The media wants us to celebrate the awarding of $1.7 million to Western Carolina University from the US Department of Education. It is for a renamed program that is supposed to prepare low-income high school kids for staying in college. It is needed because the old-fashioned parental technique of scaring kids into getting good grades if they want to go to college doesn’t work anymore.

One of the most common reasons students drop out of college is poorly managed debt, [WCU Educational Talent Search-Project Discovery Todd] Murdock said.

“One of the most common reasons students say they drop out of college is they feel like they don’t belong, . . .” Murdock said.

I sort of like the old way where academic excellence was required to participate in an institute of higher learning. Now, pundits are denouncing colleges and universities as swills of liberal indoctrination. Governments have to create safety-net programs to make sure kids who don’t want to do what it takes to get to college can stay in. It would appear nobody wants the stinkin’ colleges anymore, although my sister once said employers like grad degrees because it shows people can be subjugated.