Need more worm farmers?

Indiana needs more worm farmers. \nNo, really, it’s true. For whatever reason, a worm farmer, technically known as a vermiculturist, is not generally among the answers you will get when you ask someone, “What do you want to be when you graduate?” \nBut the devastating lack of students studying worm farming may soon be solved if Mitt Romney gets his way. At a campaign event last week, the former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential hopeful mentioned that he would like to see federal college aid distributed to college students based on the career paths they intend to take following graduation. In other words, if the government were to notice a marked lack of entrants into one professional field, they would provide extra scholarship funding for students enrolling in college with the intention of pursuing a career in it. Although Romney offered no specifics as to which careers he believes would merit government-funded scholarships, we can guess these extra funds would go toward areas that are suffering low levels of entry, such as nursing. Sorry to have gotten your hopes up, but worm farming would probably not be among them. \nBut is it really fair to disqualify an extremely qualified incoming student from federal aid because he or she has not yet decided on a career path? Won’t these targeted scholarships crowd out strict merit-based aid for other students who have chosen the wrong major?\nThis idea is nothing new. For example, during the Cold War era, the government threw additional funds into intensive science-based educational programs to ensure that the youth of America would someday be able to defend our country against those damn “Pinkos.” And right now, the private market is already working toward what Romney proposed. For example, General Motors offers a number of scholarships to students enrolling in engineering programs, and Proctor & Gamble offers funding to students who have been accepted into dentistry programs. \nBut even if the government does initiate a program that works along these lines, college may be the wrong stage in the educational process to start supplying these funds. While some students remain undecided about what they want to study for most of their college careers, for others, by the time they apply to college, they have set their minds on a major based upon what interested them during high school, or even middle school.\nSince market watchers can generally see in what direction career trends are headed, let them take care of providing the dough that is needed to change them. In the meantime, if the government sees a shortfall of qualified entrants into certain career fields, let them address the problem through the curriculums of primary and secondary schools right then and there. Anything beyond that kind of creeps us out in a post-Marxist sort of way. \nOne way or the other, worm farmers of the world – even without direct government aid to direct the best and the brightest into your ranks – your day will come.