Acosta, who is a Democrat precinct committeeman on the west side of Franklin County.

Before I talk about the letter, let me say that I don’t have a problem getting a letter from a precinct committeman, in fact, I understand that rallying voters is a big part of what they do.  But, it was the content of the letter that I found troubling and untrue.

Let me explain.

The letter began by encouraging folks to go vote on Nov. 4 and talked about the importance of this particular election.  No problem with that as far as I am concerned. But, it was the second paragraph that was head-scratcher.  Here’s how it reads:

“The Republicans have gotten us in this mess and they have no plan to get us out.  If they get in they will cut programs to our most vulnerable citizens and destroy what’s left of the middle class.  We (Democrats) are the only hope for schools (children), hospitals (the sick), nursing homes (the elderly), organized labor and our veterans.”

Seriously? While I do agree we are in a mess, I have a different view about who got us there.

Let’s take that paragraph and dissect it line-by-line.

First, in Illinois and in Franklin County, Republicans are endangered species.  Illinois has a Democrat governor and a veto-proof Senate and House that is controlled by Democrats. In Franklin County, where unemployment is worst in the state, Democrats hold all elected positions, every single one.  In fact, there has not been a Republican elected to an office-holder position since 1960 when Bob Ice was elected sheriff.  And for the past 25 years I can remember two Republican county board members.  Currently, all nine county board seats are Democrats.

So, to say that ‘Republicans have gotten us in this mess’ is pure nonsense.  It would take somebody completely uninformed or with partisan political blinders on (or both) to believe that.

The first thought that came to my mind when I read the line that Republicans would ‘destroy the middle class’ was the 67 percent income tax hike in Illinois that was inflicted on us by Gov. Pat Quinn and Democrats.  Think about this — is there a more damaging way to attack the middle class than to go straight to their paycheck and help yourself to an additional 67 percent in income tax?

The final line in that paragraph is the most egregious.  That line reads: We (Democrats) are the only hope for schools (children), hospitals (the sick), nursing homes (the elderly), organized labor and our veterans.”

Keep in mind again, Illinois has a  governor and veto-proof House and Senate controlled by Democrats.  According to the Illinois State Board of Education, since 2009 there has been a $2.7 billion cut in education in Illinois – cuts that have led to the loss of teachers and aides, an increase in class sizes and the elimination of music, art, sports and other educational programs.

Additionally, massive cuts in health-related matters in Illinois have hurt the most vulnerable.  In recent months I have interviewed a mental health employee with the Illinois Department of Human Services who told me that her department has been decimated by budget cuts.

“I sit across the table from people asking for help and I know that they are going to die before I can get them the help they need,” she told me. Sad, huh?

And I recently talked with a nursing home administrator who told me that every month she spends money out of her own pocket for necessities such as toilet paper, paper towels, kleenexes and cleaning supplies because the state is running so far behind with payments.

It also seems to me if Gov. Quinn is the ‘only hope’ for organized labor they might be in serious trouble.  Despite the truckloads of money that unions are spending to try and get him re-elected, there has not been another Illinois governor in memory (Democrat or Republican) who has been more anti-union that Quinn.  AFSCME, the state’s largest public employees’ union, had to take Quinn to court to get a pay raise that had been gained through collective bargaining.  Here’s a link to the AFSCME website from 18 months ago.

As far as veterans – both Democrats and Republicans have done a poor job of meeting the needs of a group that should be near the top of the priority list, but it clearly does not fall on one party.

Regarding the letter I received, let me remind you again of my slightly altered version of Twain’s words one more time. There are lies, damn lies and politics.  And the letter I received was pure politics.  Look around on Nov. 4 and ask yourself if you are proud and satisfied with what you see in Illinois and your particular county.  Ask yourself if Illinois or your particular neck of the woods is better or worse than it was two years ago? Four years ago? Six years ago?  And then vote your conscience … regardless of political party.

(Editor’s Note:  I wrote this particular column and it appeared in the Southern Illinoisan on Dec. 13, 2005.  In a post today Danielle Gouge Belva (granddaughter of Eugene Moroni) mentioned this offering and that sent me digging through my archives.  I re-read this column and wanted to share it with readers.  I have written hundreds and hundreds of columns and this is on my short list of favorites.  I hope you enjoy.  JM)

 

I read the obituary and then I read it a second time more slowly. The name of the deceased was Eugene Thomas Moroni and as is always the case the obit told a brief chronological story about his life.

