By Morgan Deane:
The education of our military personnel is vitally important. Given the nature of insurgencies, the advent of cell phones and other consumer technology means that the decisions of even low-level enlisted members can cause international incidents, but our veterans are still underserved by higher education. They are often the subject of predatory recruiting practices.
Student success means more than graduation, but discussion on this topic misses many more points that are just as important. These include the idea that college is not for everybody, the impact of student loans, the opportunity costs of being in college instead of the workforce, and success without a college degree.
In short, not everybody can (or should) go to college, and in many ways, it can work out better for them if they don’t.
Ready for College?
I’ve taught thousands of students at more than half a dozen schools over the past decade. That includes every kind of institution, from for-profit to nonprofit to online courses. I gave the same quality of instruction regardless of the profit or nonprofit status of the school, and online programs are often more rigorous than their brick and mortar counterparts. (That’s because there is no “back of the classroom” in which to hide. Every student has to answer every question.)
There are some predatory institutions out there, unfortunately. These bad actors care more about getting students in seats, as that means more government loans flowing into their coffers. Predatory schools often attract students into substandard programs and leave them with little more than debt.
What astounded me even more than the occasional news of predatory recruiting practices was the caliber of the military students I met. In their military careers, my students could lead men into combat and be in charge of millions of dollars’ worth of military equipment. They are adults who can vote and are expected to pay rent, but despite all of those qualifications, they can’t seem to write a paper without a bevy of excuses. They have trouble with many basic concepts, lack solid writing skills, and don’t seem motivated or qualified to be in the classroom. The unstated reason for this lack of work ethic comes from attempts to bestow milestones like a college degree on people who haven’t worked for it.
Most military students go to college because their military benefits make it relatively inexpensive, but the students who succeed in college and in their careers do so because they have the preexisting skill and worth ethic to do so. In short, the students fail to translate their military experience into academic success because they simply aren’t ready for college. Yet because of the wage premium that says college graduates earn more, easy tuition money, and aggressive recruiting tactics from all schools, they are convinced to go anyway.
The True Cost of College
It is true that a degree can still be ruinous if it comes with too much debt or isn’t academically respectable. It was rather depressing for me, for example, to make a student loan payment that was almost as large as my mortgage. But the problem with expensive degrees does not begin with the institution– like most issues, it begins with the government’s attempts to solve a problem. College was expensive, but seen as a ticket to a middle class life, so Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society included a provision for student loans. Because students don’t really feel the immediate cost of their loans or don’t pay anything with grants, it allows universities to raise their tuition. Studies have shown that every dollar in tuition assistance raises tuition by as much as 65 cents. That’s why college tuition has skyrocketed in the last 50 years.
On top of this, college comes with an opportunity cost (every moment spent doing activity A costs you the chance of doing activities B through Z). Job experience and climbing the ladder are two things that take a great deal of time but pay off later. The quicker a person gains job experience, the quicker they can start climbing the ladder. Military members know this, of course, because they have to spend a certain amount of time in grade and time in service before they can be promoted. Spending four years reading Shakespeare after already having served four years in the military means that a person can miss out on almost a decade of earnings and job experience before they are “entry-level” college graduates. The combination of cost and opportunity cost means that students are taking on increasingly ruinous debt and crippling their earning power when they often aren’t capable of succeeding in college in the first place.
Success Without College
There are solid alternatives to college. Those with practical skills, like the kind that veterans usually have, are uniquely positioned to achieve without a degree. I remember getting an estimate for car repairs, and I noticed that a mechanic with six weeks of education for a certification course done at a community college earned more per hour than a historian with a master’s degree and six years of college education. Even working in a fast food position, I was promoted to a shift manager after six months and was offered a co-store manager position after another year. I declined the position so I could go away to school, but I can only imagine where I would have been after four years.
Technical careers and trade school graduates often have a great deal of earning power, and don’t require large amounts of formal education. Hard-working military members who made the most out of their service can succeed in the job market without a college degree. Moreover, after immediately entering the work force, the veteran can still pursue a part-time education. This scenario doesn’t rob our veterans of valuable job experience that increases their earning potential, and it increases the chances they avoid debt.
The “education for all” craze is misguided, and it often seeps into the discussion of the topic. It’s true that those who go to college generally earn more than those with only a high school degree. But just like student success, those who work hard, perform tasks on time, sustain long-term efforts, and are willing to overcome obstacles generally earn more than those who don’t, regardless of the degrees they earn. Some of our most famous innovators and entrepreneurs, for example, were college drop-outs. These included the founder of Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), the founder of Wendy’s (Dave Thomas), Bill Gates, and the brilliant Steve Jobs, as well as Hollywood celebrities like Tom Hanks.
Education is extremely important, but it’s also crucial to have a solid grasp of programs that are available to military members. It’s even more important to realize the real and opportunity costs of attending college and maximize your military training to succeed in whatever endeavor you pursue. In short, military members must perform better to get the most out of their education; they can’t expect their student loans, entry into a nice school, or even a degree to give it to them.
Morgan Deane is an OpsLens Contributor and a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry rifleman. Deane also served in the National Guard as an Intelligence Analyst.
