[
Katherine Mangu-Ward]
Earlier this month, the world's favorite smiley-faced megastore announced that it will begin offering subsidized college education to many of its 1.4 million U.S. employees. Headline writers everywhere rejoiced at the "everyday low prices" jokes that await them.
Partnering with a for-profit online-only university, Wal-Mart is planning to drop $50 million over the next three years on the program. But employees will have to kick in their own cash as well: An associate's degree will cost a Wal-Mart employee $11,700, a four-year degree would be a little more than twice that.
Meanwhile, the phrase "higher education bubble" is
popping up everywhere in recent months. This is thanks (in small part) to President Obama, who
announced in his first State of the Union address that "every American will need to get more than a high school diploma." But Americans have been fetishizing college diplomas for a long time now--Obama just reinforced that message and brought even
more cash to the table. College has become a minimum career requirement, a
basic human right, and a
minimum income guarantee in the eyes of the American public.
So if we're in the middle of a culture-created, government-subsidized higher education bubble, is Wal-Mart part of the problem? Or is it the solution?
If we're going to push every 18-year-old in the country into some kind of higher education, most people will likely be better off in a programs that involves logistics and linoleum, rather than ivy and the
Iliad. And, in contrast to an
associate's degree in Japanese studies from Northern Virginia Community College, we know there is at least one employer interested in a Wal-Mart-subsidized logistics sheepskin: Wal-Mart.
But far more exciting than the prospect of bringing a bunch of new BAs into the world are the prospects for bringing Wal-Mart's habit of changing the way people do business into the world of education.
The Chronicle of Higher Education explains how Wal-Mart selected American Public University as their provider:
As American Public turned its attention to luring the retail behemoth, it was apparently able to be more flexible than other colleges and willing to "go the extra mile" to
Why Do I Have to Log In Again?
Discussion Policy
Comment
Photos
