Credential Culture Reaches Wal-Mart

In one of the more grotesque absurdities of what is supposed to be "higher education," Wal-Mart announced that it's partnering with an online university to give its student discounts on classes and (this is the more insane part) credit for their work. So much is wrong with this that it hurts your head even to enumerate it.

To start with, the degrees that students are going to be getting are bullshit. There's really no other word for a degree in "retail management" that gives you credit for your Wal-Mart training as a department manager (a low level hourly position at Wal-Mart one step up from unloading crates). But then again, that's actual work experience, and it's going to be worth more than whatever nonsensical online classes are required for the associates' degree.

In exchange for this worthless degree from American Public University, a for-profit online operation, students will pay thousands of dollars. The Times wonders how they will do that with their Wal-Mart paychecks. Well, we don't need to wonder. They'll do it with government backed student loans, that they'll be stuck with whether or not they even finish the degree. These loans are the engine of for-profit schools (I've written about those before), the majority of which exist almost entirely to induce students to take out as much as they can under the federal program, which makes no distinction between a real education and a third-rate trade school.

The dumbest part of this may be that in this program credential culture has reached its absolute nadir. One of the few good things about Wal-Mart was that employees could advance, even to six figure salaries, without degrees. Now they have the option of padding their experience with a degree meaningless except to Wal-Mart's own human resources department--and option that down the line will probably turn into a stupid and expensive requirement.