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.

This week will mark the 59^th anniversary of the Sesser Homecoming Rend Lake Days. Coinciding with that event will be the 50^th anniversary of “The Great Sesser Homecoming Ticket Heist.”

Let me explain.

As a kid growing up in Sesser the annual homecoming that was held in the city park in the third week of June, was always the highlight of the summer. My main goal through the months of April and May was to save as much money as I could mowing yards so I’d have a pocket full of cash when the James Jackson Shows and Rides rolled into town.

Actually, back then a ‘pocket full of cash’ might have amounted to $15 or $20 bucks but in those days it was a windfall. And knowing my enthusiasm my mom would always hand me three or four Eagle Stamp books a few days before the Homecoming – books that she now doubt had been saving for weeks. I would happily go redeem them – I think they were worth $1.50 apiece – and add the proceeds to my stash.

Also, every year when the ‘carnies’ rolled into town I would head to the Sesser City Park on my trusty bicycle where I was joined by an assortment of other knuckleheads. There, we would spend the entire day watching the workers assemble the assortment of rides while counting the minutes until the homecoming became alive with excitement.

One year, when I was 11 years old, we were at the park and we were all straddling our bicycles very near one of the small booths where ride tickets are sold. Noticing that no one was around one of my friends reached into the booth and grabbed an entire roll of carnival ride tickets. Looking back, there must have been 5,000 tickets on that roll.

As he headed out of the park with the stash shoved up under his shirt, for a reason to this day that I don’t understand, I tagged right along behind him. Much like the cowboys in the movies who rob a bank and then head to a safe house to divide the loot, we decided to ride our bikes to Sesser Lake, located a couple of miles southeast of town, to divvy up the cache of yellow ride tickets. To say that I had visions of endless Ferris wheel and tilt-a-whirl rides on my mind would have been an understatement. As a carnival junkie I had just hit the mother lode.

We realized quickly that we had far more tickets than we could use so we played like Robin Hood – steal from the rich and give to the poor — and began dispersing yellow ride tickets all over town. Soon the word spread in the kid community throughout Sesser and we had guys looking for us hoping to ‘score’ some of the hot (in more ways than one) tickets.

Everything was going along without a hitch until the day that the homecoming was scheduled to start. I headed to town that morning and was soon met by my accomplice who was frantic and talking a mile a minute. During times in the conversation when he was coherent he related that he overheard his parents talking about some ‘stolen ride tickets.’ He said the police had been notified and that the color of ride tickets had been changed to blue. According to his story, anybody with a yellow ticket would be arrested.

As I listened to him talk, and my 11-year-old mind surmised the situation, I realized that was my last day of freedom on Earth. I was certain that I would be sent to prison and celled up with a guy with tattoos, body odor and no teeth. Life as I knew it and enjoyed it would be over.

Actually, the thought of being arrested, sent to prison and branded as a thief paled in comparison to what I knew would happen if my dad found out. The thought of the police and sharing a cell with Bubba was one thing, but the thought of Bill Muir planting a boot in the seat of my pants was something else. For those of you who consider that child abuse, my dad would quickly tell you it was the most successful way he found to deal with a heathen child.

After a few minutes of remorse followed quickly by panic we decided that we still had time to try and round up the stolen tickets. We must have ridden our bikes 50 miles that day trying to recover those blasted yellow tickets and were successful finding everybody but one person. Only minutes before the rides were scheduled to start we found out that the one person we were looking for was already at the homecoming, so we made a frantic run for the park. We found him happily standing in line at the Ferris wheel with a yellow ticket clinched in his hand. We managed to get to him before he got to the ticket-taker, and in the process spared ourselves a lengthy prison sentence.

I plan to attend the Sesser Homecoming this weekend and enjoy one of those delicious barbeques and some roasted corn. And in the unlikely event that I decide to venture on one of the many carnival rides you can be certain that I will gladly pay for the ticket because I still vividly recall that harrowing June day 50 years ago when “The Great Sesser Homecoming Ticket Heist” scared me straight and quickly ended my life of crime.

