The simple assumption that “everyone in America is college educated”* is the most important disconnect separating what goes on inside and outside the beltway.
Although “everyone” in Washington has a bachelor’s degree, 85.5% of all Americans don’t; although “everyone” in Washington has a master’s or professional degree, 91.1% of Americans don’t.
With regards to foreign civilizations popularly considered “uncivilized,” Arnold suggested that these people “are happy. They are content. We in the ‘civilized’ world do not understand why they would continue in their ancient ways in which the tribal leader holds control. Do any of their young visualize the dream of going to Boston University to get a degree in medicine in order to return to help their own????
My response is that this could well be said about Americans, too.
Dig these numbers: only 15.5% of Americans earn bachelor’s degrees and merely 8.9% of Americans earn graduate or professional degrees.
That is to say that it never occurs to over 91% of Americans to “dream of going to Boston University to get a degree in medicine in order to return to help their own,??? either.
Stats via USA Today
*For the sake of this article, “college educated” means a 4 year bachelor’s degree and does not include associate degrees or vocational training.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I went to USA Today to read your statistics and actually saw they were not accurate (see below):
“In 2000, 84% of adults 25 and older had at least a high school degree, and 26% had a bachelor’s degree or more . . .”
These are significantly higher than you are reporting.