After reading a lot of other comments, I must say that this column is getting attention, and the views listed cover the whole political realm.

Whoever it was that hit on NAFTA was half right. The legislation that supposedly opened up our markets so we could sell more stuff to other nations did not work out as planned. Why?
The answer is that our corporations found loopholes that let them move jobs overseas; even high tech jobs. My company tossed out 9000 people with advanced degrees just because the stock price went down a bit and a bunch of millionaire venture capitalists tried to make millions on new startups that supposedly could build the same stuff. We are in the aftermath of a bubble burst, just as many were in after the dot com bust. Next time, lets get our congress a bit more educated so that they are not simply taking orders from the big banks.

This argument is precisely why the people in this state have to tell our new governor to change his thinking on education. Can you believe that Walker's new budget explicitly blocks aid in this area of math and science? In turn, he gave millions to support of private schools and cut taxes for his wealthy pals.

As a retired engineer who was the first in my entire family history to go to college, I can say I made it. I can also say I made it because of my public school teachers.

Perhaps we have overlooked the importance of teaching math and science in our schools. If we did better in that arena, we would be able to encourage more students to study in the tech fields. I for one would go as far as saying we award kids or pay off their loans once they hit their senior year in college.

Instead, our current state legislature is doing everything possible to tank this state. This notion of making our premier state university private and raising its tuition is simply insane.

My concern is for those college students that are racking up thousands and really have no place to work. Sometimes experience at a lesser job can be the best thing during a high unemployment spell.
I heard that student loans are not going to be forgiven even in bankruptcy? Is that true??
This source said the student loans will be paid back even through Social Security at retirement time. Check it out. Don't go for that higher degree in hopes of getting a job.

I have sat and watched a young man (Likely just out of High School) listen to his iPod during class and complained about struggling to keep up or do an assignment. It's sad and kind of infuriating to someone who struggles and is taking out contsant student loans to achieve thier goal and graduate. It may not be free, but I'll gladly pay the government back just for the opportunity. I should have done this years ago, but then just out of High School I was not interested. Maturity has helped take care of that LOL and knowing that fact may be a reason why I didn't let it did not bother me too much. It is not so much in WHAT they take as thier ambition and desire. Liking what you do is, IMHO, a large ingredient for success, but a huge dash of facts helps a decision making process. Arts vs Sciences kind of thing was my crux but the recession pushed me along to decide for sciences in the end.

donna..thank you for your kind words. Maybe she is an exception. We have friends whose daughter recieved a degree in pottery, she is the stero-typical struggling artist. Another got a degree in theater make-up, but had no intentions of moving out of Janesville, guess she won't be using that degree. I think students whose parents foot the bill are more apt to take such cources and end up living back with mom & dad when they finish school. If parents are paying for the education they should also be responsible enough to make sure their child is studying something they can use. When the student pays, they take college much more seriously. With the exception of one semester my daughter paid for her entire education through student loans, grants and working part-time. She was very serious, we made it clear she wasn't moving home when she was finished!

Onedayatatime: My point is I think she is the exception to the rule. Most go into "fluff" degrees because they are easier than say a degree in computers or physics. Your daughter proved early on she was the cream of the crop with her grades and her internships. She had connections, ambition and served internships. That is why she is successful. She would have been successful no matter what degree she received. Again, I think she is the exception.

donnaw..no she didn't just walk into that job, she did complete 2 non-paying internships in South America. Her mentor at George Wash.Univ. is also the head of US A.I.D.; a good connection to have. She was recruited because of her grades; she maintained a 4.0 since 1st grade, her firsthand experience in South America and she proved herself through the internships. So, in a way she never did "start at the bottom". It is only her 2nd job since she recieved her Master's. She was a research assistant for numerous non-profits which enabled her to have the background for petitioning the World Bank for funding. In addition her degree involved a great deal of international economics. My point is, there are jobs out there for the "fluff" degrees as some refer to them. That opinion is from people who are uninformed about what these degrees involve. There is a bigger world out there other than Janesville, WI.

onedayatatime: I bet your daughter didn't just walk into that job. I bet she had to seek out internships for little or no pay and research areas where she could find work. And start at the bottom maybe as a clerk or assistant. And not as you said, in Wisconsin. Those are the choices. Good for her for being resourceful and knowledgeable about finding a job to meet her goals. She will do well!

