There is an editorial in the New York Times today that points to the growing problems with college education in America. Of twenty-seven nations studies in a recent report, the US ranked 16th among the proportion of college students who complete college. To be fair, America may have more students in college, but we should be able to produce graduates in the same proportion as other countries.

One of the problems is cuts in state and federal aid, which has made it less affordable for students to go to college.  While this might save the government some money in the short run, in the long run it will be very costly.  Of course, very few politicians are willing to do things that will help only in the long run, when they need to get reelected in the short run.
This is not the only problem, however. College keep raising their price, because students are demanding more and more of college. Unfortunately, most of what they are demanding is not academics, but nicer dorms, better computer labs, and other bells and whistles. This drives up the cost of college, but does not necessarily improve the quality of the education.

I am currently reading a book our academic dean loaned me. It is called Distinctively American: The Residential Liberal Arts Colleges. One of the problems it highlights is something we also have here at LCC (an American style liberal arts college). More and more students in America (and Lithuania) are looking for utilitarian degrees, i.e., degrees that will get them hired and make them money. The problem is that a liberal arts degree is not intended to prepare one for a career. It is supposed to prepare one for life. Certainly, that includes a career, but the idea of a liberal arts major is that someone with a comprehensive understanding of the world is a better employee (and citizen!) than someone is is merely trained for one particular job. Unfortunately, students in America are more and more focused on their own success and less interested in the big picture. (There are, of course, many exceptions to this rule.)

It is somewhat understandable here in Lithuania, where the entire economy is recovering from the Soviet period. But we need to do a better job here of convincing people that they and their country will be better off if they educate students to be better people instead of simply better workers. The same message needs to be restated in America as well.

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