As if getting a degree wasn’t hard enough. Trump wants to add more obstacles, but only for people with certain majors. He wants to make it harder for liberal-arts majors to get student loans.
Sam Clovis, policy director for the Trump campaign, said:
“If you are going to study 16th-century French art, more power to you. I support the arts. But you are not going to get a job.”
He wants people who get certain degrees to have a harder time getting student loans. He says they have a harder time getting jobs.
Is that true, though? Unemployment rates are dropping for college graduates. According to a Georgetown University report, unemployment rates for most college majors were lower than that of people with only high school diploma. Unfortunately, people with architecture and social science degrees have a higher unemployment rate than people with high school diplomas.
Sheila Barr, the President of Washington College, believes that schools should have some responsibility for people defaulting on their student loans. However, she said this about the statistics:
“Private non-profit colleges have the lowest default rates – 7%, compared to 9% for public four-year colleges, 18% for for-profit schools, and 23% for public two-year institutions. Taking liberal arts colleges – and their good loan-repaying students — out of federal aid will raise the rate of student defaults, not lower it.”
Another bad thing is this will make liberal arts degrees really only accessible to rich people. Students going to college in this country have a large, diverse list of choices for both school and major. This choice should be left to the students, not arbitrarily chosen by the government.
There are plenty of good jobs for liberal arts majors to get. For example, economics is considered a liberal arts degree, but people can make up to $200,000 a year depending on the job. Psychologists can make a lot of money as well. They also have multiple options for jobs. They can practice psychology and see patients, or they can have a career in academic research.
Mr. Trump should not be getting involved in our education in this manner. We should be encouraging students to study what they want to. There are plenty of options out there.
Featured image by Alex Wong/Getty.
