Scott Walker doesn't have a college degree.

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Wonder how far black people with no college degree get?

I wasn't planning on voting for him anyway and he will never be president but yeah that's a huge negative.  The guy never finished school and spent almost the entirety of his adult life doing nothing but politicking?  Seriously who doesn't finish college?  Great role model.  I could understand if he was Bill Gates but politics?!

If Scott Walker is going to rail against teachers and denigrate them he should at least have credentials that are equivalent.  So the only thing this guy has completed in life is a campaign?!

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I agree with the principle that the President should have a college degree but I think Walker's enough of an exception. He went to college for four years, working part time at IBM while he was in college. They offered him a full time job during his senior year so he dropped out and took it since it was the job he was hoping to get after he graduated anyway.

Robert Byrd in the 60s...

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Byrd

No excuse.  What kind of example are we setting for our children?  What big important job was Walker doing that was more important than being a Senator?

I've had multiple conversations with friends of mine from $h-tty third world countries and they marvel at how little Americans value education.  Those guys work three jobs and still make dean's list while throwing some pretty crazy parties.



I guess Walker couldn't get a degree because of public schools, teachers' unions, and reverse racism.

Yeah but the logical extension of that idea is more degrees = more qualified.

That's like saying if you give a starving homeless guy a sandwich that means you also want to feed people sandwiches until they are morbidly obese.  Look up the law of diminishing return and marginal utility.  This is why people need to go to school.

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Interesting bit of trivia; I never knew it.

They say your degree helps you a lot to get your first job and matters little after that.

It depends on what you do.  If you are talking about six figure professions in many cases you are legally barred from even getting an entry level position without a degree.

It's weird that on this forum the majority of people in the high school graduation thread screamed bloody murder when I suggested it would make sense to allow people to exit academic education to pursue trade school but now people are okay with the president of the United States being a college drop out.  Do people not realize that a US university degree is far more solid than the almost meaningless high school diplomas we hand out like candy?  Why would people demand a burger flipper at McDonald's have a worthless high school diploma and shrug off a presidential candidate dropping out of college?

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Link, could you please list the substantive differences between a hypothetical President Scott Walker and a hypothetical President Scott Walker who didn't get the IBM job and stayed enrolled in college for his last three months?

He could set an example for one.  How can we tell the youth of the country to finish their education or in fact to commit and finish what you started if the President can't even do it?  I just really think for someone that has railed against teachers who are trying to educate our children this is a very poor showing.

And you also know full well he could have taken classes in night school.  But he didn't.  It's an attitude.  Which is fine.  I could be friends with someone like that.  But if they were asking me for an endorsement for such an important and high profile position I would say finish school man.

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I hope that his opponents make this an issue - a lot of Americans would rise up in his defense.

Sadly this film is a documentary...

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Going into tens of thousands of dollars of debt for a $2 piece of paper makes you really smart.

My assumption is either you have never stepped foot on a college campus or you went to one and just drank till you dropped out.  I've been out of college for awhile and I look back at the absolutely remarkable learning opportunities I had both in and outside the classroom.  Besides graduate school I can't think of a more high yield and diverse learning experience I've ever had.  If all you think it is is a $2 piece of paper I won't even try and convince you otherwise.

And my comment wasn't in regards to the average American not having a college degree.  It was in regards to defending someone who had every opportunity to get a college degree who simply chose not to and then asked for a recommendation to the highest office in the land.

I've lived in countries where college degrees are scarcer than in the United States and even a poor dirty child living in squalor with little or no hope of attending college wouldn't pooh pooh a college education and would be very puzzled why someone in Walker's position dropped out.

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Realllllly gold news, everyone in Wisconsin has known this since 2009.

Question.  Why did he leave college?  I did a cursory search before I posted because I initially assumed there was perhaps some hard scrabble story behind it which would kind of justify it.  But after reading an apparently factually incorrect Time article I noticed the comments section filled with people from Wisconsin saying he was kicked out at some point either for cheating (his GPA was 2.59) or breaking some campus campaign rule multiple times.  Any insight?

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Please people. He dropped out 3 months prior to graduating to get a great job.

How could a C student all of a sudden do a YEAR's worth of work in 3 months?!  Just because you have hung out on a college campus for three years and nine months doesn't mean you are 3 months from graduation.  You actually have to ummm... attend class and, you know, pass.

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Link, could you please list the substantive differences between a hypothetical President Scott Walker and a hypothetical President Scott Walker who didn't get the IBM job and stayed enrolled in college for his last three months?

Please don't repeat lies.  He had at least a year's worth of work before any kind of graduation could be considered.  Does dropping out of college with only part of a semester left sound in any way reasonable to you?  If what went on with this guy was legit would there be a need for people to repeatedly lie about it?

As to your question I suppose you're right.  If we lower the bar and don't even question our candidates for the highest office of the land about their incomplete education what could possibly go wrong...



