Submitted by Michael Chiusano, Dec 21, 2006 11:14

I taught for four years at a career school, the fancy term for trade school these days. Their quality varies, but many career schools are taking 18-year-old kids and giving them a chance at a lifetime of productive work, often at much higher rates of pay than if they went out of a four-year college with a non-scientific degree. If a young student is serious, he or she can spend 25% of the cost of a college education, and enter the world at 19 or 20 with real earning power, no crushing debt, and a sound work ethic. By 25 or 30, they can be running their own businesses. In contrast, the college graduates are in debt forever, have no real credential to earn much money, and often have a slacker attitude that the world owes them a living. The academic world would do well to study what is going on at career schools. It's a hidden story that needs to be brought into the open because it just makes a lot of sense.

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