Opinion
 

Excess education is hurting the job market

Paul Saleeba

You student! You are overvalued -- you are a burden to your parents and the government. 

Thankfully, President Bush is remedying this problem with his cutting of federal education spending and the No Child Left Behind Act.

The problem is that the U.S. educational system is inefficient as a tool of industry. It produces workers who are overeducated and overvalued, forcing corporations to outsource to overseas competitors. Bleeding-heart liberals keep pushing up the costs and demand stupid things like healthcare, benefits and child care. This costs money; much of which has already been spent overeducating the average American, thus causing him to be overvalued as a worker.

The solution is simple, and the Bush administration has begun to implement changes to devalue the American worker. First Bush proposed the No Child Left Behind Act, which would be a liberal's dream. It's expensive, bulky, imposes rules, penalizes failure rates and includes mandatory testing. However, Bush fooled them for their own good, while he gave them on paper what they wanted, higher standards and, most of all, funding. But when it came time for the budget, he slashed the education budget and with it the No Child Left Behind Act.

Let's face it. When Billy stops making good grades at age 14 and decides to start bullying the good kids, he's become a financial black hole in our educational system. He is human waste, he takes up the teacher's time by being disruptive, demanding attention and disrupting the flow of cash to better students. If Billy stays in the system as it is -- a system which challenges poor Billy -- it'll be another four years before he begins his productive career as a dishwasher, which is a desperately under-utilized position for American workers. They are who are often passed over for this job as they are arrogant and want a job that pays. But since these liberals would insist that Billy stay in school until he's 18, dragging down test scores and being introduced to drugs. He'll not only lose four productive years, but become a godless drug user too. If only he had dropped out sooner and joined America's work force. His timely entry to the real world would allow him to take advantage of the thousands of jobs created under the Bush administration. But once again those liberals are just going to force an employer to hire some migrant worker who can't even speak proper English for the privilege of washing American dishes.

And with fewer kids having dreams of higher education as they leave the system, which helps raise a school's scores, and college tuition growing by as much as 20 percent this semester in some places, the government's burden from college will go down over time. The value of a college degree will soon stabilize as the future graduates will stabilize and soon come into line with those in India. Less supply plus this high demand is sure to mean that our graduates will be better off, right?

Saleeba, a columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at marskitt3n@hotmail.com.