Australia is in a similar boat.

To keep things short as I am on my lunch break:

- Need at least a year 12 education now to be even given a trade traineeship. About 10-15 years ago could do it after year 10
- Anyone who hasn't been luck y to recieve a traineeship, must go to get a degree at a UNI, or equivalent certificate at a TAFE college, otherwise all they will do is flip burgers and be checkout chicks.
- Cost of living in Australia has driven people to get an education.
- Labor jobs in manufacturing are not cost effecitve, hence a HUGE shift to china etc.. Very few manufacturers still around. Only wya tobeomce competitive is to provide governemnt incentives and stop free trade (as this is killing local business).

CONCLUSION; Developing countries sadly apart from trades required to keep the society functioning (ie plumbers, builders, electricians etc..) must adapt to a white collar environment.

Bullcrap and sophistry.  You do not automatically have better reasoning skills and religious/political tolerance (seriously?) because you went to college.  It also does not mean that you do not read as much as anyone in higher education.

I, myself, have owned two successful store-front businesses, which I sold for a profit after 3 and 5 years respectively.  That was before I went back to get my Associates degree.  Most of my classmates who went to college were puffing on joints and taking classes they did not care about while I was earning real-world experience dealing with customers, vendors, and employees.  Yes, college can be a good thing, but it certainly does not mean a person is more intelligent or capable than someone who did not go.

Most teachers get paid much less than 70k... but yea I agree that college isn't for everyone. The education system has gotten inflated in the past few decades and it sucks because of how expensive/overpriced it all costs.

I don't think there's anything wrong with telling a teenager to go to college, but the entire education curriculum needs to be more serious. I remember when I was going to college how everyone was telling me it was going to be so much more difficult than high school and what not, but when I got there it honestly wasn't that much different. The only real difference I noticed is that when the teachers assigned homework, they meant it was homework. I do agree that there should be some kind of practical teaching in the Junior and Senior year of high school and probably in the beginning college years. It is a shame that most young adults do not understand where the electricity comes from whenever a light switch is flipped (I used to be one of them). A fair number of my college peers don't even know how to turn a wrench.

Getting back to the education of America though, I remember reading that in Germany to graduate from college you have to take a final at the end of your four years consisting of all the material since enrollment. Here in the U.S., only about half the teachers give a final at the end of the term. However, it is not entirely the curriculum's fault. The American youth has become extremely lazy. Whenever an assignment is due, many of my peers beg the teacher to extend the date of the assignment, even if it is complete. Most barely try the problem, then they say it is too hard and have the teacher do half of the work on the board. The reason why this happens, in my opinion, is because the students do not value the opportunity that has been given to them. They don't realize each class is worth $55 or so because they are not the ones paying. My parents told me that they will only pay part of my payments while I am in school, and nothing when I graduate, so I am trying to make the most of it. There's my two cents worth.

I am afraid you are wrong, it has been consistently shown that higher education leads to higher IQ and better critical thinking skills. Of course IQ is not be-all; end all to intelligence, there are other aspects such as EQ. Who knows, if you have a PhD in business maybe you are now owner of more than 2 store front business, maybe you have a company that is much bigger because you realize you had better ways to monetize it.

How do you expect Albert Einstein to build the atomic bomb without reading all the books, learning all the theories first? How do you expect me to come up with a list of 15 differential diagnosis of common cold without having to first memorize the 15 things first and then be able to utilize it later on and apply it in real life.

If you think you are learning a bunch of things you don't use, you are wrong; you use it everyday. Eventhough most of us learned calculus in high school do not end up using it in your professional life, i certainly hope you know what "are under the curve" measn when people are talking to you in both business and math terms. You have already gained the knowledge and you are already using it in an abstract way without realizing it.

You guys take things for granted, you have the concept of bacteria, virus, cells, and molecules because you learned this from your high school and college course, even though you are now a business man it doesn't mean these biology concepts are useless to you. If you have cancer and I tell you the results, you can at least appreciate it from an abstract level that it is some abnormal cell in the body.If you are in some third world country that you never went to school, you will probably seek out a Witch Doctor to try to cure your "cancer" by some stupid "chant".

All you guys do not even realize the value of education, and you walk into any major University lab and you walk into any major Teaching hospital; all the good doctors and pHds all speak with an foreign accent. How far have we fallen behind as a country. This country needs to encourage people to go to college and beyond. Leave the burger flipping jobs for those who doesn't want to go thru college, it's their choice and thats what they are content with, sooner or later there will be robots taking those jobs as well and you will find urself obsolete

excuse for various typos, did it kind of fast.

In regards to the OP besides being laughable, I must point out that 70k a year is a lot of money for a teacher and the average American household salary is 58k.

70k a year is not bad, they get summer off and if they do summer school they can probably break 100k, and that's with 4 years of college and a 1-2 year of "teahcer's credential" in most high school. In college, they make more than 70k as they hold PhDs in their field and many of the science related pHds have research grants.

I make about 230k before tax being an internist; i work 7 days on (12 hrs each day) and I get 7 days off. If I pick up extra work, can go close to 280-300k a yr as the extra shift pays 90 bucks a hour or so.

Guys, you're getting it all wrong.
You should tell the kids to born into a wealthy family, instead.

I agree; tenure is bullshit. If bad teachers were in any threat of being fired then maybe they'll get their crap together.