Get an education; love your education; seek out education; value education. Oops, but don't go into education, especially here in WI's current climate. Actually, who really needs the college degree? Certainly not a governor? Hey, all these college dropouts can vie for positions in government and receive lifetime pensions and healthcare for themselves and their families after serving only ONE term. Education, smeducation.

Yes, Third_Eye should not have used the word "engineer" in that sentance. Honest mistake. I thought it was pretty clear what s/he was trying to communicate.

I'm a mechanical engineer, it does require a 4 year degree. HVAC and the like are, although important careers, technicians...big difference.

"Zoom, you do realize that mechanical engineering is a college degree, right?"

Third_Eye clearly didn't literally mean someone with a bachelors degree. S/he meant HVAC installation/repair type skills.

I disagree with the statement that you can't get a job with a Spanish degree. My daughter has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and a Master's degree in International Relations, specific to South America. She works for US A.I.D as a liaison to The World Bank in Wahshington and worked as an advisor for the Secretary of Education of Argentina. You can get a job with degrees like that but you have to be willing to leave Janesville Wisconsin and sometimes even the country. It's what you do with the degree and how far you are willing or want to go.

Thanks to Bush 1 and Clinton (NAFTA, etc.) they are gone and won't be back.

What we really need are some good old-fashioned manufacturing jobs

Anti-intellectualism? Good old fashioned 60's liberal mumbo-jumble for somebody learning something that's actually useful. And what would you expect business school professors to be? I'm sure most of them at one time or another have been out in the real world working at a company that required profits.

Some of you amaze me with your collectivist mentality. We need more of this, we need less of that. That's your opinion, and you're entitled to it, but the implication is always that the government needs to tax and spend more. That is contrary to freedom and individual responsibility, and it just gives yet more power to the government and to their buddies in government jobs (and private insiders who get the government contracts). Government usually just makes things worse; in fact, of late they seem to relish each new crisis as it presents another opportunity to seize more power and money from the sheeple.
No, the solution is to get the country back to basics - sound money, a fair tax system, and government limited to it's Constitutional responsibilities and powers. It should not be picking winners and losers, and neither should you be cheerleading for such.

Wow! What I posted was a personal observation but it seems it has become a statistical study.
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NO dtb, I do not think that people should pay for K-12, where did I even imply that?
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I think the comment about people not appreciating free stuff is what got some peoples dander up.

Zoom, you do realize that mechanical engineering is a college degree, right?

If you really think all professors are liberal, you haven't been to a business school lately.

The anti-intellectualism of the right is astounding.

This is another way to continue the liberal indoctrination of American youth. These kids, for the most part, blindly follow these professors like sheep. Remember, you can't teach common sense no matter how many years you study.

"Where is the funding for future plumbers, carpenters, electricians, and mechanical engineers?"

There isn't a shortage of those workers, and the education required for those careers simply doesn't cost what a college degree does. With factories becoming more and more efficient, the work force simply has to be more educated. That doesn't mean everone needs to go to college, but there are a lot of qualifird people that want to go to college and can't.

Also Third_Eye, I don't have numbers to prove this but I would bet that most attrition happens that first semester or two. Sure there will be people that have circumstances come up in the later years and drop out (and athletes who go pro after a year or 2 and just never graduate) but I think that most people who stick it out that first year will finish.

SuperDave, I think the money is there (or could be), we're just not spending it wisely. If we got out of 3 wars in the mid-east that we have no business being in and stopped corporate welfare we could make a real investment in the future of this country.
I will always think that people and education are better investments than bombs and missiles.

Right on, westorbust!!
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Third_Eye, are you saying we should charge students $10K for 12 years of public school?
And exactly who was harmed because a bunch of people dropped out of college? Maybe they weren't well preapred for it or poorly counseled. Those who want an education will stay.

I hear ya Westorbust, but I'm referring to people that didn't even make it through the first semester.
The 49% you mention is attrition over a 4 year period.

Third eye, I hate to break the news to you, but only about 49% of people that start college actually finish, regardless of who is paying for it, so your reasoning does not hold up.

There are only a handful of degrees (4 year) that are actually worth the time on a cost/benefit analysis. Those are engineering, computer science, nursing (or anything health care related), and some science. That's about it. You get a 4+ year degree not because you want a "good job", but because you are interested in learning. The problem is, as mentioned by other below, is that you can graduate from college, and still be a complete moron. You get out of it what you put into it, and what most get out of it is massive loan debt and a starting salary of 28k. If we actually valued education, higher ed would be free or at little to no cost, and our public primary schools would not resemble medium security prisons sans barbed wire.

