"Higher education is no longer just a matter of personal fulfillment. It is a matter of economic survival for our state and our nation. We live now in a 21st Century global economy that 's a knowledge economy. "

-- State Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley at the UW-Marathon County convocation.

If a Supreme Court justice says we need more college graduates, it must be true. And if she thinks the UW System needs more public funding -- "We need you to share your commitment with your government leaders, so that when budget times come and things are tight, they do not fall prey to the temptation of slicing the higher education budget " -- we ought to get out our checkbooks.

When UW System President Kevin Reilly and his chancellors pull on their Spandex budgets, we should just applaud and queue up at the Ticketron. We should just jive to the jazz of Juris Doctor and the Ph.D.s.

Still, listening to their impassioned pleas, their sophisticated use of statistics and buzzwords like "knowledge economy, " I feel like I 'm hearing a Jaguar commercial telling us that Wisconsin would have a wealthier economy if everyone owned a XJ sedan -- because statistics show Jaguar drivers have higher incomes.

I hear propaganda. The UW System has a financial interest in growing its enrollment. Nothing wrong with that, it 's just the profit motive at work. The problem is that it wants taxpayers to subsidize their growth.

But just as taxpayers would not want to buy everyone a Jaguar, they should not jump at the chance to put more kids through college as a way to boost the economy.

More college graduates won 't make us stars of the "knowledge economy. "

Think about it: What has knowledge alone ever built? Same as science: Nothing. Technology applied all of science 's knowledge. Today 's knowledge economy is no different. It 's just more buzz about higher technology.

We are still in a technology-driven manufacturing economy. But so much of the technology is computer based, operating on software, we need more trained technicians to build and service the equipment. Do we need college grads to do that?

Don 't get me wrong. College is not a bad thing. Students benefit. But it takes about a 115 IQ to grasp college rigor, and only 30 percent will graduate. College is a great experience, even if you don 't finish. But why should taxpayers support all the incomplete efforts?

College grads earn more money, it 's true. But only because employers have become willing to pay more. There is not some transformational hocus pocus.

College grads don 't all invent Starbucks and stem cell therapies. Almost none will break new ground. Entrepreneurs are the real economic driving force, and more entrepreneurs are dropouts than graduates. Only 23 percent have business degrees, an Intuit survey found.

How long will employers remain willing to pay higher wages for college grads? When I read the news, I hear the economy saying to colleges, "I need nurses, you give me political scientists. I need lab technicians, you send me artists. I need engineers, you send me screenwriters. I need scientists, you send me marketers, MBAs and lawyers. When will you send me what I need? "

Technical schools have a more important role than universities in today 's technological economy.

The UW must take a step back, focus less on trying to be the Harvard of the Midwest and more on trying to be the kind of smart, affordable school that will make others want to be the UW of the Coast.

Haering, who now lives in Decatur, Ga., is a former policy adviser to former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy G. Thompson.