Congratulations, Mr. President! And identical congrats to your sorcerer’s apprentice, National Security Adviser Susan Rice. By trying to sell him as an American hero, you’ve turned a deserter already despised by soldiers in the know into quite possibly the most-hated individual soldier in the history of our military.

Here’s the link to the column at Real Clear Politics.

‘The red line of the unthinkable has been moved again.’

Those 10 poignant words by a psychologist discussing the massacre of 26 people – 20 of them six and seven-year-old children –  at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, sums up the world that we live in nowadays.

This event coupled with a never-ending 24-hour news loop on cable television prompts the same reaction that we have become accustomed to when there is yet another mass killing – revulsion, anger, fear, dread and the inevitable finger-pointing about why.

The bodies of the victims had not been identified on Friday before suggestions on how to prevent another mass shooting started.  Talking heads on television, people on message boards and of course politicians always looking to further their cause and re-election all had a variety of answers on how to make life in the 21st Century safe.

And of course passing tougher and more stringent gun control measures is as always at the top of the list. Others want to have an armed security guard at every school in America while some believe that arming school officials and teachers is the answer. Others say add prayer back to our schools and these horrific mass killings will stop.

While all these issues merit discussion I believe attempting to find an answer to what is happening in our country lies much deeper.

Let me explain.

Several years ago I wrote a series of columns about what I called the subtle erosion of America.  Certainly, this point of view will be looked at by some as simplistic because I’m from a generation that grew up before Columbine, West Paducah, Pearl and now Newtown.

The way this erosion works is a simple two-step process. You see, what once shocked us and made us gasp and recoil in horror now barely merits a raised eyebrow. What once was considered perverse and bizarre is now considered the norm. And what once was looked at as outlandish, unheard of and over-the-top is now considered to merely be routine.

And this has happened because a silent majority has failed to speak up and voice their opinion and take action when necessary.

The second step in this erosion takes place when every person that does have the courage to offer a differing view is quickly shouted down and labeled as judgmental, moralistic and bigoted … and, of course let’s not forget the pet word of those leading this erosion – intolerant. Not wanting to meet the wrath of this group, who by the way, might be the most intolerant and judgmental crowd that exists, most people do as they’re told and shut up.

And that’s allowed the erosion to take place, one small step at a time. The direct result of this erosion is that we are now a country where God has been booted from the courthouse, the schoolhouse and virtually every other aspect of life. After all, we’ve been told, we must be tolerant and not offend anybody.

Now, here we are in 2012 looking for reasons why a 20-year-old man who has no conscious or value of life could open fire at close range on a group of innocent babies. While all the arguments being tossed out might be symptoms of what is taking place the disease that is causing young men to kill at will I believe, is a cultural issue.

Consider this.

During this erosion we have allowed a culture where a generation of young people have embraced songs that talk about killing, rape and shooting police officers and its celebrated as freedom of expression.

We have allowed a culture of violent video games where people are massacred and slaughtered and these are then gobbled up by parents for their childrens’ entertainment and as a babysitter.  Again, freedom of expression.

We have allowed a culture where children think reality television is real, where teen pregnancy is glamorized, where a gangsta lifestyle is a goal for some and where 90-plus percent of what is on television is trash and not fit for any eyes, let alone the eyes of troubled young people.

We live in a culture where small children are routinely given anti-depressants and psychotropic drugs even though the effects of those drugs are many times violent, irrational and unpredictable behavior. We live in a culture where mental illness is still talked about in hushed tones and in many instances completely overlooked.  Out of sight … out of mind, right?  Well, out of sight that is until a mentally ill person opens fire in a first grade classroom.

In short, what shattered the tranquil setting of the small New England town of Newtown is a cultural issue caused by the erosion of America and no amount of gun control legislation or armed security guards can protect any of us from a deranged shooter hell-bent on killing.  Shootings in malls, movie theaters, crowded street corners and even churches is proof of that.  Ironically, the morning after the shooting I read a story in the Chicago Tribune with the headline: 10 people including four teens shot overnight on South Side.’  And Chicago has the strictest gun laws in the nation.