Third_Eye: We agree.
dtb: Nothing is "free". The problem with that kind of thinking has been clearly illustrated in Madison lately. Eventually you run out of "other people's money".

dtb: I attended college in California back in the 70's. At that time the State of California paid college tuition to all resident high school graduates for the first two years. (Note: This was when California had one of the best educational systems in America.)
At the beginning of a semester it was next to impossible to park anywhere near the college after 8:00 am.
By mid semester I was in the front row of the parking lot. The difference being that I was a paying student.
Things that are 'free' are not always appreciated in the same way as something we have to pay for. This applies to almost all aspects of life.

K-12 education is free, why shouldn't college (or tech school) be? If we want an educated population, let's make it possible for anyone who wants an education to get one, at least at a public university. If you want to go to a private college, you can pay for it.
Or for those who must have tuiton and money change hands, make all student loans government backed at 0% with a defined payback term (say 10 years).
This would reduce debt for many students because like buying a house, you end up paying as much or more in interest as principal.

I oppose the funding SuperDave. The questions I posed hopefully point out the absurdity of funding.
...maybe a bit top subtle.

Third_Eye: Why should the nat'l gubmint be "funding" ANY education??? And where do you suppose THAT money comes from??? What's wrong with everyone paying their own way? That makes a lot more sense than a) we send money to Washington DC; b) they waste most of it; c) they send back some of it.
I prefer freedom and liberty to educational tyranny.

When the federal government has thrown money at higher education in the past the result was a plethora of degrees in 'underewater basket weaving' and various other unmarketable degrees.
Where is the funding for future plumbers, carpenters, electricians, and mechanical engineers?
What are the chances that the funding will stipulate that it go to Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics?
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RE: JimB. Saying that that the GOP has a war on the poor and middle class is getting old, sounds stupid, and destroys your credibility.

truth1: If you want to see something that is "shovel ready", just wait 'til the next presidential election cycle kicks in (sooner than we'd like!).

SuperDave - Exactly.
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I thought gov't money was going to be used to put everyone to work with "shovel ready" jobs....I guess they just forgot about that, eh?

The national gubmint needs to get OUT of the education business. It's not up to Joe Biden or Barock Obama to decide how many people go to college! It's up to the students, and their parents, to decide their fates.
This is just another throw off to the unions, in this case, the teachers unions. The constantly increasing tuitions force students into taking out bigger and bigger loans, and turning them into lifetime debt slaves. And all to fund the cushy jobs and even cushier retirements of teachers, administrators, and other bureaucrats. Disgusting.

How scary is it that this guy is 2nd in command? Too bad IQ isn't a qualifying factor for office.

And not everyone has the aptitude for studying in the STEM area. But as some of you pointed out, research of job qualifications and availability along with an understanding of one's skills, is necessary before chosing a major. It is unrealistic to unknowingly pursue a degree in a field which has few jobs and pays minimally, especially with graduates coming out of college with staggering loans to pay off. Yes com arts degrees, women's studies, etc. are meaningful degrees but if finding a job after graduation is your goal you need to check out the opportunities before investing your time and energy.

Interesting article. Yes, it is important to have realistic expectations about your options. I had a fantastic advisor in college who sat me down and said, "Tell me what you want your life to be like 10 years from now." He wanted to know what kind of hours I expected to be working, what kind of environment I wanted to work in, whether intellectual or emotional fulfillment was more important to me, etc. He used those answers to help me understand which careers fit well with my preferences and which ones did not. He never pushed me toward one path or another. He just stressed realism.
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If you want a 9-5 job, a major in theater probably won't live up to your expectations. If you're a creative soul, a degree in finance might pay the bills but could be disappointing in every other way. I actually did end up choosing a STEM degree and can be counted as one of the less than 20% of women who did so. That was because it was a good choice for me, not because it was the only choice.
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I do think a college education is very important. But I don't know that we should push people toward STEM degrees just because they might be more stable and financially lucrative. We also need teachers, caregivers, entrepreneurs, etc. Will every degree result in immediate hire and a six figure salary? No. But that doesn't mean that those paths are worthless. It just means that you'd better be realistic about what to expect before you jump in with both feet.

i-luv-jvl.......Still basking in ignorance huh? I know quite a few people who work at companies like ABC Supply who could easily get a job with their skill sets and experience with any company out there, but they just happen to like the culture at that place. Please don't use your own experience/knowledge/skills as a baseline to judge everyone else. There are many employees that companies would jump through hoops in an effort to make them part of their team--if you don't happen to be one of them, don't hate on those that are........

