May 23, 2003

I was shocked when I recently discovered that although I have more than 15 years of professional software engineering experience, I cannot be a substitute public school teacher. Why? I don't have a college degree!

Where is it written that the only way to gain knowledge and wisdom is through establishment colleges? Is this a sacred principle written in the Bible or U.S. Constitution, and I just missed it?

Of course not. Rather, the Legislature of Illinois, like many other states, has simply given in to the college lobby that wants to force everyone to bow down to it, and thus passed this law (like so many others) to help ensure that.

Are we really supposed to believe that someone right out of college is necessarily more qualified to teach--no matter what the degree or what kind of ''party school'' he or she went to--than someone who has years of professional--and life--experience?

This mandate is just another indirect subsidy to the college industry created by our increasingly corrupt government.

And though parents may wonder why their kids party so much at school, the kids know the scam: All that really matters is the certificate.

It's time to put a stop to the stranglehold colleges have on society and the economy. First, end all mandates that a person has to have a college degree for any job. Instead, objective tests should be provided that a person has to pass--whether or not he or she has a college degree.

Second, since the system has gotten so corrupt, it's time to end all taxpayer subsidies of colleges.

It's fundamentally wrong for people without college degrees to have to pay for the college ''education'' of others. Let the alumni pay for it--or the students themselves.

Neal S. Reynolds,

Schaumburg