Critique of WSJ Article

Wall Street Journal: For Most People, College is a Waste of Time

College suffers from the same mentality of primary and secondary schooling: if time and money is spent in an institution, then an economic reward and success will follow. It sounds good, but it’s not a promise that can be kept. Nor is it a rule that those who do not attend college are failures and less of a citizen. Knowledge and skills can be attained through a myriad of opportunities, one of which is certification.
Certifications hold a standard that is not found in school. First of all, certifications are a choice, they represent a specific passion. In school, people can be going through the motions because it is expected of them, but no true learning may be occurring. Secondly, primary and secondary schools must move students along the grade levels regardless of abilities, because of law that states students must graduate by the age 21. Certifications do not consider age as a factor; the tests must be passed on knowledge acquisition alone. Thirdly, certifications are much more inexpensive than college tuition.
Numerable certifications already exist, but there are problems in how they exist at the moment. One issue is the shortage of nationally accepted certifications. Different states require different certifications for the same title. Also, certification requirements differ from state to state. These requirements might also be contingent on a college degree.
If certifications were to be valued as respectable and boast the equivalence of a college degree, opportunities would become available for those individuals with limited income or time. It would no longer matter how the information was acquired, in a school setting or alone in a public library, as long as the knowledge was there. Certifications would also assure that employers had trustworthy information about their prospective employees. The lack of a college degree would no longer be stigmatized and employment opportunities would be available to all individuals with a good work ethic and a firm foundation in knowledge, regardless of how that foundation was laid.