Harvard's Pathways to Prosperity project challenges the conventional wisdom that the U.S. simply must process more young people through college, saying that for many young people, there are better options. In today's Pope Center Clarion Call, Jane Shaw considers it and finds much to applaud.
Back in 1995, two Penn State professors, Kenneth Gray and Edwin Herr, published a book entitled Other Ways to Win, (a new edition was published in 2006) in which they argued that the crusade to get as many young Americans as possible into college was a big mistake. For a long time, that message was lost in the college-for-everyone hurricane, but now it seems to be gaining ground. As Jane notes in her article, the higher ed establishment isn't happy about it.