sounds like real college sleep thought some classes and just cram for the test and pass.

http://articles.chicagotribune...

Could millions of college dropouts get a second chance through a GED-style equivalent of a college diploma? In today's age of blue-collar blues and online education, the idea of college-equivalency exams doesn't sound so outlandish anymore.

These are the new realities: The high school diploma is not the gateway to the middle class that it used to be. Amid new corporate efficiencies and the migration of high-paying, low-skilled jobs overseas since the 1950s, growing numbers of college graduates are occupying jobs like postal worker or restaurant manager that used to be filled by high school grads.

The results are new pressures on blue-collar families and the sort of class tensions voiced by presidential candidate Rick Santorum with his recent verbal jab ("What a snob!") at President Barack Obama's push for more college attendance. In fact, Obama, like Santorum, also has been a major cheerleader for community colleges and trade schools. He did not say college was something everyone should do; rather, he said it is "an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford."

Yet, give Santorum his due. He touched on a reality that deserves more public discussion: College isn't for everyone. Some very bright students thrive better while learning a hands-on trade, for example, than they do in a classroom. Others simply can't afford the time or tuition of college because of their personal circumstances.

As a result, the percentage of college graduates who come from households in the bottom fourth of income earners — as I did — has declined to only 7.2 percent from 12 percent in 1970, according to Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder, who also is director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

Santorum's remarks while campaigning in Michigan moved me to call Vedder, whom I have known since he tried to put some economics knowledge into my noggin when I was one of his students many years ago.

Author of the 2004 book "Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much," Vedder sees a disconnect between the cost of college and the needs of the job market. He has found as many as one out of three college graduates today to be in jobs that historically were filled by people with less education.

"These are jobs that do not require higher-level learning skills, critical thinking skills, or writing skills or anything of that nature," he said in a telephone interview.

At the same time, we see cheaper alternatives to college like online education growing to the point where we see Internet Age stories like online student Kayla Heard. The Union, Wash., 16-year-old graduated last year from Washington State University with a 3.7 grade-point average in social sciences without ever stepping on campus, except to pick up her diploma.

Let's go a step further, says Vedder.

"As college costs rise," he said, "people are asking: Aren't there cheaper ways of certifying competence and skills to employers?"

People typically believe there are no good substitutes for college. But if prospective employees can certify to potential employers that they are as bright, knowledgeable, good at communicating and eager to learn as a better-than-average college graduate, they can present themselves as a bargain — willing to accept wages that are higher than normal high-school-graduate standards but low compared to most college-graduate salaries.

Vedder is encouraged by recent agreements between the Education Testing Service, which operates the famed SAT test for the College Board, and the Council for Aid to Education to provide competency test materials to students online through StraighterLine, an online education firm. The challenge is to persuade college-accreditation organizations and the business community that collegiate certification can be as reliable as the 70-year-old GED, which certifies high school equivalencies.

There are challenges, of course. College-level testing would have to be more than a multiple-choice list. It would have to be a fair judge of critical thinking, among other factors, and it would have to pass muster regarding suspected racial or gender bias. But these challenges are not unbeatable. At a time when economic success is increasingly defined by educational achievement beyond high school, future generations need as many alternatives as we can offer.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune's editorial board, blogs at chicagotribune.com/pagespage

cpage@tribune.com

Twitter @cptime

Now we don't need to get rid of all of the old college system but most people will be better off in more community college, tech school, trade school, boot camp (tech school) then the old college. Also need more REAL apprenticeships that are not tied to college and have real work in them (no coffee boy ones)

will fail when jail / prison is better then paying back loans at the mc job wage and it comes with free room, board and doctors.

and trade schools are roped into the college system as well.

Now I think that tech / trades schools can be better off by not being tied down to the old college degree system. At least they have way less filler and fluff classes that other schools have.

IP's with out ISP logs are useless and even if they have them ones from public networks are dead ends unless they have full logs as well.

if you need workers that bad to get H1-b then you must pay OT.

So you can make them pull 60-80+ weeks to get the work of 2 people out of 1.

well in the past and still now?

Some people where better off staying on unemployment and not taking any job as at times unemployment payed more then some part to semi full time mc job.

also some people where better off working part time at min wage as if they moved up to full they lost there medicare / medicaid and they only plans for them where shity mini med plans.

also forced OT pay for h1-B's.

no more of this you make them work 60-80 hours a week with no OT pay.

http://www.amfanational.org/

  aircraft mechanics have a union for that

Did is what they get for outsourcing IT.

Even if they still had some stuff still in house things can get lost in the shuffle

You can not blog or cook!

we need a shorter education system so people can learn new skills with out having to go school for years or having to play college credit transfer games.

When some kind of an badges system can work better.

some pays the coders $$ so that they will win

and gop land jail / prison doctor and other staff.

The GOP wants to get rid of ER laws and then the only way to get to see one is to go to jail / prison and sue use the us constitution cruel and unusual punishment part to get a doctor.