Value of Higher Education.
This evening on
The Nightly Business Report
on PBS the
Money File segment was by
Julie Stav
entitled
The Positive Return On A College Education Investment.
In it she makes a logical mistake when stating:
If there is one place where you really get your money's worth,
it's in education. Salaries of high school graduates have
averaged over $30,000 a year, compared to over $53,000 for an
employee with a college degree.
Since in general the smarter and more ambitious students do
go to college, it is necessary to separate out that fact from
the value of a higher education. To properly assess the value
of a college education, it is necessary to compare students
of
equal ability who make different choices about going
to college. Many years ago I vaguely remember reading about
such a study and it showed that for students of equal abilities,
the time and money lost spent going to college was never made up.
(If you know about such a study please add a comment here or
email me about it.) This is not to say a higher education is
not valuable or important; there are other benefits besides money.