Throw Money At Higher Ed - Road to the Middle Class

ARIZONA Governor Janet Napolitano want to spend more money on higher education according to Matthew Ladner from the Arizona based Goldwater Institute.

“We must recognize that higher education is something that all Arizona children will need to succeed,” stated Governor Napolitano.

The governor wants to increase funding to double the number of college graduates in Arizona by 2020. But others think that the supposed “dire need for an ever increasing number of college graduates is a myth.”

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, only 29 percent of all jobs actually required a degree in 2004. The Bureau projects that of the top ten occupations with the largest growth from 2004 to 2014, seventy percent won’t require a college education.

Already 40 percent of people get a two or four-year college degree. So we are already graduating more college graduates than we need.

Of course, Arizona’s university system performance isn’t exactly something to write home about. According to Ladner:

The National Center for Education Statistics lists Arizona State’s four year graduation rate as 28 percent, the University of Arizona at 30 and Northern Arizona University at 27. The six year graduation rates for these three schools stand at 56%, 56% and 47% respectively.

How about improving the current performance of the under-performing Arizona university system? One way of doing that would be by giving college student higher education vouchers so that the state university system would have to compete for student dollars. Arizona already has such a program.

Because no good deed goes unpunished, Governor Napolitano recommended that the Arizona legislature cut funding for the voucher program.

Governor Napolitano is a Democrat.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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