Posted on 01/09/2015 9:27:52 AM PST by SeekAndFind
President Barack Obama wants publicly funded community college available to all Americans, a sweeping, multibillion-dollar proposal that would make higher education as accessible as a high school diploma to boost weak U.S. wages and skills for the modern workforce.
The program is expected to cost the federal government $60 billion over 10 years, said White House spokesman Eric Schultz, and it faces a Republican Congress averse to big new spending programs. Obama was promoting the idea on Friday at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee, a follow-up to a video message posted to Facebook Thursday evening.
"Put simply, what I'd like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who is willing to work for it," Obama said in the video. He spoke seated on the front of his desk from his office aboard Air Force One, in the midst of a three-day tour to preview the agenda he'll be outlining in his Jan. 20 in the State of the Union address.
"It's something that we can accomplish, and it's something that will train our work force so that we can compete with anybody in the world," Obama said.
Administration officials on a conference call with reporters Thursday evening said funding details would be released next month with the president's budget proposal. They estimated 9 million students could participate and save an average of $3,800 in tuition per year, suggesting an annual cost in the tens of billions of dollars.
Students would qualify if they attend at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 GPA and make progress toward completing a degree or certificate program. Participating schools would have to meet certain academic requirements.
The White House said the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the cost
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The reality is they have made our kids so dumb they need 14 years of schooling now.
Which community college did Barry attend?
Whatever amount is subsidized becomes “the new zero”.
Whatever it cost before that will be on top of the subsidized amount.
There is a legendary story about a particular company here in town where a fist-fight broke out between their American engineers, who were carrying tens of thousands in student debt for their Masters Degrees, and their H1B colleagues who had theirs 100% paid for by their home governments.
Would international students have to pay tuition? At universities in Germany and a few other European countries, there is no tuition - and even Americans can study there fro free. In some of the countries, you have to be able to speak the language, as most bachelor programs are in the country’s native language. Post graduate programs, however, are often taught in English.
I’m tired of these Democrats spouting pie-in-the-sky baloney without being held accountable. OK, President Fumblebutt, show us the plan and the numbers. Prove that this is a benefit to the U.S. Taxpayer.
“Education is good for everyone.”
Well, you can get a real education from digging ditches. Let’s require everyone receiving food stamps do that for a couple of years.
if that is the case, and i do believe that it is, the remedy would be to keep them in government school a shorter amount of time, not longer... the fewer amount of years, the better...
So a 2.5 is good? I thought they made fun of President Bush for a GPA in that range...?
The regs were specifically designed to kill off at least 25% of all for-profit colleges. Indeed, the Dept of Ed actually justified in an internal memo the stated goal of eliminating 25% of all such colleges, working backwards to hit that number.
So the Department of Education simply waited for the new Reid-packed DC Court and simply re-issued the same regs for 2015.
Meanwhile, 2-year for-profit colleges, which are disproportionally attended by black and other minorities for vocational training for actual jobs that employers want to hire, get it in the neck.
With one hand Obama giveth, and with the other he taketh away.
I made the case 20 years ago for stopping secondary education at the 11th grade.
12th grade is a waste of time. School is just a holding pen until the youts are 18.
At 17. let people go out and work, or go to college. Why take “college-level” courses, many times not for college credit?
Take the real thing.
For one, maybe kids would grow up a little instead of being coddled for an additional year.
The push to get everyone a “college degree” because people with degrees tended to get the better jobs, resulted in nearly every job now requiring a degree. That will only get worse if “everyone” automatically has an Associate’s Degree. Getting a piece of paper does not make one smart or capable, so now even more people who simply aren’t qualified are going to have pieces of paper that imply otherwise.
Watch for more skilled positions to start requiring a Masters degree (this is already starting to happen, but only at the highest levels; it’ll expand downward). In a few years, you’ll have to show a Masters in order to qualify for entry-level Helpdesk jobs.
Or, alternately, businesses will stop requiring degrees altogether, since degrees will be cheapened to the point that they are irrelevant. I’ve seen at least a few IT departments where guys who had no degree at all still got hired for high-level positions (in one case, the guy was one of the founders of Rackspace, so he was far more qualified than any degree could ever provide).
Community college tuition will triple.
And after a few years the liberal position will be that these people in community colleges are disadvantaged because it is not as prestigious. It will be said that they are being discriminated against and not given a fair and equal “shot”.
Why take “college-level” courses, many times not for college credit?
They aren’t and won’t be “college level” classes, they are Junior High classes to bring them up to the 7th grade level where 70% of college students currently are.
If you think community college is expensive now, just wait until it's free
In my day we called it “high school with ashtrays”
A true Statesman as Speaker would respond with legislation full funding this program with the funds to be taken out of the White House Budget.
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