Does Free College Work? Kalamazoo Offers Some Answers

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 28, 2019 | Josh Mitchell and Michelle Hackman

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Not a violent guy, but I would love to get my hands on the inventor of the iphone keypad and take him to the woodshed. I am somewhat of a spelling nazi, but I almost never see mistakes on the iphone until immediately after I press post.

LOL; I was pretty sure that was the case!

[Tunehead54]

"so, the short answer to the headline question is...no?"

---

Here you go ...

Does Free College Work? Kalamazoo Offers Some Answers

Most times you can get "behind" a paywall like WSJ by searching on the whole title and find a match from some other news site. Just FYI.

We FReepers like to help out our Noobs wherever we can. ;-)

[Richard Kimball]

Quote from the article (emphasis mine):

“It’s like an onion,” said Brad Hershbein of the Upjohn Institute. “You take away the outer layer—financial need. Once that’s gone you see these other layers, or barriers, are left. The inner layers are problems you wouldn’t have known are a big issue.”Among them are high rates of single-parent households, teen pregnancy and homelessness.

How brain dead does someone have to be to not recognize that broken homes and teen pregnancy is a problem in being successful?

[Cboldt]

-- Anyone receiving welfare should be required to provide a service back to the American taxpayer unless they are physically unable because of a birth defect or an act of God. --

Even less demanding, "welfare or vote, pick one." That would cure the giveaway problem, who would vote for it?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks reaganaut1. "Kalamazoo" and "Promise" don't belong in the same sentence, unless one is constructing an oxymoron. BTW, "Oozamalak" is Kalamazoo backwards, and the pr. is easy to figure out.

[SunkenCiv]

Michigan has required all welfare clients to participate in job seeking for a long, long time. Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and he'll never use the skill, because he knows he can go back to eating for free for one more day.

[stylin19a]

you are ! (in response to your tagline related to your post to me)

thanks for the article. The websites are making "outline.com" already obsolete.

Since the program took effect in June 2006, they have paid $124 million in tuition subsidies for 5,735 students, according to its administrators.
(Doesn't seem like many students over the 14 year life of the program..If subsidized over 4 years, is the student counted once or 4 times ? )

not much in the way of success stats related to those numbers?
especially in light of the low requirements below?

Students who accept the aid must maintain at least a 2.0 grade in three-quarters of classes to continue to receive the subsidy; they’re not obligated to serve the city or live there after their college years.

even the anecdotal success stories really aren't success stories.
I'm still guessing "NO".

[GOPJ]

WE ALREADY KNOW HOW THE US GOVERNMENT DOES EDUCATION - LOOK AT K - 12 public schools.

Over time - ‘free education would become K - 16. That’s how a government committee and teacher’s unions would re-create Universities - - over time.

How do we know?

Because we’ve seen their handiwork....

[_Jim]

re: “High school grades are not a good way to predict college success. Everyone learns how to cheat in high school.”

It matter the courses taken, too. Like advanced math courses, the science courses ...

[Grimmy]

Free college will become like free high school.

Daytime child warehousing and indoctrination.

Back in the 40s and 50s, we had kids graduating junior high/middle school with better educations than kids graduating high school today.

Quantity or quality.

Can’t have both.

[tbw2]

Free college doesn’t make up for kids who can’t read because they were failed K-12.

[poconopundit]

welfare or vote, pick one.

* * *

I like that idea. It’s pretty elementary to curtailing legal plunder... as promoted by the DemocRATS.