After reading the obit, paying particular attention about Moroni’s long history as senior vice president with Old Ben Coal Company, I laid the paper aside and thought about the countless times I’d heard his name mentioned. You see, as a kid growing up in a very middle-class, blue-collar family the name ‘Gene Moroni’ was revered and almost legendary around my house.

Let me explain.

As Southern Illinois residents are aware, coal mining has always been a cyclical industry, which means working as a coal miner has always been a feast-or-famine occupation.

My dad began his mining career in the late 1940s and in those ‘famine’ days tried to earn a living working two and three days a week at mines in Buckner, Coello and Valier. In 1956 Old Ben Coal Company started construction on Mine 21, located east of Sesser, and many miners believed a ‘feast’ era was about to begin.

The new multi-million dollar mine began hoisting coal in January 1960 and my dad was one of hundreds desperately trying to land a job there. I can recall many times sitting in the backseat of an old car at the Old Ben office, located where Benton City Hall is now located, while my dad waited in the lobby to try and talk to somebody about getting a job.

After numerous failed attempts my dad came up with a plan that proves necessity truly is the mother of invention. Realizing that the Old Ben officials he was hoping to see were leaving the building at day’s end through another exit, my dad moved his job-seeking vigil to a parking lot at the rear of the building. I’ve heard him recall the story countless times.

The first person my dad encountered in the parking lot that day was Gene Moroni and he approached the vice president of Old Ben Coal and, point-blank, asked him for a job.

Moroni’s answer was probably the standard line he used on the throngs of men seeking his help.

“Do you have an application on file,” Moroni asked my dad.

My dad’s answer was one of quickest-thinking lines I’ve heard.

“Yes, I have an application on file … but I don’t need an application on file, I have a family to take care of … I need a job,” my dad told him.

As I write this I can literally see the exchange that took place that spring day in 1960 between a successful mining executive and a man looking for a job to provide for his wife and four children.

I can let my mind wander and imagine that maybe Moroni looked my dad straight in the eye and tried to get a read on him or maybe he even considered my dad’s size – he was 42 years old and a big strapping man in those days. I’m more prone to believe that Moroni looked at my dad’s desire and his heart and realized that a man who would spend the afternoon standing in a parking lot trying to find somebody … anybody … to talk with about a job would surely make a good employee.

“Call my secretary in the morning and have her schedule you for a physical,” Moroni told him. “I’m going to give you a job.”

The significance of that meeting might not have been apparent to either man that afternoon, but it marked a turning point in my dad’s life and a turning point for his family. Mine 21 was called the ‘golden hole’ by miners and proved to be the best-ever Old Ben mine. My dad went from working two or three days a week to working six and seven days per week and everything he attained materially in life came after that meeting with Moroni.

Perhaps it was his attempt to pay Moroni back for giving him a job or maybe it was something in his make up – maybe it was a combination of both — but my dad would not miss a shift of work. He told Moroni he needed a job that day in 1960 and then for 25 years he went to work every day — regardless.

It’s my opinion that Old Ben Coal and my dad both benefited greatly because of Moroni’s decision that day.

Obituaries are adequate and purposeful when describing the highlights of a person’s life but they fail to reveal the real fabric of that person.

Today I would like to add a footnote to Gene Moroni’s obituary.

Along with the relevant facts that were listed Moroni should also be remembered as a man that helped shape and define the Southern Illinois coal industry, a good man that kept his word, a man of character and a person that undoubtedly possessed an uncanny knack for ‘sizing-up’ a man.

And most importantly it should be remembered that Moroni was admired by many working coal miners – particularly one he met by chance in a parking lot 45 years ago.

 

Gay Bowlin, Manager

Harvest season is one of the busiest times of year for farmers – carrying with it long days and tight deadlines. It can be tempting to bypass basic safety procedures.

Each year, failure to follow these recommendations leads to thousands of injuries – in addition to deaths – for farmers and employees. Even though it may add a few minutes to your day, taking extra steps to ensure safety can help save both farmers and their employees’ lives.

It’s also important for motorists to “share the road” with farmers. Drivers should reduce speed when encountering farm equipment or when an SMV emblem is visible, keep a safe distance, be prepared to yield, and pass wide, large farm equipment only if conditions are safe.

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has recommended to Congress that the Section 179 tax deduction level in the Internal Revenue Service code remain consistent with the 2010-2013 limit for small businesses.

Currently under Section 179 of the tax code, a business taxpayer can currently deduct, or “expense,” qualified assets placed in service during the year, up to a specified amount. After a series of extensions (with some modifications), a maximum deduction of $500,000 was allowed for 2013, subject to a phaseout for assets costing more than $2 million. However, when this provision expired after 2013, the limit for 2014 reverted to a paltry $25,000 with just a $200,000 phaseout threshold.

