Via the Wall Street Journal:

Justin Friend’s parents have doctoral degrees and have worked as university lecturers and researchers. So Mr. Friend might have been expected to head for a university after graduating from high school in Bryan, Texas, five years ago.
Instead, he attended Texas State Technical College in Waco, and received a two-year degree in welding. In 2013, his first full year as a welder, his income was about $130,000, more than triple the average annual wages for welders in the U.S. In 2014, Mr. Friend’s income rose to about $140,000.

Interviewed by the WSJ is high school counselor Steve Schneider, who says that in the past, counselors automatically steered students to four-year colleges. That automatic response may be changing now that the benefits of technical training, and the increasing job prospects in certain technical fields, are becoming clearer, he says. “The battle continues to be convincing the parents.”

Not all community colleges and two-year degrees are created equal (or help graduates land $140,000 gigs). Job prospects and the value of certain degrees vary across time, geographical region, and industries. And, of course, socializing community college will not change that fact or produce a new population of Justin Friends.

But it’s always refreshing to see parents thinking outside of the “four-year degree or bust” paradigm, which has helped to create a new class of overeducated and underemployed indentured servants.