What Alternative Ed Can Do for our Health Care System

Unless you've (very sensibly) taken shelter under a rock/in a lean-to in the wilderness/yurt in Outer Mongolia, you've probably heard about the various problems surrounding healthcare and attempted reforms thereof.  Now, this blog has no intention of tackling political issues, but this statement shouldn't be controversial:  Healthcare is expensive.  Insanely expensive.  I think that a significant root cause of this is our higher education system.

A big part of the cost of medical care is that doctors come out of school with massive debts, which then get passed on to the consumer.  I really think it doesn't have to be that way.

Now, I'm not advocating that doctors train themselves and keep cadavers in the refrigerator.  However, it would do a world of good if they spent their money only for classes that they need to be doctors.  Shakespeare is great, but he won't help you be a better doctor (if your doctor mutters "Who knew the old man had so much blood in him," run), and you shouldn't have to shell out hundreds of dollars per credit hour for content that you don't need/already know.  Credit by examination programs, such as CLEP or StraighterLine (more about them in future posts) could significantly reduce doctors' educational debts, thereby bringing down the cost of medical care.

Of course, there's a caveat to all of this (there always is).  Most brick-and-mortar schools don't want to help you out.  Why should they give you credit, when they can make you take the class for several hundred dollars per credit hour?  They might only accept a very few CLEPs, or let it count as an elective, or instead of English 101 and 201, you have to take 102 and 202.

The solution is that more people need to decide they aren't going to meekly follow the butt of the sheep in front of them.  Instead, people should consider schools that embrace credit by examination, like Thomas Edison State College, or Western Governor's University.  When mainstream colleges realize that they're losing customers to more flexible schools, it might force them to accept new ways of doing higher ed, and we'd all be better for it.