Mike Rowe talks importance of skill trade workers
TV host teaming up with Charles Koch Foundation to provide travel scholarships for SkillsUSA competition
Mike Rowe isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
The 55-year-old fired back at a fan who said Rowe places "so little value on academic education."
Rowe disputed the claim on Facebook saying the commenter misunderstands Rowe's stance on higher education.
"It’s hard to believe you could have 'followed' me from the first days of 'Dirty Jobs' and 'Deadliest Catch,' and be so completely mistaken about my stance on the importance of a college education," Rowe wrote in a lengthy Facebook post Monday night.
He went on to explain that while he's "unapologetically opposed to the mind-bending, utterly indefensible skyrocketing cost of tuition," he does not underestimate the importance of education.
Rowe, who said his college degree has served him well, added he "strongly support[s] education in all of its forms." He added he just opposes pushing a four-year college degree on everyone.
"What I’ve opposed – consistently - is not the importance of higher education, but rather, the relentless drumbeat of 'college for everyone,'" he explained. "Because this cookie-cutter approach to education presupposes that all worthwhile knowledge can only be attained from a college or a university. That’s the most dangerous myth of all."
He suggested pushing four-year colleges on high school students has led schools to stop offering shop class and vocational skills and left "6 million vacant jobs that no one is trained to do."
"That’s the skills gap. It's real, and it's a massive problem for anyone who shares my addiction to smooth roads, cool air, and indoor plumbing," he wrote.
He concluded, "I'll continue to challenge the idea that college is the only place to get a worthwhile education."
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