High School vs College

I can't believe I just heard Mr. B.S. say that it takes 4 years of college to equal the education I got in high school some 50 years ago. I kinda knew that, but I'm just shocked to hear a presidential candidate say this.

To equal what you got academically? That's not what he said.

What did he say?

lately I have become quite involved with our school (K-12) now that I have skin in the game. Granted it is a private school but the classes offered to high school students are far more involved than the education I received in semi-rural Texas in the '70s. The average high school graduate could probably test out of the classes I took as a freshman in college. The top students might be able to test out of some 200 level classes in math and liberal arts.

"Bottom line here is, in the year 2015, we should look at a college degree the same way we looked at a high school degree 50 or 60 years ago. If you want to make it into the middle class, the bottom line now, is in America, in the year 2015, any person who has the ability and the desire should be able to get an education, college education, regardless of the income of his or her family. And we must substantially lower, as my legislation does, interest rates on student debt.

A college degree today is the equivalent of what a high school degree was 50 years ago. What we said 50 years ago is that every kid in this country should be able to get a high school education regardless of the income of their family. I think we have to say that is true for everybody going to college. I pay for my program through a tax on Wall Street speculation, which will not only make public colleges and universities tuition-free, it will substantially lower interest rates on college debt."

Ref: ontheissues.com

It would depend on the quality of the instructors at the high schools and the colleges, and the effort of the student.

In 1965 I had to take Chemistry I at Memphis State University (now The University of Memphis), as part of nursing school requirements.

The MSU instructor was so bad that the whole class was flunking.
Thankfully, my high school chemistry teacher (1965) had been so good that my knowledge was nearly equal to the MSU curriculum from day one (except for the organic part).

The sad part was that everybody before us, including the nursing school faculty, knew how bad she was.
The nursing school hired a tutor to come in and remediate us so all would pass the final.
With his help, I got the organic part without much trouble.

The big push to send the maximum number of kids to college has created a lack of kids going into the trades and a glut of college graduates that can't find employment whereby they're being compensated for having a college degree. The kids that do well in the trades are finding themselves in demand and making serious bank while the college graduates are struggling to pay their loans back.

Boiler agees. There are many types of education, and a bunch of my friends who've done well financially never attended college.