It's not like people are forced to take student loans.

[riderinthestorm]

132. I'm not deluding myself that it's more important

But I'm also not denigrating anyone who believes classical music should be a part of our lives. YOU ARE the anti-intellectualist! I firmly believe that higher education, yes even for classical music instructors, benefits our society and culture. Beyond that it should be free, and paid for with tax money just like health care as an integral part of a civil society. I would stipulate that YOU as the arbiter of who gets educational financial aid, and who doesn't, is terrifying for our country's future and I hope to hell an educational version of "death panels" is your idea of a sick joke.

FWIW, I have an MBA from the University of Chicago. I'm an unrepentant liberal with the most conservative of economic degrees who works as a farmer. I do other stuff but that degree has certainly helped me achieve other great things in ways large and small throughout my life including getting hired writing grants to preserve open space, build women's shelters and food banks, raise capital for wetlands preservation and more. I presume an MBA, especially one from the dreaded U of C would be on your death panel list. But without it I never would have achieved important social goals.

It gives me the academic qualification to be hired. It demonstrates that I can think. It helps me organize and run my business effectively. So there's the counter to your Walter Cronkite anomaly. There are far, far more stories like mine where education was THE way to help society than Cronkite's, especially in 2012 (and not 1940).

By the way, did you know that one of Cronkite's most enduring legacies is starting a ... (wait for it) ... journalism degree program/school at ASU? See, he really felt that a degree was that important.