Mike Rowe: Parents push college in fear of ‘screwing our kids up’
'What if, for the last 40 years, we've been promoting one form of education at the expense of all the others?'
The thought that having a college education and getting a white-collar job has been ingrained into society. But does America need to step away from this mode of thinking?
“Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe believes that an “entire generation has grown into a labor market with binary kind of expectation” that is “very difficult” to step away from,” he told FOX Business' Stuart Varney Friday.
“All of it comes down to this fear, I think, that we're going to screw our kids up,” he said.
LACK OF SHOP CLASSES IS WHY WE'RE $1.6T IN STUDENT DEBT: MIKE ROWE
Although employment rates are at an all-time high and 145,000 jobs were added in December, there's still a need for skilled workers. Rowe also believes there’s a “will gap.”
“What if the opportunities that are currently available have simply been made to appear less appealing than they actually are?” Rowe asked. “What if, for the last 40 years, we've been promoting one form of education at the expense of all the others and certain types of jobs at the expense of others?”
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Students at the University of California, Los Angeles. (David McNew/Getty Images)
Rowe added that it’s a “suckers bet” to argue white-collar jobs are superior to blue-collar jobs.
“They're both equally important,” he said.
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Rowe believes that not ranking vocational schools has indirectly contributed to rising student debt.
“$1.6 trillion in student loans isn't really a mystery when you think of it in terms that we've been telling people for decades that if they don't sign on the dotted line, they're going to wind up turning a wrench,” he said.