Irwin Technical College

Whatever Happened to Our School System.

Our K to twelve school system is in shambles and is no longer competitive in the world market and our colleges and universities are becoming unaffordable. In the last few years the federal government has taken over higher education. Most of the government money spent comes via access to student loans: so called Title IV funding. New rules actually loosen the standards and go further to guarantee federal loans. A college can now receive 90% of its revenue from government related sources.

A traditional liberal arts education isn’t practical for many students. What many want and can afford are essentially trade schools that teach skills in demand by local employers. There has been a booming enrollment in the 2,800 for-profit institutions for higher learning attended by about 10% of all college students. The average cost per student is the lowest at for-profit colleges: $11,000, while public universities average $19,000 per student and private not-for-profit colleges received $38,000 per student.

Students attending for-profit schools are most likely to default. Far too many for-profit schools are saddling students with debt that they can’t afford along with degrees and certificates they cannot use unless they are for trade skills such as design engineering, electronics, machining, programming etc. These schools write off 50% to 60% of the student loans they make. The industry would literally not exist without government guarantees standing behind 90% of its revenues.

All these risks will eventually cost the US treasury billions as these students will never be able to repay their loans. Many students have no financial responsibility but they may borrow 100% of their tuition for a degree that is of little benefit. Student loans are notoriously difficult to discharge and many borrowers will be crippled financially by the obligations they cannot afford.

Is Government Helpful?

We have forgotten about the school system that made the United States prosperous. Our government controlled system has taken the study of the Bible out of schools and has rewritten the history books while spending the most to achieve a non-competitive educational system. Therefore, we have to rely on businesses to educate their employees.

In Washington State, $9.04 per hour minimum wage is the highest in the nation. That has not helped high school students to find work because few employers can afford to hire them. Businesses used to hire students for a learning experience on a summer job, but that doesn’t work very well anymore at $9.04 per hour. An employer can hire a highly educated worker in a foreign country for one fourth of that and that’s why the manufacturing jobs have moved outside of the United States.

If Schools Won’t Train, Businesses Must

If you have a manufacturing business and need to hire a machinist, welder, CAD or CAM operator, machine designer, programmer, it would be extremely difficult. Therefore it’s up to the business to educate their employees. For this reason in 1980, we started a non-accredited, technical college within Irwin Research to address this problem and we’ve trained most of our employees in technical skills.

Since 1939 Perry Trade Institute in Yakima has been a wonderful, accredited, non-profit Technical College that helped solve the problem by teaching the skills that benefit local employers. A two year course will cost a student about $24,000 and financing is available.