Is college worth it? The news about higher education is mostly bad. Student loan debt is now $1 trillion and climbing. Underpaid, demoralized, and harassed adjunct faculty are taking on more and more of the teaching load. By many measures, college isn't doing its most important job: providing a ladder that young people with fewer advantages can climb.
College right now seems to be reinforcing class structure rather than loosening it up.
Into all of the above steps an optimist: Wesleyan president Michael Roth, who doesn't deny the problems, but insists that a liberal education is essential, and worth it. Despite the shift towards specialized courses of study, a liberal arts education is more important than ever.
Also on The Scramble, a Connecticut perspective on President Obama's new clean-energy proposal to decrease carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants 30 percent by 2030.
And, because we are a shoo-in for this year's prize for most exhaustive public radio coverage of "Jeopardy," a "Jeopardy" report.
GUEST:
- Michael Roth is the president of Wesleyan University and the author of several books including his most recent, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters
- Rob Klee is the Commissioner for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
- Steve Friess is a freelance writer in Ann Arbor, Michigan and adjunct professor of journalism at Michigan State University. He wrote his article, “What’s Behind the Unprecedented Run of Female Jeopardy Winners” for Vulture. He
