How did you arrive here?

[MSK9]

Not even when it's public funds that are being wasted?

I think MSK9's argument is that the colleges don't have any control over whether someone is employable or not. If that's true (which I don't think it completely is, though there's an element of truth to it), then certainly we shouldn't hold them accountable for it. At least that's what I understood MSK9's post to mean.

Mysonx3 nailed it.

There's no way to make a graduated student do anything other than what they want to do and I'm skeptical of claims citing lack of opportunities for graduates. "Opportunity" is subjective but not much in life is guaranteed and a school has as much control over someone being employable as they have over the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.


I suspect (my evidence is anecdotal, of course) that some of those polled correlate a lack of general opportunity with the lack of what they consider to be their "desired" opportunities. I've also seen (again, anecdotal) the look of shock on an Art History major's face when someone explains the career-choice limitations of their degree.

While the diminished returns argument isn't lost on me, public funding pays for things like research. We could get into a much deeper discussion about how public money is spent at publicly-funded institutions and we'd probably agree on ways to better utilize it, but I cannot advocate for blaming the college for a person's lack of employment. I just think it's lunacy. 

I don't think an "education" is a guarantee for anything, but rather a supplement for career preparedness, a demonstration of commitment, if nothing else, pure "enlightenment." If the expectations of post-college employment seemingly fall short, maybe we should point the finger at society, rather than the institutions.