As a footnote, let me add that I think the prayer in school issue certainly adds irony to what has taken place in Newtown.  In my life I have watched as God was literally booted out of the schoolhouse by a small minority of people – part of the erosion of America group.  And again this erosion has taken place because the majority stood back and allowed it to happen.  And perhaps the Christian community is the most at fault because they have sat on their collective hands and ‘shut up’ as they were told.

But, isn’t it ironic that nearly every comment and every plea from everybody involved in the Newtown massacre has asked that the victims of this horrific and senseless act be remembered in prayers. I also found it interesting that when the crazed gunman was in the building that teachers and children turned to God and prayer to protect them and in the days since the killings there have been countless prayer vigils.  There used to be a saying that stated ‘there are no atheists in foxholes.’  I guess the 21st Century version of that is that ‘there are no atheists in schools and its OK to pray in the classroom when a deranged gunman is hunting for somebody to shoot.’

Gun control, armed guards, armed school administrators, prayer in schools and beefed up security are all items that merit attention but only after the cultural issue — the root of this problem — is addressed.  Because, if this is life in the 21st Century there is no place of safety that exists and God help us all.

If we continue on the path we are on, as horrific as it is to imagine, that ‘red line of the unthinkable’ will move again one day – because the erosion will continue and it will happen.

By Gay Bowlin, Manager

Farmers in Franklin County have been very busy this past week – finally we have nice DRY weather and corn has been planted.  Not everyone has all of their crops in but are on the downhill side of finishing up planting.

Corn growers in Illinois and elsewhere are nearing the homestretch of their spring planting.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says 84 percent of Illinois’ corn crop is now in the ground. That’s 11 percentage points above the average pace of the previous five years. Last year at this time, just two-thirds of the state’s crop had been planted. That’s because one of the wettest springs on record got farmers in many states off to the slowest start in decades.

Roughly 60 percent of Illinois’ corn crop already has emerged, up 15 percent from the five-year average and nearly twice the national rate.

Nationwide, nearly three-quarters of the corn crop is planted.

Negotiations on Illinois Farm Bureau’s (IFB) Covered Farm Vehicle legislation, SB 3398, have led to a compromise proposal.

The compromise would allow owners of trucks with class B or D license plates to have their truck designated as a Covered Farm Vehicle through the registration of that vehicle.  A $10 annual surcharge would be added, but only if the owner seeks to have his truck designated as a Covered Farm Vehicle.  The Secretary of State would provide a designation on the registration card identifying the truck as a Covered Farm Vehicle when pulling a farm plated trailer or an implement of husbandry.  This designation would signify to enforcement officers that the vehicle, when used in combination with a farm plated trailer or implement of husbandry, is a Covered Farm Vehicle.

SB 3398 would allow the smallest trucks—pickups and dualies—to qualify for the farm exemptions as larger trucks when pulling a farm plated trailer or implement of husbandry. However, it also preserves the small truck’s utility as a multi-use family vehicle because it does not limit the truck’s use to only farm transportation.  Currently in Illinois, these smaller trucks do not qualify for the exemptions because they typically do not have a farm plate.

The designation as a Covered Farm Vehicle provides several benefits for farmers. It provides consistency with the exemptions from trucking regulations allowed for larger trucks that carry farm plates, helping to minimize confusion. Farmers who have larger trucks with farm plates would not have to meet differing regulations simply to operate their smaller trucks pulling farm-plated trailers or implements of husbandry, as they do currently.

Farmers with smaller trucks designated as Covered Farm Vehicles would also be exempted from medical card requirements thus reducing costs for farmers.

The exemptions also eliminate hours of service restrictions for operators of trucks designated as Covered Farm Vehicles and eliminates the need for pre-trip and post-trip inspections of the vehicle. However, it is still a good idea to do those inspections.  This designation also extends the CDL exemption to employees of the farmer.  By doing so, the employee would also be exempted from drug and alcohol testing for operation of truck-trailer combinations over 26,001 pounds, again reducing costs by eliminating this potential expense.

