Siamo in mezzo ad una crisi finanziaria, tagliare la spesa è il modo più pragmatico per uscirne.
Politicamente l’ operazione è difficile, e cio’ resta vero anche se la spesa improduttiva abbonda.
In questo gioco a passarsi il cerino, la scuola che fine fa?
Dalle colonne del Corriere Maurizio Ferrera dice che non andrebbe toccata:
tagliare è un obbligo, sulla scuola un delitto
Si, ok. Ma come rispondere allora a Caplan?:
Economists are finally waking up to the fact that many people are overqualified for their jobs. You don't need a college degree to be a baggage porter or bellhop, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17% of them have a bachelor's degree or more. So do 15% of taxi drivers and chauffeurs - and 14% of mail carriers. Even if you insist that what you learn in college is broadly useful on-the-job, can you really believe that it makes you better at putting letters in mailboxes?
Once you drink this Kool-aid, though, you're on a slippery slope. If you admit that "Some jobs really don't require a college education," it's hard to deny the harsher fact that "Some jobs don't require a high school education either." Take baggage porters and bellhops. What did they learn in their last four years of high school that makes them more productive in their jobs? If you answer, "A strong work ethic," think again. Which actually builds a better work ethic: goofing off in high school with the other kids who don't plan to go to college? Or hustling for tips as a bellhop?
On average, I freely admit, the return to education remains fairly high. But themarginal return is a different story. Students determined to finish college - or high school - probably aren't going to remain overqualified for long. It's the borderline students, I conjecture, who get stuck in jobs that don't require their formal credentials. We should accept this fact - and stop encouraging and subsidizing these borderline students to finish high school and college. Someone has to carry baggage. Shouldn't it be high school drop-outs?
Certo, si parla degli USA. Ma non possiamo girarci dall’ altra parte visto che da noi il fenomeno è anche più marcato!
Senza una risposta puntuale ha poco senso opporsi ai tagli.
Troppo spesso i tagli alla scuola vengono interpretato come un taglio al nostro futuro, il che equivale ad una profanazione di altari consacrati.
Ma le cose stanno davvero così?
Come minimo siamo di fronte ad una semplificazione strumentale:
… the great secular faith of our age is the idea that education is the key to economic growth, swelling both an individual’s bank balance and expanding a nation’s GDP… Look at Switzerland. It has one of the lowest higher-education enrolment rates in the world, yet it has a fantastic economy… look at a mistatement… given lawyers’ high wages, having more lawyers would surely mean that there are more and more people earning more and more dough, and therefore in total, society is becoming more and more wealthy…‘[This] would suggest that the fastest way to boost growth would be to send everyone to law school’. Which is clearly ridiculous…
Un libro da leggere: Does Education Matter?: Myths About Education and Economic Growth, by Alison Wolf
Per ora accontentiamoci dell’ intervista.
