“Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has degrees from Harvard Law and Yale, thinks it might be a ‘good sign’ fewer men are attending college compared to women. DeSantis, addressing the International Boatbuilders Exhibition in Tampa, suggested men aren’t going to college as much as women because they are shunning traditional higher education for trades. ‘There was actually an article in the Wall Street Journal recently about, you know, ‘decline in college for men’, or something,’ DeSantis continued, deepening his voice briefly for comic effect to introduce the article highlighting that three in five college students are now women, with men feeling ‘lost.’ ‘I guess there was a decline in the number of men, the percentage of men going to college or whatever. And they acted like this was a bad thing. And honestly, like, you know, to me, I think that is probably a good sign.'”
“‘Because I think people are looking at this and they’re acknowledging, you know, some of these universities are not giving you very much for your money. You’re not necessarily going to get ahead in that.’ DeSantis said people were choosing to ‘pursue some of these high-demand areas where you’re going to be able to do very well with basically no debt,’ before jumping back to soften his comments. ‘If you want to do the college, I’m not saying don’t,’ DeSantis advised. ‘It is very, very good for a lot of people. But certainly it’s not the right thing for everyone'” Florida Politics reports.
There’s a lot going on here. On the surface, it’s DeSantis telling an industry group whose workforce staffs itself via apprenticeships and not college education, and taking a very ass-backwards route to say the available pool of potential tradesmen is expanding. Of course the much more obvious implication is that the Republican Party would effectively cease to exist if all white male American voters were college-educated, so their future lies with discouraging their base from getting a degree. Then there’s also Ron probably thinking of the young Conservative studs who do go to college not having as much competition for sorority girls if there’s a 1.5-to-1 chick-to-rooster ratio. Meanwhile more boat builders means more boats, and more boats means more MAGA Parades!