education

reform

While coaching the Morehouse Competition Sales team in 2016 and 2017 in Atlanta, Thomas Fellows stumbled upon an interesting correlation between ACT/SAT and worker readiness that has never been analyzed before. When he asked two of his students who demonstrated the qualities that are needed to excel in a white-collar tech sales job what they made on the ACT, he was perplexed and surprised to hear that they made a score of 16 (in the 24th percentile).   Although the data was rather anecdotal, Fellows knew he had powerful data that reshape the way the United States (and the world) for that matter thought about education.

fAfter sitting on the data for a few years, he decided to write a report in hopes of getting a grant from the federal government. After speaking with both a Republican and Democratic Congresswoman, he thought that he would get a grant from the Democrat. Much to his chagrin, he didn’t. Undeterred, he decided to see if the media were interested in reports, which they were.  During the winters of 2021 and 2022, he interviewed with NBC Harlingen, TX, and CBS Odessa, TX.


He was happy with the traction but sought to get more coverage. After President Joe Biden announced that he would be relieving $10K worth of student debt for those who qualified, Fellows appeared on 11 local affiliates in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota, Missouri, and Wyoming.


Right after the Supreme Court overruled the decision to cancel the student loan debt in July of 2023, Fellows appeared on several local affiliate stations including in Alaska, Texas, and Alabama. 


Even though on several occasions Fellows was asked his opinion on whether or not Biden did the right thing by announcing the loan forgiveness, Fellows refused to give his opinion and instead urged the interviewers and viewers to question whether or not college was worth the cost.

One point that he repeatedly brought up in interviews is that colleges primarily measure raw intelligence and convergent thinking, even though practical intelligence and divergent thinking are much more necessary in the vast majority of jobs.  He also argues that elite private high-school schools often cost less than mediocre colleges, even though that one gets more value out of an elite private high school.


Always one to try and provide value, Fellows literally cold-called and cold-emailed the Secretary, Miguel Cardona, to see if he could join the Biden administration to help out. Much to his surprise, HR got back in touch with him.  He was not able to secure a position, however. 


In his interviews, Fellows hopes that his reform will be passed so it will benefit the lower, lower-middle, middle, and upper-middle classes. Fellows argues that his reform would even help the wealthy because only the upper one percent isn’t affected by the cost of college.   

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