One of the most idiotic things we hear from the Obama administration is that we have a serious problem of “schools that fail their students.” The proof that these institutions are bad is their low graduation rates. Students need their degrees! Schools must do more to make sure they get them!

Today’s Pope Center article by Wake Tech Community College economics professor Kelly Markson is a rebuke to the idea that a school’s graduation rate tells you anything useful. Like many community colleges (and quite a few four-year colleges), Wake Tech apparently has a “problem” because its graduation rate is only 15 percent. Markson explains why that number is very misleading. Some students just want a few courses to master specific things (she was one of them), but see no need to stick around for a degree. Others transfer after a year or so. And a few actually earn the necessary credits but don’t bother to apply for graduation.

Markson also takes issue with another hobgoblin these days, namely that “undermatching” is a serious issue. That is to say, students who enroll at a community college when they could have attended a “better” institution are hurting themselves (and the country!) because they’re less likely to get their degree. She finds no support for that notion in her experience at Wake Tech.

Finally, Markson opposes the foolish talk we have recently been hearing to the effect that the country ought to make community college free. She observes that people tend to place more value on things if they have to pay for them, at least to some extent. Make college “free” and we will end up with public housing projects that pretend to teach the inhabitants.