If not college, what?

Often-lucrative alternatives to the four-year degree abound | Janie B. Cheaney

Illustration by Krieg Barrie

Last spring, a column about the "Diminished Returns" of some college degrees stimulated a large response. The subject seems to be a hot-button issue among Christians of a certain age: young adults or older adults with teenage children. The "Go-To-College" steamroller that gained traction after the G.I. Bill has begun to slow down as the cost-effectiveness becomes more questionable. Charles Murray, author of Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality, put it bluntly in a recent Wall Street Journal article: "For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time."

Murray's main point is that not everyone is bent toward academics, and the push to enroll as many high-school graduates as possible in higher education has created a shortage in skilled trades. The need for welders and pipe fitters will soon be so acute that Mike Rowe, star of the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs, is in talks with at least two industrial-supply companies to promote the virtue—and profit—of manual labor.