Back to School

It is with no small amount of trepidation that I returned to school. I graduated with a degree in unemployment psychology and a faint feeling that I had been taken. Four years at USM had left me forty thousand dollars poorer. The degree that I was assured would open doors for me gave me a financial spanking as I walked off the graduation stage and realized what had just happened. I had been swindled out of forty thousand dollars and would not be getting a job that paidmore than nine dollars an hour.
This injustice has been played out time and time again. I hear college students talking about it every day I am at school. Nothing is being done about it. We have allowed colleges to rob students of their financial stability without assuring they will have a future job. Unfortunately a living wage can no longer be made with a BA or BS so the student finds themselves struggling at lousy jobs to make college loan payments. I believe the students are accountable for their own success but so are colleges. Right now they promise more than they deliver and are not penalized when they do otherwise.
The solutions to this debacle are not the easy ones. I personally think parents need to start by reinstating college as an option rather than a matter of course. Kids need to see that stability and money do not always follow the college experience. They need to be acutely aware of the financial hangover following college education without goals. Each student needs to hear before they go into school how many years they will have to pay up to a quarter of their income to get out of college debt.
The schools in Portland should not just give partnership a lip-service. The colleges here are being run as businesses, not community members. Kids who are looking at college as an option should have a better idea of what college is. Right now it is shrouded in mystery for the unknowing high "schoolers". They hear the parties but are not privy to the classes. We send our young off without having a clue about what higher education will entail. I think if more kids knew what sitting around a cruddy dorm room was like they would opt to wait until later to go for their degree. College life is not for everyone. Getting hig school kids into courses at colleges will give kids a better first idea of what they are in for.
Community job shadowing needs to be a matter of course as well. We have a responsibility to help kids educated in our community actuallize their goals and avoid our shortfalls. When was the last time you talked to a teen about your job? What would you tell a young person going into your field? If you are like me you have a whole lot of wisdom derived from personal experiences that could no doubt save some kids lots of hard work and or heartbreak. Why not have the opportunity to tell interested kids this well in advance before they repeat your mistakes and or do things the hard way?
Finally public service needs to be the norm. I feel that working in the charitable sector engages kids early in questioning what can they do for their community. Rather than asking kids what are you going to do to make a living? Ask them instead what are you going to do to earn your bread while contributing to your community? Volunteering is not put into our educational models because the colleges we are being educated at are being run as heartless businesses. We fund the education system. We should also make the choice to rectify this problem before another generation finds themselves without a clue as to how they are going to find success.
As a recent product of the educational system in Maine, I am acutely aware of its strengths and weaknesses. I would love to be your school committee representative next November. Please send me your ideas about what your vision for schools are. Tomarrow's school children will be better prepared when we all contribute to their education.