[QUOTE=c.captain;159803]never said it produces zero but by and large it produces fewer than its mission states it should…too many avoid going to sea at all and the vast majority do not stay at sea.
why not start it all up again here? We are for the most part all US taxpayers so being a taxpayer funded program get to SHIT on it at will to our heart’s delight!
I also feel the need to point out that you completely fail to say how going to KP to be a better option than a state school or a non matriculated program like PMI Workboat Academy? What is the point of going to the USMMA except for the (almost) free ride and the class ring so many graduates love to prominently wear?[/QUOTE]
Ah, the class ring. I haven’t seen mine in almost a decade.
Anyway, I’m not necessarily saying KP is or isn’t a better option than the state schools, I was saying that it worked out well for me. I don’t have any statistics so I can’t really speculate on how many graduates from each school actually go to sea at all or how many are still shipping after five/ten/twenty years. My impression, though, is KP seems to be geared more toward someone who might want to go to sea for a short time then move ashore. Hell, the recruiting pitch when I was preparing to matriculate at that fine institution basically amounted to, “Hey, you don’t even really have to go to sea if you don’t want to!” Even though the obligation clearly states that graduates are supposed to seek seagoing jobs FIRST and only if there are no jobs available is shoreside work to be permitted during the obligation period. My senior year shipping suddenly blew wide open and KP and MARAD announced that they were going to actually hold us to that obligation we signed rather than rubber-stamping waivers; you should have seen the outcry from a large number of my classmates.
Back on track–one thing I would say is an advantage KP has over the other schools is the sea year aspect. The average KP grad will have sailed on roughly four different commercial ships during the sea year portion, whereas a state school grad may do one–a fair few state school students graduate without having ever been on anything other than the school ship. For me, it was invaluable seeing how shipping ACTUALLY worked, not some version of shipping cooked up by a training program. Being on multiple ships also allowed me to see a broader cross-section of the industry.
I would say KP or a state school would be better options than a workboat academy simply because the level of license gained allows for more options. Nothing wrong with workboat academies, if that was what one wanted to do and stick with it, fine, but it’s difficult to upgrade if something bigger is desired.
As far as whether the school needs to be taxpayer funded–I’m not particularly convinced it needs to be at this point. At least not unless KP provides something in graduates that nobody else does AND it’s of some value to the nation as a whole, and right now KP doesn’t seem to have it on both counts.