AGI Not AIG: A Better Use of Tax Dollars
Sometime just a few year back I realized that the $50 bill was now the new $20. Whether it was groceries or gas, a trip to the movies or forty pounds of dog food, the $20 would no longer suffice. Almost without noticing, the sober countenance of “Old Hickory” was replaced in my wallet by a small army of burly Civil War generals, all with a penchant for fine cigars and good whiskey. $20? A quaint memento of the past, like penny loafers or the “Five and Dime.”
I had the same rush of feeling yesterday when Obama made his official announcement about the $12 billion American Graduation Initiative , a program to “cap and gown” an additional 5 million young adults from two year institutions. This is the biggest push CC’s have received since Harry Truman made them a post-war priority for returning vets, unemployed and unskilled in a modern world–just like today’s high school grads.
Though I agree that the U.S. seems to be printing money in numbers unimaginable to Gutenberg (will the $100 become the new $50?), there does seem to be a consistent philosophy and theme around the Obama Administration’s multiple pushes on the education front. The United States, for many years, has been falling behind the rest of the world in education, principally in math and science. High School is now equivalent to the “Common School” period of the 19th century, when free, basic classroom education ( think: The Three R’s) was first offered to every American; and the skill set in high school, while not 19th century, is far less than what is required for America to sustain its fast- shrinking reputation as the first choice for higher education.
I am the product of a community college, junior college in the old days, because I was directionless and broke after high school. The CC I went to was a great way for me to get some bearing on my life and to eventually move forward to a 4 year institution and grad school. Community colleges have evolved since then, and are terrific places to nail down a two year degree in fields ranging from law enforcement to health, from engineering to information technology. But, the idea of making an Associate Degree the “new norm” in our educational system has merit beyond jobs and careers. If we are to continue to lead the world or, more broadly, mankind, as the influential culture and dominant innovator of the age, we need to pay the greatest possible attention to education. If Obama accomplishes nothing else besides a vastly improved educational system, he will have given us much.
If your son or daughter is unsure, unready, even unmotivated, push them past high school to the door of a community college near you. It’s no longer an “advanced” degree, it’s an “essential” degree to prepare them for their own future.
Tell them how the $50 bill has become the new $20.
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