Th' high cost of college contained

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On one of the National Public Radio shows I heard a contest for college students. I can't recall all the details because one of the ideas to help corral the cost of a college education floored me.

The idea is simple, practical and will never, ever ever be implemented.

The idea:

A college agrees to educate a student. The student in turn agrees to pay the college 5 percent of his salary for the next 20 years.

Brilliant. Absofragginlutely brilliant. I elaborate.

This invests the college and the student in the education. The college has a serious commitment now to making sure the student gets sufficiently educated so that he will be able to pay the college back for that education.

The college is also committed to making sure the student actually gets an education that pays.

There is a catch, of course, for the student. Fail to complete college, the student is then on the hook for the cost of college. The college is free to go after the student however it deems necessary.

IRS auditor after a successful audit.

Considering the way the IRS operates these days, collections are a minor matter. Get a judgment, hand it over to the IRS and the IRS takes care of collecting the money and paying the college.

As much as I believe the IRS ought to be abolished, this is one enforcement program I support.

The student is invested because if he doesn't get the degree, he's on the hook for tuition and collections will be considerably more than 5 percent of his income.

This makes colleges and universities operate like the real world operates. This is why it will never pass.

It makes colleges accountable. Make an investment and collect a return on that investment. A poor investment returns a poor yield.

This is also why this will never work. Colleges and universities have a vested interest in being stupid. Not ignorant - that is simply a lack of knowledge. Stupid is an admission the information is out there, but refusing to assimilate that information.

I explain.

Dunno how many of you, my readers, have spent time in those hallowed halls of academia. I put my 4 years in as a student and have periodically found my way back as a guest lecturer.

What I learned in my college days and have seen be reinforced is that most of the professors could not survive in the real world. Most. A few of them come from the real world and a few go back to the real world.

The adage - Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach - is ever more true on college campuses.

Colleges put a premium on conformity (despite what they may claim) and on getting educated for their teaching staff. Experience and the actual ability to do what the professors are teaching is far less relevant than most people imagine.

Rather, it has been my experience that experience and ability are mostly actively frowned on.

The exact opposite is the way the real world works. Experience and ability commands premium prices.

Making colleges and universities accountable to the same market forces that rule much of the real world makes too much sense for such places to allow it to happen.