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Any college degree is a valuable commodity, but not all of them are equal.
I have, for some time, believed our state's higher education system to be antiquated and outdated in terms of structure. Our dozen four year institutions were organized when travel was difficult, and the need to train teachers was great. Those times are long past, but we still have a teachers college every few Interstate exits while states of comparable size have one National university, a Regional, largely commuter oriented school, and one or two teachers colleges with 2 year institutions acting as feeders to the 4 year schools but perhaps offering 4 year teaching degrees. In recent decades, state politicos have made matters even worse by expanding the bureaucracy in Charleston, splitting some schools off into a totally new governing unit, and adding redundant programming rather than looking for unique and new opportunities to serve our people.
PayScale.com is not a perfect research tool by any means, but they so sincerely attempt to measure earnings and I believe they are as close as one is going to get to obtaining an accurate picture of expected earnings after graduation. They aren't spot on, but they're pretty close.
That said, of our state's four year institutions, only 2 of them, West Virginia University and Marshall University, are in the mix with comparable schools in their peer groups, with WVU performing better than average, and Marshall somewhat below average but still in the ratings range. Those schools are a higher education bargain, and even more so when you consider their costs related to schools in their peer groups.
Yep. We have way too many 4-year institutions for our size. Some are in remote areas and not only don't offer anything unique as far as education but in some areas don't offer anything to do either at all. The politico's have been able to keep these schools open for far too long but the pot is getting smaller and the state isn't growing so the math here doesn't look good. One solution would be bringing in more out-of-state students. However, the towns some of these schools are in have done a very poor job of making their locations more attractive in order to do that. Some of these localities are getting very nervous now. Montgomery being the main one but with the condition of the campus and the town itself I wouldn't want my kids attending there. In the case of Montgomery the folks there shouldn't be asking why would Tech be looking to move but rather why for the last 30 years has Montgomery not made itself a better attraction to bring in more students and improve the community itself? With coal on the way out the school is the community's lifeline so where was the concern and why the expectation that the tax payers need to bail out the town when the town didn't do much of anything at all to help the situation themselves?
Hmmm I would like what kind of graduates each are producing. If one school is mostly producing doctors and the other is mostly producing social workers, then that might explain some of the earning differences. Also, where are they sending graduates? If one sends them to NYC and the other sends them to Richmond, then you can see where you might have a difference in after-graduate earnings. Cost-of-living and school-specialization may make a difference.
If those are taken into account, then real conclusions might be able to be made.
Hmmm I would like what kind of graduates each are producing. If one school is mostly producing doctors and the other is mostly producing social workers, then that might explain some of the earning differences. Also, where are they sending graduates? If one sends them to NYC and the other sends them to Richmond, then you can see where you might have a difference in after-graduate earnings. Cost-of-living and school-specialization may make a difference.
If those are taken into account, then real conclusions might be able to be made.
There is no question that the numerous primarily teacher training colleges aren't going to be producing highly paid graduates, so that would explain some of the disparity. That does not, however suggest the solution. Some would jump on a bandwagon and say those schools should suddenly add expensive and redundant programs in higher paying fields, but this state can not afford to use state funds to compete with state funds. There is less and less public money available for higher education, so it is high time for the state to put its funding into the most established and productive programs and pare down less productive ones. It is time to put those community colleges Photo Op Joe mistakenly stole from their parent institutions back where they belong, ... time to convert at least half of the teachers colleges into 2 year feeder schools with 3 of them going to WVU and the other to Marshall, and time to insure that money meant for education and research is actually going to that purpose, and not scam operations intended to preen the egos of local business interests.
No school should be adding new programming unless it is on a solid financial footing, and even then, the attempt should be to add programs that add value to our state in unique areas that are not currently being met at other institutions. It is time to stop the waste so our state can take action to improve our system.
Yep. We have way too many 4-year institutions for our size. Some are in remote areas and not only don't offer anything unique as far as education but in some areas don't offer anything to do either at all. The politico's have been able to keep these schools open for far too long but the pot is getting smaller and the state isn't growing so the math here doesn't look good. One solution would be bringing in more out-of-state students. However, the towns some of these schools are in have done a very poor job of making their locations more attractive in order to do that. Some of these localities are getting very nervous now. Montgomery being the main one but with the condition of the campus and the town itself I wouldn't want my kids attending there. In the case of Montgomery the folks there shouldn't be asking why would Tech be looking to move but rather why for the last 30 years has Montgomery not made itself a better attraction to bring in more students and improve the community itself? With coal on the way out the school is the community's lifeline so where was the concern and why the expectation that the tax payers need to bail out the town when the town didn't do much of anything at all to help the situation themselves?
I believe the intent is to move many operations to more promising Beckley, but at least a 2 year feeder presence will likely be maintained in Montgomery. To tell you the truth, it is hard to feel especially sorry for Montgomery. I remember when the state (stupidly) closed the prison in Moundsville and Gaston moved many of those jobs to Fayette County, they held a parade in Montgomery to celebrate while families in Moundsville were uprooted or unemployed. One might say that what goes around comes around. They didn't mind stealing jobs, why should they be all that upset about losing them?
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