The Stone Seed Group is offering a $1,000 scholarship to Illinois High School Seniors. Write a 250-word essay and telling “Why agriculture is so important to Illinois and your life”. Submit your application and essay to www.StoneSeed.com/EssayContest  beginning October 1. The deadline for submission is November 30 and winners will be announced on or about January 1, 2015.

I would like to encourage farmers right now to on line to www.growcommunities.com “America’s Farmers Grow Communities – Monsanto Fund” and enter the Franklin County Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom Foundation for a chance to be awarded $2,500.  This will help to ensure the agricultural education of our Franklin County children.

Entrants must live or farm in Franklin County, be 21 years or older and actively engaged in farming a minimum of 250 acres of corn, soybeans and/or cucumbers. One entry per qualified person. Actively engaged means he or she performs the work, or hires and actively manages others who do so.

Franklin County Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom Foundation is a 501©(3) and falls in the guidelines of qualifying to receive this grant.

Entries must be received by November 30, 2014 to qualify.  We could use your help – our Ag in the Classroom program is completely funded by grants and donations and is well respected in the community. If you have any questions please call the office at 435-3616.

Visit us at www/fcfbil.org.

Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let us know.

I am a sap.

I like college football. I believe football and other team sports create reasonable rivalries and help bind people together who are committed to being members of a campus community. When my band plays my school song I nearly cry. (I’d post the lyrics but you’d need an interpreter).  I told you, I am a sap.  Belonging to something larger than oneself is satisfying and has value. That happens in classrooms, on campus malls, playing fields, on the bleachers and in the library.

Ray Rice has become a household name. It wasn’t his 4.37 second 40-yard dash, all the while weaving his 5’8″, 206-pound frame in and out of heavy traffic of 300 pounders; or his academic prowess at Rutgers where he never finished his degree, his role in helping the Scarlet Knights to their second bowl game in 136 years, his 4.3 average rushing yards per carry in his six years with the Baltimore Ravens, or any other stunning statistics. Rather it was a video tape of about 4.37 seconds that memorialized Mr. Rice into a household name.  The image captured him in a New Jersey casino elevator assaulting his then girlfriend, now wife: A mighty cold-cocking knock-out punch. Mr. Rice behaved as a thug; there is no other word for it.

Not the kind of man newly crowned Coach Charlie Strong wants on his football team at the University of Texas.  This neophyte helmsman of U.T.’s $100 million a year football enterprise is 1-1 this year after last week’s embarrassing drubbing from Brigham Young University. (Now 1-2, lost to UCLA over the weekend.) He has also released eight players off the UT squad. They wouldn’t follow the rules — Strong’s rules — to play a team sport. I will bet that some of these players served themselves, believing they are entitled to do what they want because of what they can do on the gridiron. Disobeying the rules won’t work for Coach Strong.  It didn’t work for Mr. Rice either, at least once when a security camera was running.

Team sports can empower people rather than entitle them: But only when participants are correctly coached, led to be part of something that is larger-than-self rather than self-serving.  It is early, and as my friend used to say “don’t brag about the dog before the hunt” but Coach Strong seems to be on a path that’s good for college football.  Mr. Rice and his ilk are working to destroy it.
It’s not a few players, and it’s not only football. I may be a sap, but I’m not a sucker. These people are killing a potent part of college life one-thug-at-a-time. Even coaches can be thugs: Ask Penn Staters. Additional programs, the list too long to iterate, have moral/behavioral/legal failures of coaches and players. They survive as Penn State will.

However, the enterprise is wounded for the satisfaction of a few. Eventually the toll may be much higher.
I was fortunate to have seen a few excellent football programs where first-rate coaches and AD’s held the line on personal expectations and teamwork. You can have it both ways, with leadership on and off the field.

According to the Wall Street Journal college football attendance is down nationally. Many big-time football programs have to give away tickets to fill the stands. Amazingly the experts blame the Internet. Too much accessibility they say — too many ways to watch they contend. It may be possible that the Ray Rices of the world and his kind, towards whom winks and nods are directed by athletic directors, boards of regents and trustees, university presidents, and coaches cause faltering fan interest. Possibly this decline in attendance could be attributed to the lost sense of purpose in team sports and saps who sit in the stands and want to see student athletes compete.