Thankfully, education doesn't come in a one size fits all model. Technical degrees serve an important purpose in society, but so do other degrees. A technical degree is designed to result in a specific job. A bachelor's degree (other than pre-professional programs) aren't necessarily intended to result in a single specific job.

Therefore, marketability is relative. Communication Arts (my own degree area, by the way)is not only a useful skill (Over 600 jobs in a 25 mile radius of Janesville listed on Indeed.com mention "communication" in the job description) but it's related to many career fields: public relations, training and development, marketing, organizational management, etc. So like Spanish, Economics, and Women's Studies majors, it's about how you put together a package of skills and knowledge through minors, volunteer work, part time jobs, internships, etc. They CAN be very lucrative positions if it's what someone has a passion to study.

We've gained an awful lot in history from learning, studying, and engaging in dialogue. Of course, we all want jobs. Of course, no one wants to spend money on a degree that they deem worthless. But I hope we don't forget that knowledge has value, too. I fear the society that teaches only the specific skills for a specific job. It seems far too close to a futuristic novel for my tastes.

Today's "colleges" aren't known for being places to learn how to think.
Some of them are quite the opposite.

Yes, we need more worker bees who can't think themselves out of a wet paper bag. College is what you make it, and not much else.

Teaching STEM is what is desirerable by the likes of Menards,SC Johnson,ABC Supply ect. The basics will still get you the good life anywhere.If you go the college to earn a degree in Womens Study or Life Cycle of Fruit Flies you will be underemployed and suffer low wages. Your life is what you make it.

As usual, Obama is pushing the unrealistic agenda that is dictated to him by his owners, the unions. Many students simply can't afford the BEST education and go to 2-year technical colleges in order to keep costs down. They learn a valuable lesson on how life really is - you only get what you can afford.

Apparently our Governor doesn't share the desire to educate our citizens. It's not in the best interest of billionaire corporations. The Koch Bros., Menards, S.C. Johnsons, ABC Supply, etc. do not prefer and abundance of workers who are high level thinkers, but rather those who do what they are told, and are just thankful they have a job. That helps to keep costs down, and money in the pockets of the owners, where they believe it belongs.

So let's continue to cut 1 billion dollars from education. I'm sure that will help the cause!

This column is just one more example of the overfocus on "creating a stronger business climate" in America. This is the kind of anti-intellectual thinking that gives us the troubles that Wisconsin is in now.

Instead of celebrating learning for its own sake and recognizing the contributions of researchers in the softer sciences this columnist expects us to focus more on the almighty technological progression of our employer's systems. And what have we gotten from creating the most efficient workforce on the planet? We've seen shrinking job opportunities in an outsourced industrial base. We get temp jobs with no benefits and we get smaller and smaller real wages for working families. Wage differentials rise while real earnings plummet.

Cepeda states that worker in "women's jobs" earn half as much as those with other degrees without asking the relevant questions. "Why is this so?" "Why do we value left-handed relief pitchers more than good social workers?" This lack of curiosity isn't good enough for a stronger citizenry.

As the GOP continues its war on the poor and erodes the power of the middle class we'll see an increasing need for good social workers, primary educators and health care professionals. The answer is not to stop educating these people but instead to build up our wage scales, to balance management and labor pay rates and to stop attacking the front-line workers who serve us.

Cepeda makes a good case for a strong tech school system but universities were never meant to be tech schools. As the for-profit education industry takes hold in America they'll be looking to build as many non-questioning, non-threatening, non-thinking students as possible so that Janesville and Kenosha can become more like Suzhou, Guadalajara and Tha Chalom; just a few more sweatshop towns in a perfect world of Capitalism.

Amen! A college degree isn't enough! Students must research which majors are marketable. Communication Arts, Spanish, Economics, are not going to be marketable. Someone on the blogs lamented that a friend had a major in Chinese and international relations and couldn't find a job--duh!