To the Editor:
Many high school [sic] students and their families will find value in the new website College Scorecard (“How One’s Choice of College Affects Future Earnings,” The Upshot, Sept. 15). For those of us engaged in the preparation of undergraduate (and graduate) students for public service careers, especially in this period of increasing income inequality, the promotion of financial return on investment as a critical decision criterion for college and university selection would appear to be misdirected.
A substantial educational experience beyond secondary school has great worth regardless of the size of the paycheck received in one’s career. For example, for our graduates with careers in social services, public education, local government and nonprofit organizations, return on educational investment should not be measured primarily by one’s own yearly income.
When a critical mission of a college or university is to motivate and prepare well-educated graduates for public service careers that will almost surely have lower salaries, let’s not be so exclusively focused on future earnings.
JOHN ROHRBAUGH
Cambria, Calif.
The writer is a professor of public administration and policy at the University at Albany, SUNY.
Note from KBJ: Can you say "self-serving"?
