🐴 Dave Ramsey: "We're fools about education"

The college question isn't yes/no, it's "what am I getting for what I'm paying?" PLUS: The financial education curriculum that schools aren't teaching

Author

Charlie Deist
April 28, 2025

IN THIS EDITION:

🍎 Why Dave Ramsey thinks we're "fools about education"
🍎 Meet the teenagers choosing trades over tuition
🍎 Financial education that schools (criminally) neglect

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💡 THOUGHT

THE WORTH TEST FOR COLLEGE

"We're fools about education," says Dave Ramsey, who's built a career helping people dig out from financial holes they should have never fallen into.

The college debate isn't yes or no—it's about value. As Ramsey puts it: "Think about what it is you're gonna get for what you pay. Is this in your budget? Am I getting quality for what I'm paying?"

The extremes of the debate are both wrong:

Extreme #1: "College is never worth it!"
Extreme #2: "College is always worth it at any cost!"

When the value proposition fails, it often fails spectacularly. Ramsey shares an example:

"I talked to a young lady from South Carolina who wanted to go to Ole Miss, which involves out-of-state tuition that triples her cost of college. I said, 'So why is it you want to go to Ole Miss?'“

The answer: “'It's a pretty town.'"

His verdict? "When you go out of state, you are not paying for an increased value. You're paying for geography, which when it comes to education would be known as stupid."

Meanwhile, "a good aircraft mechanic, a good diesel mechanic make 100K, and a whole bunch of you with master's degrees in sociology making 28 grand."

📊 TREND

THE APPRENTICE UPRISING

Chase Buffington, 18, skipped the lecture hall for a paid HVAC apprenticeship. His reasoning? Cold, hard economics.

"I can gain skills, make money, and get ahead at a younger age," he explains in a recent article by Kerry McDonald for the 74 Million.

For Buffington, college remains an option—but for later, if actually needed.

McDonald spotlights both sides of the employer/employee equation: Mike Harris—Vanderbilt engineering alum turned HVAC company owner—actively seeks apprentices like Chase.

"I wish I'd discovered the trades earlier," he admits.

We're witnessing the rise of the apprentice class. Teenagers with toolbelts instead of textbooks. Young entrepreneurs building instead of borrowing. A generation discerning whether that diploma is worth the price tag, free of the old dogmas.

🔨 TOOL

MONEY SKILLS SCHOOLS DON'T TEACH

What's the one skill that could save your child tens of thousands of dollars yet most schools neglect to teach?

Personal finance.

We're excited to announce that Ramsey Solutions' Foundations in Personal Finance is coming to the OpenEd marketplace.

This homeschool curriculum (for grades 8-12) teaches teens the money skills they'll use for life:

  • Saving and budgeting fundamentals

  • How to avoid debt traps

  • Investment basics

  • Insurance essentials

  • And much more

The course is designed for independent study with full teacher resources included—perfect for homeschoolers or as an after-school supplement.

Remember compound interest? It works against you with debt, but powerfully for you with investments. Yet most adults never learned these principles until after they made costly mistakes.

Your teenager doesn't have to be one of them.

🔢 STAT OF THE DAY

36%

That's the percentage of Americans who now have "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in higher education—down from 57% in 2015.

Maybe we're not such fools about education after all.

That’s all for this week!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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