I see a legitimate concern with US citizens being displaced by both ‘less expensive experts’ from abroad, and desperate illegal immigration at the other end.

In Oregon, many high tech firms were demanding ‘local schools’ (including universities) provide them ‘capable engineers and well educated workers.’ The State stepped up, and provided them (demanding the highest level HS graduation requirements in the nation). What did Industry do, beside ‘offshore’ even more production plants? They hired cheaper engineers from abroad … while our nation’s own worked at Best Buy (I met two one evening) ..attempting to pay off their college loans.

At the other end … entry level jobs and those requiring little of any education went to desperate recent arrivals, either newly legal or outright illegal … living as they did in their ‘third world’ countries, thus able to undercut ‘native born’ workers because of it.

Speak up against either - and be labeled ‘a racist!’ Ignore the facts ...and watch the disenfranchised vote for the likes of trump..

@Varn I am sure many of us see that concern, but so many have a much more shallow perspective. In regards to what you have mentioned, $ overwrites so many things.

As a high school science teacher of 33+ years I've witnessed the decline of the ability and amount of prior knowledge of the students that come to me with each year. The intellectual decline is a real phenomenon. It is not a subtle difference, but a significant difference. Teachers and schools, all the way up to and including college, have had to dummy down their curriculum each year.

A lot of it is due the change in parenting in which less time is being spent with their children and making sure that they are actually completing the work assigned them. Fewer parents are keeping tabs on their child's progress until its too late. Parents are not making their children accountable and are not being accountable themselves.

Before you blame the teachers, since the passing of NCLB (No Child Left Behind), teacher certification has become more rigorous and expectations increased Nationwide. Most teachers, K-12, are expected to work for advanced degrees in the field they teach. Their pay is tied to their academic progress and re-certification every 5 years is tied to the number of classes they attend.

Because money for each school is tied to the grades and success of the student population on nationally normal exams, the pressure upon teachers to do more with less is ever present. Commensurate with the decline in student intellectual ability the normative tests have been dumbed down somewhat.

@t1nick I guess that Television, video games and movies makes people "lazy" too. Far too much time spent there and not enough of the pursuit of knowledge. Just look at how many kids can only tell the time looking at their phone and not on a real watch.

@Jolanta

But that is also a parent accountability issue. Most parents do not regulate what their child consumes on the computer, how much time they spend on it, what their computer behavior is like. The computer has become a parental substitute for babysitting at all ages.

@t1nick yeah possibly, but it seems most people don't need a good education to succeed. And the barriers and competition is so high that a good high school education still requires sacfrificing a lot money and time. Doing well only seems to invite more suffering (learning lol)

I spent 10 years and over 500k in oppoutunity cost lost in colleges getting degrees in computer sciences. The best salary I can hope for is an average of about $120k working for the big four. The only education in high school i ended up needing is English, Math, and computer science. I don't even remember what other classes I took. (Honestly colleges now assume high school education is terrible and reteach what is needed, like physics biology and chemistry.)i recall taking history and spanish, but forgot everyrhing since high school and not needed it at all.

I have seen hundreds of examples of people without a good education do very well. They pick a skill and focus on it. In fact I now see the rise in microeconomies of YouTube and podcasting where people with essentially no education make 6 to 7 figures incomes playing video games, reacting to tv shows, or teaching online. I know people with high school education, basically learn programming online and make as much as an entry level programmer. Then they make Udemy videos teaching what they learned and end up making more than their salary in a month. Or they make an App and make millions. I see college students debating what oppourtunities they will lose while getting a "good education" that will end up not meaning much other that being labeled "well educated".

It seems, in retrospect, that high school produces about 20% of its students that do really well in science and engineering and go off to college and do advanced degrees. These people end up either staying in acafemia doing research or go into industry. These people create the innovative tech that drives the rest of the economy. Those with talents that high school can't teach, end up spending time outside of school developing their talent, and make money utlizing the new tech to promote their talent in some way. Those with no talent or degrees end up working in the service industry, (repair, restaurants etc). In fact so much money can be made in such induustries I know scientists and engineers who quit thier job to open up repair and restaurants because they make more money using less advanced skills, and they are their own boss, essentially not using anything from high school apart for math and english.

Yes there has been a decline in the population with a decent education. And we have to consider that it may be by choice. At some point there will be too much to learn. People will have to make a choice what not to learn. And the label of "well educated" may be too much to learn and at too high a price of time and money.

@MakeItGood

Everything you are describing are generally exceptions and not the rule. Yes people do succeed without a high school or college education. but education is a lot more than just content facts. It about building critical thinking skills and problem solving and having the ability to communicate what you know.

