When graduate student Bryan Christopher Kohberger was arrested on charges of killing four innocent college students, the media portrayed this crime as an isolated deranged act by one loner whose true motive remains unknown. In fact, the suspect was enrolled in graduate school and employed by nearby Washington State University, where he was working as a teaching assistant at the time of the murders.
A 28-year-old man needs a real job to stay on track toward becoming a productive contributor to society. Yet higher education consists of many programs that do not teach a marketable skill or put students on a responsible career path. The system of handouts for those who pursue higher education enabled Kohberger to develop oddities such as reportedly preferring not to eat a meal that was cooked in pots or pans previously used to cook meat. Meanwhile, drug use among many grad students is generally prevalent, as has been mentioned on the Reddit website.
In addition to its dubious graduate program in criminology, in which Kohberger was enrolled, Washington State University features advanced degrees in many fields lacking enough jobs in the private sector. Anthropology, athletic training, educational psychology, and experimental psychology are among the fields that should not be awarding advanced degrees at taxpayer expense. Most graduate programs are funded by government largesse, even to the point of giving graduate students a generous stipend for living expenses. Kohberger was likely funded by taxpayers as he allegedly went on a killing spree a few miles away from his campus.
Kohberger’s pursuit of a degree in criminology is no condemnation of all criminology studies. Yet, this case of a government-funded graduate student allegedly killing four people should make us give pause to the idea of pouring unnecessary funding into certain fields of study. Unlike what the left would have you to believe, more money is not always the solution. In fact, this may be an example where more taxpayer funding contributed to considerable real-world harm. Let’s put a stop to this harmful practice. If a young person believes that a criminology degree is right for him, let him get a job and pay for it. That’s the true American way.
This post originally appeared at https://www.phyllisschlafly.com/family/colleges/are-we-funding-college-for-killers/
Phyllis Schlafly