Americans are increasingly wondering if liberal arts colleges are worth the cost to both students and taxpayers. After noting the most important deficiencies, I propose a set of reforms.
Deficiencies of Liberal Education
Balanced Education. Liberal arts colleges are supposed to deliver a balanced education. The humanities explore the great issues of the human condition, and the means by which these compelling issues can be expressed. Science enables us to understand the natural world. And the social sciences focus on how people organize and interact in groups.
Increasingly, however, these requirements have been diluted, with more and more “gut” (easy) courses, as well as many of debatable value, such as courses focusing on popular culture and sex.
Another important issue is the proliferation of studies on ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. When I attended college, I did not assume, this being America, that the sociological, religious, and biological conditions of my birth were destiny. Instead, I expected to develop the critical thinking skills necessary to retain or reject these circumstances as appropriate.
However, what is increasingly appearing as “education” is the belief that all members of a group must think alike. The United States has undergone a revolution in our approach to diversity, and it is reasonable to assume at this point that the extreme focus on these issues, rather than on what unites us, is counterproductive.
Educational Standards. Extensive grade inflation has diluted grades as a measure of learning.
Intellectual Discussion and Tolerance. One of the most important goals of liberal education is to discover what is true. The best way to approach this challenging goal is to encourage different points of view, backed up by logical thinking and evidence. Yet, to an alarming degree, the cultural and political points of view presented represent one side, and, to make matters worse, we regularly observe disruption of speakers with opposing views, including violence, with minimal consequences for the offenders.
Reasonable Costs. College costs have been rising much faster than most other segments of the economy, including medicine. The cost of a four-year education at a private college can easily reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, more if one counts the likely loss of four years of earnings. And some institutions are starting to resemble luxury resorts.
Total student debt is now well above a trillion dollars. This means the quality of the lives of graduating students has been greatly diminished by major debt burdens, and the overall economy has been weakened as well. And despite the promises of politicians to make education “free,” an impossible task, all that can be done in the absence of reform is to shift more of the burden to taxpayers, including many without children attending college.
Until recently, the fact that college graduates earn more than high school graduates, a justification of the high cost, was implicitly assumed to be the result of what they learned in college. Such comparisons reverse cause and effect. To a very large extent, the more ambitious and academically able students attend college, and that, not what they learn, is why they are more successful. In any case, with the rising number of unemployed graduates, this debate has become increasingly outdated.