Something interesting is transpiring in the Lone Star State. Sportswriter Matt Hayes says “Charlie Strong isn’t putting up with any crap at Texas”.  I admire that. He’s leading. He’s a risk-taking, running-off-thugs, type of guy attempting to build a first-rate intercollegiate football program.
Coach Strong was targeted with trash-talk from a former Aggie quarterback — Johnny Football.  “Sorry Charlie…you’re not a part of the regime #SawEmOff,” he tweeted, according to Nick Schwartz.  For the uninitiated, this was a jibe from a former A&M student athlete.  It’s kid’s stuff.  Johnny Manziel might not be a thug, but there were some questionable events regarding endorsements, football camps, and personal behavior that were winked and nodded away.   A recent bird-flipping incident cost Mr. Football 12 grand, a tad more than a wink and a nod and nothing like Mr. Rice’s crime to be sure, but not dignified, not team-like, not sportsman-like, not Aggie-like (I hope) and not welcome to most.

The Aggies were always known as the institution where teamwork came first, winning and impressing the crowds would follow. This does not diminish Coach Kevin Sumlin of A&M: He is doing a great job.  Rather, it’s an observation regarding a culture that should be guarded everywhere.  The intrusions of “Beer and Circus” are powerful.  The University of Texas types were seen by Aggies as privileged, pampered, and self-indulgent, less oriented to the success of the team or institution, more self-indulgent.  Maybe, maybe not.

Coach Strong may have showed up to make the University of Texas more like Texas A&M University.  If it’s old school A&M I wish him every success.

Remember I’m a sap.

As colleges across the nation open their doors to anxious freshmen the value and worth of this or that degree, at College X or College Y attracts intense scrutiny.  Everything from earning capacity to preparation for adulthood, even happiness and contentment seems to fall in the laps of universities.

Recently released “Aspiring Adults Adrift: Tentative Transitions of College Graduates,” by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa confirms concerns.  And some institutions willingly and foolishly accept unrealistic expectations without qualification for anyone with the minimum preparation, paltry determination as long as he or she has a preapproved loan package.  Too little bang, for too much buck, creates a burden for too many.

Universities have lackluster records in aligning costs, benefits, and honest appraisals of the nature and value of various opportunities for study for individual students:  Institutional incompetence leads to widespread discontent and debt for graduates and non-completers alike.  As an educator I believe that the study of almost anything has merit and value, but sticker-price and dreams must be part of the equation.  To help students and families choreograph value, cost and expectation each student, in every program of study, at any institution must be tended to individually.  He or she must be self-preserving in personal decision-making.

The brightest most-likely-to-be-successful students visit places of study a year in advance of actual enrollment. I can guess, with alarming accuracy that at times surprises me, ACT scores, GPA’s and class rank, and even courses taken and planned for the senior year of high school, simply by looking at the calendar on my watch.   It shocks people.  Early visits show planning, preparation and purpose, and answers the most important question of the potential student — Is this institution a good fit for me, my aspirations and my abilities?   A learner who shows up a week before classes starts and says,“Can I still get in for the fall semester?” is almost always doomed to failure.

Exceptions exist, for a cacophony of reasons, to prove the rule.

Defenders of the status quo say the high cost of a college degree is worth it and that the net value has increased over the past 40 years.
Yet another group suggests that the value of college has been over-hyped. Surprisingly, Robert Reich, with an endowed chair at the best public university in the world, says that universities are not always worth it: An interesting perspective, considering Dr. Reich’s places of employment and political persuasion.

Some even suggest that a college education is not investment. George Leef observes, “College itself isn’t in investment, just one way of increasing your value.” A fine point in the discussion?  Playing with words?  Possibly.  Too close to the truth for comfort especially for those looking guarantees of any kind, from any occupation, after graduating from any university.

Whether it’s an investment or the creation of potential value there are some things that all who consider attending college should address. Save early, find scholarships or free money, work while you’re in school, and considering all options are pieces of advice that can’t be overvalued in an increasingly competitive collegiate recruiting environment.  When admissions officers are more interested in generating enrollment and revenue, rather than creating a life-changing experience for students, this advice rings especially true.

The bang of a college education only resonates when coupled with the values of the student who seizes the educational opportunity afforded by the experience of collegiate study through individual action.  Hard work, diligence and a commitment to achieve through positive contributions to an enterprise will turn a degree from a little known regional public university into a benefit-for-life to its holder who utilizes the opportunity provided. Students should expect little other than cocktail party conversation holding a degree from an elite private institution or state flagship campus if the opportunity provided, by and through it, is squandered.  All of this no matter what the tuition and fees are — even the program of study.

