[jknoepfler]

No it doesn't. It needs to up standards for a secondary degree and double down on its investment in post secondary education. We need more literate, culturally aware, mathematically and analytically capable, scientifically knowledgeable humans, not less.

The fact that Americans are some of the least intellectually engaged people on the planet is not proof that we need better alternatives to college. We need better alternatives to intellectual disengagement.

[ThrustVectoring]

The high achievers are going to be well read anyways; if you stuffed everyone accepted into Stanford into a room for four years instead of teaching them, you'd wind up with a bunch of intellectually engaged and well-read individuals.

It's the marginally-engaged folks that barely get into college that post-secondary education makes a difference for. And, uhh, they kind of treat it like a four-year party with less parental involvement.

IMO, the fact that Americans are some of the least intellectually engaged people on the planet is a cultural problem that is basically fixed by the time children have gone through primary education.

[bittercynic]

>...Americans are some of the least intellectually engaged people on the planet...

What evidence do you have to support this? (Not implying that I have any to refute it)