What I really found disturbing is that he convinced his parents to pay for his daughter. No way would I let my kids do that to me or no way I would have ever asked my parents. I hope they have $ in their old age.
And the one daughter did many years of school and is a social worker. Who are great people, but make very little money.
plainjane,
The earning potential of social workers increases dramatically at the masters level. My wife went from earning $26k/yr with a bachelors in social work to nearly $70k/yr with a MSW and LSW the year she finished her degree. If she does the 3000 hours of clinical work for her LCSW (like the daughter in the article) she could do private practice and charge $50-$70 per hour in our area. LCSWs are also going to be able to diagnose clients soon in our state which could potentially increase the earning potential of LCSWs here.
Oh course I will agree that the daughter in the article didn't need to go to the schools she did. My wife earned her bachelors and masters degree from the local state university.
Why do you need a Masters degree to do this work and earn this income? I suppose that an advanced degree is nice to have it but why is it absolutely essential to alternative paths like simply working in the field or being very smart and having a different degree? Why should a piece of paper serve as a roadblock to prevent others from competing? My bet is that the social worker lobby passed a law requiring the additional degree and credentials to artificially lower competition. The education lobby, I am certain, was very happy to provide testimony on the essential nature of their diplomas before ANY person should be even considered for employment is they very important job...This is a perfect example of credentialism driving up the cost of higher education, deflating the value of a batchelor degree (and HS Diploma) and skewing the marketplace.
Sid,
Are you suggesting that anyone with a HS diploma is capable of being a clinical therapist? I don't think the insurance companies would be okay with anyone with a HS Diploma being able to bill insurance for clinical therapy. Psychologists have a similar certification called the licensed professional counselor, and the NASW most certainly does not lobby on their behalf.
Of course not, but why should an intelligent person working as social worker - and who can do the work - be automatically be excluded from advancement because they lack a credential that is often obtained simply by expending money and showing up (see credentialisms twin brother "grade inflation")? If the laws are changed to not require credentials, then the insurance rates will not be impacted so long as qualified people are hired. That's how it worked in the 1960's, 70s and 80s. Insurance rates may even go down if folks are hired based on quality of work rather than on producing a piece of paper. Keep in mind that under our current credentialism system, Sigmund Freud would not have been qualified to do clinical therapy.
My point is twofold. First,we should not chastise Millennialls and Gen Z for "choosing" to incur student loan debt when their profession requires an ever increasing amount of higher education in order to advance because of credentialism. I also offered this point because I think credentialism is one of the reasons why higher education has become so expensive over the last 50 years. We keep piling on educational requirements to qualify for a job interview and the colleges know it. As a result, they adjust their prices accordingly. If credentialism was curtailed, the costs of higher education would be reduced. At a time when the cost of an undergraduate education at a public university is climbing over $100,000, I think rolling back some credentialism is worth examining as a part of a solution to reduce the costs of higher ed and lower student loan debt.
More on credentialism here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credentialism_and_educational_inflationFor instance, in the late 1980s, a bachelor's degree was the standard ticket to enter the profession of occupational therapy.[21] By the 1990s, a master's degree was expected. Today, a doctorate is becoming the norm. This change was due to the explosion of bachelor's degrees spurred by the rise in knowledge exchange—hinged on population growth and technological innovation. With the advent of globalization, recent years see the Ph.D. taking over the role of the master's degree—especially professional degrees. Universities are currently reporting significant renewed interest in their graduate programs, with a particular focus on Ph.D. study, as candidates consider retraining or adding new skills to their resumes that will benefit them if the economic situation improves. What once was considered to be specific training for the academic profession and open to a minor assemblage of individuals absorbed in research has become a benchmark for some job-entry positions. This change is forcing individuals to push for more advanced degrees to be considered for some positions.
The creeping-credentials phenomenon has resulted in the growth in the higher-education industry, with institutions expanding their offerings beyond the traditional graduate degrees. Offerings now include increasingly narrow, job-specific training courses. Degrees aimed at working professionals often come with very high tuition pricing.
Another consequence of credential creep is the increased time spent in school, with the resulting deferment of career establishment.