That is the bang the buck provides, and it is personal and internal, not public and externally certified by a piece of paper:  And, the burden will be light if borne by industriousness.

The basis for President Obama’s action to cap student loan responsibility at 10% of earned income for 20 years (10/20 plan) is that education is a public good and the public should pay for it. Parts of the public, employers and lenders, receive significant benefits from subsidized education:  an educated worker through which to build effectiveness and/or profit on the one hand, and interest payments on long-term debt on the other hand.  The student is left holding the bag with both hands.

“Much of today’s American workforce is engaged in roundabout production, which Böhm-Bawerk [Austrian economist] equated with capital. There is no longer a meaningful distinction between labor and capital. Labor is capital.”
— Arnold Kling —
____________________________________________

By Walter V. Wendler

Starbucks and Arizona State University (ASU) announced a deal on Sunday: Starbucks employees who are juniors or seniors would be provided reimbursement for online education at ASU. The agreement shows insightful, mutually beneficial, action to reduce long-term indebtedness of student borrowers.  It should be the tip of an iceberg of innovation.

Social and personal benefits accrue when an individual has critical thinking skills, insights and abilities that have value — and, in short, is educated. Students bear the brunt of educational costs with a lifelong encumbrance to pay for the four-year university experience. For better or worse the 10/20 plan predictably retires debt forever.  Remaining balances are picked up by the taxpayer.

The 10/20 concept has hidden costs. Students may take on debt that exceeds what the 10/20 plan will ever repay; select majors in which no jobs exist or pay scales are low; be underprepared or uncommitted; or attend slovenly universities bloated with excess and overhead.  Graduates, lenders, employers, and universities relieved of debt without accountability create an unhealthy dependence on taxpayers and teach poor citizenship, stewardship, leadership, and guardianship.

Responsive and interactive repayment responsibility could be individually negotiated at any time before debt retirement, based on market forces. Innovation, not strangulation, is required.  A form of market homeostasis follows.

Debt is a commodity: The debt required to attain an education should be available to be traded as a commodity. “Labor is capital.” As major beneficiaries of this capital, public and private sector employers could share some responsibility by taking on a share of an employee’s obligation as a benefit of employment.  Debt of a non-performing or transient employee might revert to the individual. A two-way warranty exists.  Incentives and permutations abound without limit in the triangle of interest created by graduate, employer, and lender.

For example, an elementary education graduate with significant indebtedness may never pay the full loan amount under the 10/20 plan.  The school system could assume all or part of a graduate’s obligation as a condition of employment: an after-the-fact scholarship when excellence has been demonstrated.  Some schools, public and private, already operate from this vantage point, creating interdependence between employee and employer, with opportunity for lenders to favorably restructure debt in response to the marketplace: need, skill, ability and obligation.
Individual negotiations: Likewise, corporations might hire graduates with market-responsive loan pay-offs negotiated between graduate, lender, and the employer to benefit all. The employer who gains most from the capital of labor accrues a direct benefit as employee effectiveness is increased.  Tax incentives should be legislatively reinforced into the equation.

Reduced time to payoff:  Additionally, employers could negotiate with graduates and lenders to purchase debt in a shorter timeframe as a “carrot” to the strongest graduates providing “earned” liberty to stay or go, debt-free, in response to the time-value of money.  Such negotiated payment puts the lenders in a role as a motivated partner in the loan liquidation process as risk is reduced.

Lower costs of college:  Thoughtful students and families might select more cost-efficient, reduced frill, academically focused universities, because graduates carry less debt to pay off and lower “buy-down” costs to employers. Effective schools create more lucrative commodities (sorry, graduates with lower debt) and thereby attract more, and potentially stronger, students.

Limiting federal government involvement to last ditch bailouts (21st century educational bankruptcy protection), the 10/20 plan could energize the market and entrepreneurial instincts of students, lenders, employers, and universities to create millions of “good deals.”
Simple immunity from debt’s burden is not a good deal but a treacherous seduction.

The pundits are correct. University education costs too much and students without motivation, interest or preparation for university work are a burden to themselves and society – now for 24 years. Bankrupt graduates floating from job to job contribute little to anything except statistical wins in the number of college graduates. Education with no gainful employment, or productive graduate study opportunity, is a lose-lose proposition.
Our universities must be imaginative in finding ways to curtail and align costs for higher education. Additionally, students, employers, and lenders in a triangle of shared responsibility present an appealingly powerful market based approach that shines in contrast to walk-away loan forgiveness.
Buyers — students, lenders, and employers — beware.