There is a pattern with this guy and it sends the wrong message to our youth.  These are the same white privileged Republicans that are saying they aren't racist.  They just want black folks to get an education.  Well I guess that requirement doesn't apply to white people.

While I don't necessarily agree, I can understand the sentiment. Walker had a choice to make, and made the right one. He's the governor of a large state, for pete's sake. I doubt whatever credits he had left would have made him any smarter or more equipped for his job. Would you guys think he'd accomplished more if he'd gotten a degree and a job as a part-time barista?

What is this assumption that him finishing college would mean he wouldn't be governor?  Read the thread.  It was already posted that Robert Byrd finished law school while simultaneously being a sitting Senator... in the 60s.  Something probably happened.  The rumors seem to indicate that him not finishing his degree was not because of some mind blowing job opportunity (in the 90s that didn't require a college degree, LOL!) but maybe because he simply was barred from continuing.  And most people that graduate from college get a decent job.  Yes there are barista stories but I've never heard anyone say that the way to secure your post collegiate future is to drop out.

Seriously guys get the facts straight and use common sense.  Don't just pick whatever position you want and fill in a fantasy to support it.  And don't just believe some BS a politician feeds you to paint a rosy picture of themselves.  I don't know what happened but the story that he just hhaadddd to drop out and take an incredible job or else he couldn't become governor sounds like BS.

Of course a lot could be cleared up if he released his college transcripts...  But we know double standard Republicans will never ask for that.




I'm not sure but this could go the way of Romney's tax returns.

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I personally place a high value on higher education...

You just called a college degree a $2 piece of paper.  That is not the hallmark of someone who places "a high value on higher education..."

I take you at your word but you can't be surprised by people's reactions.

Walker may not have dropped out because he couldn't afford to continue, but a whole lot of Americans have.  Many Americans drop out because they have to take care of relatives or work to pay the family's bills. If someone drops out of college to take care of their family, would you deny them the option of ever seeking the office of President of the United States?

This thread has gone on for three pages.  Let's get something 100% straight before we continue.  Scott Walker was not leading some hardscrabble life where he had to leave school just to be able to feed himself.  We all know people leave school for a myriad of reasons.  But we aren't talking about a myriad of people.  We are talking about Scott Walker.  Now do you want to talk about Scott Walker or do you wish to continue discussing a strawman?

The fact of the matter is I would probably guess 90% of the people in this thread didn't even do a cursory overview of the facts before commenting.  I'm pretty sure that's why the responses started to dry up once I posted what I found.  It's a lot different picture than the poor kid from a tough background does what he needs to do to make good fantasy.

You know when the reports first hit I thought it was weird that he would just pick a 20 something year old college drop out with no experience and a couple of convictions for an $85,000+ position supervising dozens of people.  But this thread at very least has provided some explanation for that inexplicable appointment.

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If this is that big a deal for you, then you're basically an elitist.

Weirdly enough, I agree with Supersonic. There are a lot of reasons that make me hate Scott Walker, but this isn't one of them, nor should it be one on which he should be attacked for, imo. This country would be FAR better off if we just banned Ivy Leaguers from holding office.

You're late to the party.  The controversy isn't that he doesn't have a college degree... it's why.  The last part is what no one wants to touch.

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Even if we were to grant that this reflects poorly on Walker (and I don't think it does), many Presidents have done things in their youths that wouldn't exactly make them role models (notably drug usage). Obama's cocaine usage should have disqualified him, right?

Lol!  Wut?

What planet are you living on?  No US president is going to get dinged on the world stage simply because he tried a little nose candy when he was a teenager.

The other thing is we know details about that because President Obama wrote about it at length in an autobiography that sold tens of thousands of copies.  The president did something.  He took proactive steps to rectify it.  And he came clean about it in an autobiography.  In addition he had a very public struggle to kick the nicotine habit.  He's been very open about substance use and breaking the habit.  You honestly think that has anything to do with Scott Walker's behavior?  Walker has never honestly and directly addressed this rather bizarre deficit.  A bunch of people have come into this thread and tried to help him out but if he really did have a hard luck story he would have told it.   That's not the type of thing politicians keep private.  Something happened.  You don't go to school for four years full time most of the time and end up with 90 something credits.  And you don't leave college in the 1990s for a marketing job.  I have never heard of someone doing something like that.  Leaving to start a multibillion dollar internet company... yes.  Leaving for some BS low level marketing job?  Who's buying this?

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Even if we were to grant that this reflects poorly on Walker (and I don't think it does), many Presidents have done things in their youths that wouldn't exactly make them role models (notably drug usage). Obama's cocaine usage should have disqualified him, right?

Lol!  Wut?

What planet are you living on?  No US president is going to get dinged on the world stage simply because he tried a little nose candy when he was a teenager.

And they shouldn't, and don't, which is good.

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lol at your talk about his "behaviour" and "bizarre deficit", as if not getting a college degree is some kind of criminal or scandalous action.

Are you completely illiterate or did you just simply not read my post?