• HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    TLDR:

    “Urban Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, German Literature, African American Studies, Gender Studies and Women’s Studies”. I’m sensing a bias here.

    Also that state funding should match workforce demands for the state - this part makes sense.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      state funding should match workforce demands for the state

      Here’s a better idea: companies should actually train their workers. Lots of times a degree isn’t even needed at all. They’re just being cheap by not paying for a 2 week training program.

      • OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.worldOP
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        1 year ago

        My old job at a large corporation didn’t want to pay Nortel to fly out from Dallas to host a proper two week telecommunications class to train their new support personnel. Instead they made this 65 year old “Ma Bell” tech to cobble together and teach a one and a half day crash course. I left with a notebook full of unfinished CLI commands, shorthand notes and just enough information to probably not bring down the entire enterprise PBX system. Good times.

      • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, for entry level jobs fully agree. You cant expect every biotechnology company to pay for 6 years of education for every new employee, every school to pay for every new teachers training, every hospital, every finance company and bank.

        • LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch
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          1 year ago

          Why not? That’s how apprentice programs work, and how they used to work back in the day. If you don’t know how to get useful work out of a trainee, that’s your own problem. Hire an assistant and train them up, maybe work them 20 hours and send them through other math/science classes at the local community college to fill in necessary, but not directly work oriented skills.

          In the end you’ll have a very loyal, and well trained recruit that knows your business very well.

        • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s how PhD programs work in certain parts of Europe.

          They’re funded by a company for a specific project and end up training an employee in that area.

          It’s actually quite effective (both cost and otherwise).

        • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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          1 year ago

          At Texas A&M the major chicken companies offer full ride scholarships for people to study poultry science. Industries can afford to pay for schooling, but they say they can’t and make the same arguments you, the non-owner of a large company, have accepted as correct.

          If you are saying, “it would be exceedingly difficult and costly to shift the education burden in most jobs,” I’d agree with you. But the other poster is correct - the apprentice model of school and training already exists, and Tyson has shown at least that industry will pay for higher education when demand exceeds supply.

    • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      1 year ago

      Also that state funding should match workforce demands for the state - this part makes sense.

      Should it?

      First off, is the point of college to fill job slots or to educate the population? It’s not a trade school.

      Second, if you change funding now it impacts programs a few years down the line then prior take 4/5 years to graduate. If you overspecify your funding on the current economic situation you’re always 6 years behind when the grads hit the market.

      • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yes it should. It isn’t a discussion (well, it is heavily implied though) that they shouldn’t exist, only that the state shouldn’t fund it. States job is to get a return on their investment, and funding what is needed is a good way to start - especially in the context of a brain drain from the state.

        For the record, im only arguing against the facts at face value. Well aware this has a much deeper motive im not going to defend.

        • Iteria@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Has the state been funding schools though? Because state funding has been falling across the board and if the state has an interest in being lean then they should focus on out of prop salaries of administration and sports spending. After all what interest does the state have in sports? By this line of reasons colleges should have to fund that themselves.

          This is of course setting aside that humanities does help society and is in the vested interest of the state. I’m saying this as someone who was a STEM major. Giving context to the world and giving people a greater understanding is useful for every major. It allows them to understand their world and make better decisions from their station in life.

          To take the stance that the state has an interest in funding “useful” degrees then no one should be allowed to do anything outside their education, which is aburd. People with different points of view and knowledge enhance professions, not destroy them. That’s what happens when a profession only has one allowable perspective to deal with infinite possibilities of the world.

        • ieatpillowtags@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          The state’s “job” is to provide services for its people. Not everything the government does needs to turn a profit.

        • darq@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Yes it should. It isn’t a discussion (well, it is heavily implied though) that they shouldn’t exist, only that the state shouldn’t fund it. States job is to get a return on their investment, and funding what is needed is a good way to start - especially in the context of a brain drain from the state.

          Educated people still benefit the state, even they are educated in things that wealthy people don’t think they can monetise.

          • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I think the key thing people are misunderstanding (or im not being clear with) is that investment isn’t just financial return - education in things the state needs is an investment, even if they don’t make money from it

            • darq@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Your previous comment said that education funding should match workforce demands. That is what I responded to and disagree with. Education has value beyond just placing people into the workforce.

    • athos77@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      The moment the headline said “indoctrinate”, we all knew what this list was going to include.

    • Bipta@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You left out the context that makes it all way worse:

      In numerous statements on social media leading up to the report’s publication, White said there should be no taxpayer funding for “useless degrees" in “garbage fields” like Urban Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, German Literature, African American Studies, Gender Studies and Women’s Studies.

    • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      Although they’re not well advertised in the South, trade schools do exist in the US. The reason trades are seen as a bad job down there is the fact these states are all hot and humid, so working outside can be miserable. A lower paying job in the south is ranked by how much air conditioning you get, which can explain why people slave in Walmart instead of doing trades down there.