Disney paying tuition for hourly workers

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It’s one of the best hospitality schools in the world so I really couldn’t pick a better school. Plus I can give to Disney whenever I want.

I went to the school with the first “hospitality” program ever...
And my wife majored in that at another...but then went back to be certified as a teacher and now is a social worker

...”lovely” work

 

[LAKid53]

Wow, payment upfront, not reimbursement. And not just college, either. I commend Disney for doing this.

 

[LAKid53]

It’s only for online classes which is sort of a huge downside. I’m currently in college in Orlando and it would be great for me to have Disney help pay my tuition but I’m not willing to go all online just for the savings.

But if Disney will pay for online courses, why not take one or two. Tuition is what, about $180 per credit hour at UCF?

 

[October82]

In my opinion, many would be better off going into the trades straight out of high school. Plumber, electrician etc. make good money. I can make the case that someone coming straight out of high school into a trade will out earn at least 50% of college graduates. Probably higher than that if the person has some basic business skills and treats his job as a profession. A guy I went to high school with just flat out did badly in school. He wasn't stupid, he was much better at hands-on stuff. He took shop learned to paint cars etc. etc. and he's owned his own shop for years now and does well at it. I also know people with a college degree who have never made more than 50 grand a year. I can tell you any decent plumber can make more than that a year.

It isn't that these ideas are badly mistaken - on the contrary, there is a lot here that makes a lot of sense. There are, however, two major problems.

The first is that universities in the United States are not in the business of producing economically productive individuals. That's a role that we've (recently) given them, and that they have taken on as a way to attract top students, but that isn't their mission, nor is it what they are designed to do. Evaluating them on those grounds doesn't make a lot of sense.

Instead, universities are designed to produce graduates that are broadly educated and well rounded. The idea being that a more educated individual is a more prosperous individual, independent of whatever career they may find themselves in. And basically all the research on this topic supports this conclusion. This is just as true for people who struggle in their primary education as it is for people who excel. It's simply a mistake to equate the value of a degree with the amount that a person earns in their life.

It is, of course, important that the purpose of a university education be made clear to students, and that other opportunities exist as well. This is simply how the US system works, but things are done differently in other parts of the world.

The other problem is that most trade-jobs are only profitable in this way because the supply of individuals with those skills is currently low. Encouraging more individuals to go into those fields will lower the economic incentives, and we will find ourselves in similar economic conditions to those that originally prompted more individuals to seek a university education.

It's also worth mentioning that the number of individuals who are actually receiving advanced degrees still remains small, and those individuals still typically remain in high demand with clear benefits to employers. Although there are serious issues that require reform, the problem isn't with people being too highly educated, but with how we are choosing to finance that education and with the availability of alternative paths to financial security.

 

[Br’er Rabbit]

But if Disney will pay for online courses, why not take one or two. Tuition is what, about $180 per credit hour at UCF?

Yeah. I mean I’ve taken some online classes over the summer and such but since I’m now in my hospitality classes, they don’t offer those online.

 

[October82]

In the end, the crisis is from the costs of over educating the public. It's just too much money. Happiness doesn't come from money but dispair sure as H### comes from the lack of money or being over your head in debt. Think the education system should work more like the Army. You go into basic training and they will find what you should be doing. You may be General material and you may be latrine cleaner-outer, both jobs need doing but separate training needs to be done. No need to train for what you are not meant for.

This is a nice post, and while I don't agree with all of it, I want to be clear in speaking validity of much of what you wrote here. Where I really do have to disagree though, is right here. We're simply not overeducating the public, and importantly I don't believe it is possible to overeducate someone. Where it goes wrong is the place that I mentioned in the earlier post - it misunderstands why universities exist.

The system that we have in the US is not designed to train people for careers, and job training is not viewed as the key benefit of education in US universities. Instead, education is intrinsically valuable, and people who are educated live better lives than those who aren't. It's important in saying that to be clear that education can mean many different things, and it's not a value judgement about the individual paths that people take, but rather simply a well studied fact that the economic costs of education remain small compared to the benefits that individuals see in their lives. Our universities are organized around this principle, and they are the best in the world because of it.

That doesn't mean that the cost of education isn't an issue. We need to think carefully about reform in this area for all of the reasons you mention, but we shouldn't mistakenly equate the value of education with financial benefit in considering that reform. The wonderful thing about education, though, is that its key side effect remains (unambiguously, and accounting for the effect of debt) significant personal financial and large scale macroeconomic gain. But it is a side effect, and not the primary goal.

It's also true that many, perhaps most, people don't understand this. Many students make choices about what they study, where, and at what cost, with arguments about issues that you mention in mind. We need to do a better job of explaining what university and college education is designed to, especially to those considering a degree, so that they can make an informed decision. Employers, also, need to better understand what degrees provide and what they don't. When people don't make informed decisions, they end up in situations like those that you describe. It doesn't mean that there's a fundamental problem with post-secondary education. The same arguments were made about educating students through the high school level, and the choice to not only expand access but to make it mandatory is a major part of the history of economic growth in the US. It may be that over the next (many) decades, we will need to restructure universities in recognition of the reality that a degree is the norm, rather than the exception.

But this isn't a serious problem, rather, this should be highly desirable in the same way that we desire that all people complete high school.