The mail.(Letter to the Editor)

As a retired professor and former department chair at a state university, I was particularly interested in The American Enterprise's issue on higher education (September).

None of the articles, however, mentioned the dumbing down of college curricula and grade inflation that began in the 1960s. We haven't been able to accept since that time that college is not for everyone.

In reality, only one in four American jobs requires a bachelor's degree or more. We have many more institutions of "higher learning" than we need. Federal funding has been a gravy train for diploma mills that will admit anyone with a pulse. Faculties at many colleges are pressured not to flunk anyone in order to maintain cash flow.

As a result, college diplomas from all but the most elite institutions have become less valuable. The situation needs to change.

 
James R. Pullen 
St. Louis, Missouri 

James Forman's "Great Expectations" (BIRD'S EYE, September) is an elitist's idea of what life should be like if it rained college degrees. Some folks are just not college material.

 
Bill Lynch 
Miller Place, New York