Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Breakdown: The Young Aren’t Getting Enough Education

The Breakdown: The Young Aren’t Getting Enough Education: "

Previous posts in the series: The Breakdown


There’s no delicate way to state this so I’ll just blurt it out: the age cohorts coming up aren’t seeking out as much education as they should. Consider this table, taken from here and derived from Brookings Institute data:






Age
HS diploma or more in 2000
HS diploma or more in 2008
Some college in 2000
Some college in 2008
Associate degree in 2000
Associate degree in 2008
Bachelor’s degree in 2000
Bachelor’s degree in 2008
25 to 34
83.9
86.4
23.1
23.5
7.5
8.3
27.5
29.6
35 to 44
85.0
87.3
22.6
21.4
8.1
8.7
25.9
30.8
45 to 64
83.2
87.6
21.7
21.9
6.4
8.2
26.4
28.9
65 and over
65.5
75.7
15.7
17.5
2.5
3.9
15.4
20.0

When the Baby Boomers started to enter the job market in numbers in the 1960s a high school diploma was enough for many jobs and a college diploma was thought to be the ticket to a secure and successful life. Now for good or ill jobs are divided into two categories: minimum wage jobs with no future and minimal educational requirements and jobs that require at least some college. You’d think that would mean that the young people of today would be getting more education than their elders did but that certainly doesn’t seem to be the case.


Next post in the series: The Breakdown: Education Is More Necessary Than Ever

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