CCAP Contributions to Forbes.com

As we mentioned a few days ago, CCAP is now regularly blogging for Forbes.com. Our two most recent posts directly relate to our most recent study where we take a look at BLS data suggesting that over one-third of college graduates in 2008 were employed in below-college jobs. Here are some snippets from the two posts.

Is America Saturated with College Grads?

In the United States (using 2008 data), we have estimated that there were approximately 17.4 million college graduates working in occupations requiring less than a bachelor’s degree (our favorite example: the 317,000 college educated waiters)...
In light of our research, we find it difficult to justify public policy aimed at increasing the nation’s stock of college graduates as the cure for its economic ills.

Should Government Support Higher Education?

The ability and desire of taxpayers to heavily subsidize higher education with all of its inefficiencies diminishes daily. We are moving towards de facto privatization of some state universities, for example. As we increasingly recognize that higher education is largely a private good primarily conferring benefits on its users, we will back off our huge governmental financial commitment to colleges and universities, most of which are organized on a costly medieval model primarily using instructional methods dating back to when Socrates taught the youth of Athens. I think this public disinvestment is a good move, and higher education will be forced to adjust to it.

You can read all of our contributions to Forbes.com here.