By Robert Pembroke
Not too long ago, the Deseret News ran a piece on its front page titled “SLCC’s Promise is Meeting its Objectives.” Marjorie Cortez, a columnist and reporter for the Deseret News, wrote, “The Salt Lake Community College Promise initiative is inching closer to the dream of a free college experience for Utah students who agree to take a full academic load and meet income guidelines.”
I have just read that New York University is going to make its medical school free to qualified students. What’s important to understand is that this is possible because of grants from private donors. A number of other medical schools around the country are doing the same thing.
America does have an unfilled need for skilled workers. Yup! There are 6.7 million jobs available for qualified employees. Yes, a school like SLCC could easily fill these requirements, but only if they work for local businesses when they graduate. I believe that these businesses should pay the tuition, not the state.
Isn’t deregulation wonderful? In my opinion, deregulation is the best thing Pres. Trump has done. It beats the tax cuts, it beats the military parade he is proposing and it beats the excellent choices he has made for Supreme Court justices. Deregulation is America’s best chance for a better lifestyle for all.
How about what Betsy DeVos, Trump’s secretary of education, is doing to colleges and universities across the land? She has just announced that two of Obama’s rules will be reversed. “These rules cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and diminished education options for students who can’t afford tuition at Stanford and Georgetown,” DeVos was quoted as saying in a Wall Street Journal article on Aug. 17 titled “DeVos’ Gainful Deregulation.”
Say goodbye to the Ob-ama Administration 2014 “gainful employment” rule. This is the rule that Obama attached to for-profit colleges. In essence, Obama’s rule said that if colleges exceed the 8 percent ratio of a student’s income to the student’s loan, the college would lose its federal funding. Obama’s rule applied exclusively to vocational schools, i.e., for-profit schools. When DeVos invokes a change to this rule, schools like Harvard, Yale and USC will yell to high heaven.
Secretary DeVos’ second rule change concerns loan forgiveness. Obama expanded loan forgiveness to all students who claimed to have been duped. “Like the gainful employment regulation, the ‘borrower defense’ rule eviscerated due process. Students didn’t prove they were harmed by a college’s alleged misrepresentation or that the harm was intentional to obtain relief. Nor could colleges dispute student claims though they could be dunned for discharged loans. The rule also pleases plaintiff attorneys by banning class-action arbitration waivers,” the Wall Street Journal story said.
I believe that these schools are intentionally misleading students and parents in order to pay for their kingdoms.
In the waning days of the Obama administration, the president expanded loan forgiveness. As Oliver Hardy said, “Well, here’s another nice mess you’ve gotten me into.” Obama’s rule became a goldmine for plaintiff attorneys by banning class-action arbitration waivers. DeVos is proposing that the same standards and procedures be used to adjudicate fraud claims, according to the Journal.
But, will this solve the lack of skilled workers? I don’t think so. If you watched Fareed Zakaria’s CNN report on Aug. 10, you would have heard that three companies — Apple, Google and Microsoft — That have tremendous net worth and huge sales, only have 230,000 U.S. employees and don’t have a skilled worker shortage. It’s the little guys who desperately need skilled workers.
The labor shortages are spread across all industries, especially construction and, to me, it looks like there is a systemic problem with our educational system. High schools have dropped shop classes and parents want their children to get college degrees. Another possible explanation is that people who dropped out of the labor force due to the 2008 depression have found out that living on taxpayer handouts is not too bad.
So here is my solution to the skilled labor shortage in Utah: Take the money that SLCC is giving away and restart shop classes in high schools. The state of Utah should run an advertising campaign that touts vocational skills as being just as good as college degrees.
Robert Pembroke is the former chairman and CEO of Pembroke’s Inc. in Salt Lake City.