You know, I saw a bus ad yesterday saying “65% of tomorrow’s jobs require higher education.”

If over half the country’s future jobs require a degree, how is it “higher” education? Isn’t it then just standard education?

And why are people now “required” to take out loans for an educational system that’s gotten worse over time, yet is more expensive?

Where did this number come from, anyway? What statistics and studies have led a college to believe a generation of people facing a culture in decline, a lack of trust in “job-creators,” and a desire for entrepreneurship are going to blindly follow the pattern our parents did?

I’m not buying it.  Forbes isn’t either.  I love that “Sheepskin Psychosis,” a critique of America’s higher education system, was written in 1964.  Imagine how far ideals have fallen since then.  While I’d like my doctors to have degrees and excellent educations, America’s future is underserved by its educational system.

My friend Melissa McManigal, producer extraordinaire, sent an article from LinkedIn my way, with an insightful message:

“I think it is a fascinating topic.

 First of all, I believe that higher education is a racket.  It is a “for profit business”, just like everything else.  This is not to discount the invaluable experience of my university years, but I have always maintained that half of the value at least was real life and the other half academic.  

To encourage people to “go for broke” at the suggestion that they “might” stumble upon a better career path, well… I see a lot of wise young people weighing the practicality of university and choosing other paths.

However, note that it takes someone with a Masters (at Google) to tell people that less formal education is “acceptable”.  If it were someone with no university education making that statement, would it be received in the same way?”

Read the interview with Laszlo Bock here:

“Google famously used to ask everyone for a transcript and G.P.A.’s and test scores, but we don’t anymore, unless you’re just a few years out of school. We found that they don’t predict anything. What’s interesting is the proportion of people without any college education at Google has increased over time as well. So we have teams where you have 14 percent of the team made up of people who’ve never gone to college.”      

     Laszlo Bock, Google’s senior vice president for people operations. LinkedIn, June 20 2013

Update:  I put together a primer on college application and opportunity for my sister years ago when she was considering schools.  Including commentary from working professionals and a basic description of how to apply for school, I welcome any high school student on the fence to check it out.  Any choice you make should be informed: