Shame on Target

The media has made a very big deal about Target offering to pay for their employees to go to college. Overwhelmingly, I have seen praise. Personally, I view it as a big mistake.

One of the arguments behind this decision was that Target has been struggling to fill jobs. Paying college tuition and the required books can provide an incentive for potential employees. The problem with this approach is that Target is essentially saying that they are increasing how much they are willing to pay their employees, but employees can only get anything back if that money is spent how Target wants it spent. Personally, I would have been more comfortable if Target simply increased pay for everyone.

There's a very massive oversight with this incentive. College isn't for everyone. We are already highly discriminatory against those who learn outside of a restrictive schooling environment. Target's actions will only strengthen this discrimination. People who embrace the collegiate model certainly have something to gain. Those who don't go to college, regardless of the reason, are effectively being punished.

Some employees who shouldn't be going to college could very well take up Target on this offer. This means that there will be people who forgo the educations that are right for them just because they don't want to lose out on the incentive. Some people have been legitimately harmed by this environment, and we will see people harmed just to avoid losing the extra money.

If Target is really interested in finding more workers, they should just increase pay. Even if they want their workers to become better educated, they should not make this contingent on schools tightly controlling the educational process. If they increased pay instead of pushing college, their employees would have more flexibility to pursue the educations that are right for them.

I know Target isn't alone. These kinds of policies have always bothered me. We should not incentivize educational control. That's a very different concept than encouraging educational pursuits. As a proud member of the pro-education minority, I can't support any policy that pushes people away from pursuing the educations that are right for them.