Because these non-farm-plated trucks do not currently meet the definition of a Covered Farm Vehicle in Illinois regulations, this compromise provides needed regulatory certainty and the ability to avoid additional costs for Illinois farmers operating smaller trucks pulling farm plated trailers or implements of husbandry.

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

 

Universities should be sharply focused on academic excellence and helping students develop the power to think.  Thinking and doing creates value.  And jobs follow like a “shadow on dry thirsty land.”  Employment will be a place of refuge for thought and action — not a guarantee or an accoutrement — contributing to the essence of a person when accompanied by the ability and freedom to work.

“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.”

— Jim Morrison —
_______________________

Invariably when someone comments about the current state of higher education and its seemingly pale performance evidenced in the production of junk degrees and graduates ill-prepared for work, the sneered response from my confederates is, “Oh, so the University exists to provide people jobs?”

Not for a nano-second.

However, if the university cannot produce people capable of performing valuable work, it has failed.  Higher education’s nanny complex is a fabrication of Mad Men caricatures trying to make institutions appear valuable.  When students learn to think, the power to perform and compete is not far behind. Work, not meal tickets, is the goal.

Good universities are economic engines because students graduate with ability. An open society operates through Smith’s “invisible hand of the marketplace.” People who can think and do in the pressure cooker of the market have social and economic value as their skills and abilities help create well-functioning communities. They can work.

Accepting the concept that an education is a guarantee of employability is a mistake and demeans the significance of ability and insight. A good education always leads to employability whether developed through Chaucer or commerce, philosophy or physics, engineering or sociology.  Thinking, productive people are a university’s currency.

Graduates running about waving a certificate claiming “I have an education!” may have been misled by the university, elected officials, ignorance or “Me” magazine. What the holder possesses is an increasingly expensive, heavily mortgaged document guaranteeing little or nothing — to everyone’s dismay — especially those poor souls racked with debt.

Universities, their leaders, and graduates, like football coaches, are judged by their record. A coach is not evaluated by the number of first downs, fumbles lost or recovered, yards gained or lost, the size of the stadium, the attendance records, or anything else related to the game.  It’s the won-lost record. (I want to say stupid but I don’t like that word.)  Performance clarity exists in universities, and the best indicator is an honest and willing appraisal of a progeny’s ability to work.

The Economist ran a story last week under the heading, “Is College Worth it?”  The top 10 universities when measured by return on investment from graduates over a 20-year period are without surprise.  They are the best academic institutions on the planet, some you haven’t heard of, and their graduates can think and do and perform work.

“It’s the jobs, stupid,” to borrow a bit from James Carville, Clinton’s main campaign adviser, who developed the “It’s the economy, stupid” mantra used to deny President George H.W. Bush a second term.

Likewise, the won-lost record for universities is jobs.  Not finagling statistics to create impressions, but the ultimate measure of value — meaningful work.  When students are challenged by adroit faculty who themselves produce knowledge and insight and share it with aspiring minds, graduates have an offering to make at the altar of the marketplace.

Students suffer when pabulum is tolerated and degrees are doled out like candy because people pay tuition. Intellectual perspective is not developed, adhered to, and nurtured.  Work is a far-off concept.   Universities fail because indoctrination to a blithely accepted mindset that the degree is a meal ticket prevails.

Proselytization perhaps, but not enduring education.

People with purposeful educational experiences buck the trend in the harsh light of the marketplace and in the quiet light of their daily lives. Numerous educators fear education, pandering to predisposition rather than seeing students as the future workers of a free society. Chaucer, physics, humanities, engineering, the arts, all have value when studied in earnest and results are worked for. The subject matter matters not, but working for any positive result has great value.

Effective universities create jobs because they create people who have the audacity to think clearly and freely. If at any time that free inquiry leads to socialization rather than insight and ability, the student and the university have failed.
Our universities need commitment to the development of thinking and doing capacity in graduates. The question of worth will answer itself in a shift from certified attendance to demonstrated ability.

Able workers win.