> I know for a fact all commercial airline pilots must have a college education.

That isn’t the case anymore and many Majors are starting to move away from that requirement.

> I hope that FAA control personnel have to have the same education.

The FAA requires a Bachelor’s degree, three years of work history, or a combination of post high school education and work that total 3 years. Once hired, you go to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City for a few months. If you graduate (failure rate fluctuates between 30-70%) you then go to a Center or Tower facility where you receive specialized training for that facility. This process can take 2-5 years depending on the complexity of the area. If you washout of a Center, you may be offered a chance to try Tower. If you wash out of Tower, you’re done.

It’s perfectly viable that a controller not have a Bachelor’s degree.

> Forced retirement at 56 is a waste of talent and experience.

It’s done for safety reasons. Mental acuity starts to drop which drives risk up. If they wish to stay in the field they can move up in management or work for a support contractor.

> An 18 year old hire is NOT college educated.

While 18 years old is the youngest you can get a CTO, it would be hard to meet the requirements of the FAA to get hired as a controller. There are contract towers which you can earn a CTO at and work contract, but that’s a very limited and costly option. Bringing up the 18 year old requirement for a CTO was to show that no one hired in the immediate aftermath of the PATCO dissolution is still pushing tin.

My main point is that your statement about Reagan causing all of ATC’s current issues is based on faulty logic. Congress has continually undermined and underfunded the FAA for 40 years since and the FAA has refused any reform for their Academy facility instead pretending everything’s going to be okay.