I saw the trend for job slotting during my second undergraduate degree in the 80's. Only teach me what I need to know what I need for the job I want, screw the well rounded education aspect of getting an education. These types proliferated among the engineers and business types. They were lousy citizens then and are still lousy citizens now. they went on to become the people that we see running the country today.

@MakeItGood Yes, all that is true, but you are only talking about how far eduction can take you in relation t how much money you can make. If we only learn so we can make as much money as possible then it is a sad world.

@t1nick and @Jolanta

Its almost as if you both think the right education will make people better human beings. That is very dangerous assumption and thinking. It will not help and it places too much faith in education. I think there is ample evidence that a good education does not make a good person.

@MakeItGood

Has nothing to do with "goidness" or "badnss". It has more to do with developing certain intellectual skills: problem solving, fact and credibility discernment, critical thinking, organization, and a broad base of general knowledge.

A high school or college does not automatically guarantee these skills become well-refined. People are capable of learning the formulaic way to get by enough to walk away with a piece of paper.

Likewise, people who do not fit well in the academic environment is no indication that they can not be good problem.solving. in fact many intelligent people who think outside the box often do not fit well within the academic environment.

But if we are talking numbers, IMO, those that attend college in shears statitical numbers make better critical thinkers than those that do not. Again there are exceptions, but exceptions do not make the rule.

@MakeItGood No I do not think education makes a better person. You still can be a horrible human being no matter how well educated you are. I like education for the sake of being informed and for the joy of learning.

That’s mostly the GOP and Cuckservatives at work. Working people need to understand that today’s GOP is big businesses protectors. It was the GOP and the Cucks that opposed the enactment of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as well as well as the ones who promised for 7 plus years after the enactment of the ACA to repeal it and failed miserably. Not to mention states under their control such as Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, being among the poorest with the most unemployment and poverty. Given all this, I don’t see how they are supporters of the “Average Joe”.

@SeaRay215ex Who are the "working" people?

Sounds a lot like trump and his proaganda machine alright

@t1nick - to be fair, I think the Dems are relying a lot on emotional messaging at the expense of specific arguments too. Politics seems more like the smack talk of sports fans these days.

Not so much romanticized or having illusions about the past. Rather a recognition of the stupidity of the future. Another response to this post aptly pointed out the uniqueness of this time we are in. Because of the Internet and multi-media platforms, we can just see the true extent of the idiocy and low intellectual acumen in the country.

Cast1es. I'm not referring to a few enlightened or unusually altruistic individuals, but the basic fabric of the overall nation. We have been on a very rapid and frightening intellectual decline since 1983. Just look at the number of people buying into improbable and impossible conspiracy theories and agencies pushing them. Or the proliferation of anti-vaxers.

@t1nick Is the basic fabric of the overall nation any more real than the average man or woman?
Both, I think, are statistical conveniences. Individuals like those in @Cast1es comment exist but averages don’t.

Interesting article. He sees the Republican move during the 1980 Reagan platform. It was really overtly pronounced during the 1983 Reagan candidacy.

I suspect that there has always been a tension between those that have sought and acquired advanced education and those who gravitated toward more vocational or practical trades. Elitism does occur in Academia, but attaining an advanced degree dies not insure one is intellectual.

Just look at the present Administration in office. Most claim advanced degrees, but couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper quandary.

There is truth in this. I always liked Noam Chomsky. There is a large degree of compliance, both spoken and unspoken, with expectations in Academia. Dissenters do get resistance, but if they can make their case with credible evidence, and persevere they succeed. Its usually the dissenters from accepted paradigm that push the limits of knowledge and bring about significant advances.

Education is about skill development. Hypothetically the skill is critical thinking, research acumen, problem solving, and communicating your work through writing. Given that the average University numbers about 20,000+ students at all levels a certain amount of compliance is needed. In order to accommodate the various abilities and diversity of thought, a certain formulaic approach is necessary to maintain the basic standards of acceptable rigor and accomishment.

But intolerance to differences does occur. When I was 20-21 years of age and a sophomore in college, I met and impressed the State Archaeologist of Arizona. He asked me to consider coming to the University of Arizona to study Anthropology. Four months later I traveled to Tucson and was hired for a major archaeological field expedition for the Arizona State Museum.

While I was on my third contract for ASM, I took a strong stance with one of my field suoervisors over an archaeological field approach. Subsequently at the end of that contract, I officially enrolled in U of A in the Anthropology Dep't to finish my undergraduate degree. I found out later that the field supervisor in question got me blackmailed from ASM contract work. Ultimately ASM hired me back, but I was always someone who pushed the limit and dissented when I didn't agree intellectually. My career is checkered with my pushing back.

I live in a town with a large Baptist University. I have several friends who are professors there. In Oklahoma, any smart academician keeps their mouth shut until they have tenure. That means that are some of them that don't completely toe the line.