A Useless Education?

A recent article in the New York Times detailed the financial boom experienced by for-profit trade schools who have experienced as windfall at the intersection of a terrible job market, an economy in recession, and a broken federal educational aid system which is putting taxpayer-funded Pell Grant money in questionable places.

The article puts the spotlight largely on trade schools such as ITT Technical Institute, Apex Tech, WyoTech, but also wagged the finger at culinary schools such as Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland, Oregon. These schools cost upwards of $20,000 per year, and many pundits have maintained that it's almost impossible for the return on investment to net positive for students that enter these schools, largely because (1) the abundant supply of people who already have these skills have made demand, and subsequently the salaries offered, for this work so low, and/or (2) those who are hiring place little value in these trade-degrees, with one executive chef at a local Portland upscale restaurant saying (to those who have the degree), "I'm going to treat you like you don't know anything. (The education) doesn't really give you an edge." Take this comment and juxtapose with the claims of the president and the vice president of culinary arts in the article, and you have to wonder if these trade schools, which market are outright predatory - stealing money from desperate people knowing darn well they'll never make it back.

I've had some lively discussions with my wife and some of my friends in terms of the value of a liberal arts eduction, some of which is reflected in an earlier post. Some of my friends find it utterly useless and impractical insomuch it doesn't provide a clear path to gainful employment. Others, such as my wife, insist that a liberal arts education is critical, because it serves as foundation of why and how you do anything, which needs to precede learning about the what (the trade skills).

Unfortunately through these for-profit trade schools which are providing useless skills (or at least non-value added in comparison to "on the job" experience) in a saturated market, they've managed to find a way to be even worse than a liberal arts education. Not only will your egg poaching and diesel-engine repair skills show little incremental superiority over others, but you won't be able to channel Descartes or Plato to figure out why you've dumped $40,000 on a meaningless degree.