Tom Blackwell via Compfight

By Ryan Craig, Columnist

Only a few topics in the Presidential debates produced complete agreement between President Obama and Governor Romney.  The middle class?  (Check.  Both candidates seem to be in favor of the middle class.)  The importance of families?  (We’re still waiting for the first anti-family Presidential candidate.  Would be interesting.)  And higher education.  Both candidates view higher education as the key to prosperity for individuals, and to economic competitiveness for America.

Singing this gospel of higher education has become as American as motherhood and apple pie.  The media faithfully report the numbers:  4.1% unemployment rate for those with a bachelor’s degree vs. 8.4% for high school graduates with no college and 12.5% for those with less than a high school diploma. College graduates earn an average salary of $78,000 compared with $29,000 for high school drop-outs.

Recently, the Gates Foundation produced a video that is a classic version of the gospel. The transcript is as follows:

In 2009, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts was more than twice as high as it was for college graduates.  But increasingly, even a high school education isn’t enough.  A student who earns a college degree or other credential beyond high school has a much better shot at a brighter future.  The proof is in the numbers.  The lifetime earning potential for a student with a bachelor’s degree:  $3.4M.  A high school degree:   $1.8M.  A high school dropout:  $1.2M.  In 1973, 28% of jobs required an education beyond high school.   In 2007, 59%.  By 2018 63% of all American jobs will require some sort of education beyond high school.  In real numbers that means American employers will need 22M workers with postsecondary degrees.  But research shows that if we don’t do something about this problem, we’ll fall short by 3M graduates.  The future of our young people and our country is at stake.  We must educate our way to a better future.

On Edudemic, where we encountered the video, the blogger writes:  “Enjoy the video and hopefully it will either scare or excite you to improve the future.”  Well, the video does scare us.  But for a different reason.  Into our minds crept a Bizzaro version of the Gates video that went something like this: