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IPFS News Link • Education: Colleges and Universities

What Will They Learn at College?

• https://www.lewrockwell.com, By Walter E. Williams

Yet, there's a going-away-to-college question that far too few parents ask or even contemplate: What will my youngster learn in college?

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni provides some answers that turn out to be quite disturbing. ACTA evaluated every four-year public university as well as hundreds of private colleges and universities. That's more than 1,100 institutions that enroll nearly 8 million students, more than two-thirds of all students enrolled in four-year liberal arts schools nationwide. ACTA's findings were published in their report "What Will They Learn? 2018-19." It doesn't look good.

The ACTA assigned grades tell some of the story. Just 23 (2%) of the over 1,100 colleges earn an A grade; 343 colleges (31%) earn a B grade; 347 (31%) get a C grade; 273 (24%) earn a D; and 134 (12%) colleges earn an F. If you're thinking that your youngster will get a truly liberal arts education, you are sadly mistaken. It turns out that less than half of the schools studied require courses in traditional literature, foreign language, U.S. government or history and economics. At some colleges, students can fulfill their humanities requirement with a course titled "Global X: Zombies!" A U.S. cultural pluralism requirement can be fulfilled with "The Economics of 'Star Trek.'" And an arts and Literature requirement can be fulfilled with either the "History of Comics" or "Game Design for Non-Majors."


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