lack of jobs follows education levels

We have been hearing for a while now about the job crisis in the USA. Now we're hearing more and more about the relationship of jobs and education or more specifically the lack of jobs in relation to education levels. Is there a relationship or just politics as usual? Incidentally just the other day a University of Phoenix rep stated "right now there are 3.3 million unfilled job openings across the US." The pitch was made as part of the current push from the White House to fund education and schools. The specifics of the 3 million plus jobs was not stated, so there isn't a way to "fact check" the statement - not directly anyway.

So what type of jobs are we talking about and what type of education is required? Who knows? So what should we do? Go on a massive spending binge to upgrade the public school system, coast to coast and offer student loans to everyone? If that is the suggestion, it's probably why some Tea Party zealots want to abolish the Department of Education. While being #14 worldwide, in terms of education, is nothing for the USA to brag about, going on a trillion dollar education spending spree isn't the right idea either. Sure some spending is necessary on education, but that should be done for people who want to learn and have the capacity to do so. Let's face it, some people are just born losers and more spending isn't going to fix that. On the other hand, for those that have potential and can't reach that potential due to the inability to go to college or poor public school conditions than maybe coming up with a "measure and allocate" plan is the way to go. The bottom line is that, if the lack of jobs is following depressed education levels than let's reinvest in sensible ways but spending a bunch of money on those who don't want to succeed is akin to buying snake oil. Zero value.