James Hale Atlanta “Is college as important today as it was back in the day? Yes, it is. The main thing is what you get your degree and what you plan on doing with that degree. Maybe that’s the factor that will determine whether it’s worth it or not. But yes, it is important. I can’t tel l people what to get one in. It’s whatever you follow, your passion, and what will drive you. Some people want a degree in medicine. Some people want a law degree or a teaching degree. Those you have to have degrees for. You can’t, you know, take the bar and pass, and you just can’t go and start operating on people. That’s what the degree states you’ve been trained successfully.” Josué Lassin Lawrenceville “I feel like getting a college degree is important today because if you’re applying for a job and you have a college degree and the other person applying doesn’t, you automatically get put in front of the line. You look at someone being smarter with more discipline and more skin in the game. So, although I don’t have a college degree, I got it to where I could hire myself. I got my own semi-truck and contracts, making six figures that way.  But if I could do it again, I would go to college and get a degree.” Tony Shakir Locust Grove “Is a college education important? I say yes because that gives you a platform outside your high school diplomacy to decide where you want to go. Critical thinking skills are developed in college, and even if you don’t feel that college is for you in a four-year fashion, it at least points you in the right direction as to where you need to go.”  Dorothy Victoria Bell Atlanta “I believe that college is very important. It was also super important 20 years ago, 30 years ago, because, for some of us, we were the first people in our families to go to college, and we led the way. So, I saw the benefit of having that higher education. But as a mother of a soon-to-be graduate joining the Navy, unfortunately, I also see the benefits of building our skills. So, college is not for everybody at 18. I was a professor, and I stand by that. But you must help our youth find things they’re passionate about and lead them in that direction. So, some education after high school was imperative. If it’s college, it’s college. But college can come to anybody at any age. So yes, know what you’re passionate about and why you’re studying.”The post In light of the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, does higher education still hold the significance it did a generation ago? appeared first on The Atlanta Voice. ...read more read less