Posted on 02/07/2016 6:16:40 AM PST by Kaslin
Bernie Sanders, everyone's favorite socialist running for the American Presidency, has as one of the central tenets of his campaign that college should be free to all Americans. It seems to be a popular proposal with some, especially those paying the circumspect fees colleges are charging these days. It is just plain stupid and let me explain why.
Let's start with the basic concept that nothing is free. You may be saying that is a banal statement, but it is not because so many people just don't get it. Obviously that is indicated by all the people who like his proposal. When my children were young I taught them that the mints or matchbooks at the front of a restaurant were not really free for the taking. They were included in the cost of our meal. Over time they absorbed the concept. On the other hand, fly up to visit our Canadian cousins sometime. Ask them what they like about Canada and more often than not they will tell you about the "free" health care. Then try to enlighten them that they have a misconception. Usually their eyes glaze over and they float back into their alternative universe where they make believe things just appear out of thin air.
There are four principal reasons why this proposal is so massively idiotic. The first is that federal money is one of the main reasons college costs have soared. Since I attended college in the 1970's, access to federal loans, grants and various disguised forms of free money have driven up the cost of a college education. With the soaring influx of federal funds, the annual costs of a college education skyrocketed forcing states to pull back on their commitments due to restricted and drained state budgets.
Bernie's proposal acts to accelerate the fire by pouring more federal funds on the flames and eliminating any control on costs from individuals rejecting the soaring costs. Now every dollar going into to college coffers will be OPM (other people's money). No one will be watching the store.
With the complete takeover of colleges by the federal government budgets, we come to reason number two. Our colleges have been run privately or by states or, in the case of community colleges, by local governments. The federal government will dictate all that goes on at college campuses. You think colleges are misguided currently, wait until they are run by a faceless, nameless, federal bureaucracy.
The third reason is control of costs. The biggest war coming is the fight against cost controls. The colleges want unlimited budgets and they want unfettered control. While a few governors (all Republican) have targeted colleges for their out-of-sight costs and redundant, bureaucratic staffing, there has been blood-letting in this fight. The colleges are huge economic drivers in the districts they inhabit and they throw their weight around with their representatives attempting to kill any efforts to make them cut their budgets. Leftist college administrators and professors viciously protect their largess and they are not against lobbyists who they engage for their purposes.
The fourth reason is Sanders is focused totally on input and seemingly ignorant of output. One of the wars we have in this country is over H-1B visas which our tech companies argue they need because our colleges are not producing enough engineers to feed their development. My reaction is that with the massive amount of college graduates in America, why can't our sons and daughters fill those needs. The simple answer (not simplistic) is our colleges graduate far too many young people with useless degrees. We all know that.
Sanders' proposal would throw more money at a system that produces too many college graduates that have been given no additional advantage other than the self-delusion that their lives are improved because they can say they have "a college degree." In fact, he will accelerate this system. No one will have individual responsibility for their actions and no one will have ramifications if they fail. Even more people will be encouraged to spend four years of their lives getting useless degrees because the student or their family will not bear the financial burden. Just think of the increase of Uber drivers who can offer witty repartee because the government has funded their "college education."
Sanders has not thought his way through this immensely dangerous proposal. He does not have to because he is a leftist and if it makes him and his followers feel good that is the only thing that is important. But don't think Bernie's eventual loss will be the end of this. Mark my words, ten years from now this will be mainstream Democratic Party policy. With the right president, we could have a nationalized college system and we will have a new "right."
All the 15 and 16-year-olds should vote for Bernie. By the time they go to college, Bernie might be able to give them a free college education!
The problem: 15 and 16-year-olds can't vote.
All of the 24-year-olds who are saddled with $200,000 college loan debts should lament the fact that college wasn't free 6 years ago.
The problem: the 24-year-olds who are saddled with $200,000 college loan debts are going to be taxed up the wazoo so that 15 and 16-year-olds can go to college for free.
Seriously: Among the people who can legally vote, WHO really thinks they will benefit from Sanders??
They push college on kids, you must go even if you are not the type for college.
There should be a push for skilled-trades for non-college type kids.
I saw an article where companies are in need of skilled trade people; some even offer paid on job training. Most advertisement needs to be going out about this need.
At Bernie’s everything is free unless you happen to be one of those fools who produces anything other than votes, riots, or chants.
Obama doesn’t look and sound like the guy arguing with the orange juice at the grocery store. Sanders ain’t gonna be President.
Someone with his platform could win, but only in a more attractive package.
If college is free, can I go back to get a 4-year degree (plus room and board) in a different area of expertise?
If college is free, can I go back and get advanced degrees?
If college is free, can I get a rebate on the funds I paid as an “out of state” student at the college I attended on my own dime?
If college is free, can dreamers come to this country to partake in free education to better themselves on my taxpaying dime so they can get a job better than the ones they cited when they and their parents came here to do “because no one else wants these jobs”?
How sustainable is this system?
Universities have billions of dollars in endowments. Consumers (students) are being gouged because they can. Government cash makes it so.
Does “free college” also mean “free lodging, food, and transportation”?...
College kids can get food stamps now even if they are still living with their parents (SNAP - Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Also, many campuses provide some free shuttle/bus system, even engaging public transportation in free or nominal fares.
So 1) Live with your parents 2) Get on food stamps 3) Bum a ride close enough to catch the free campus shuttle or just use your student bus card to ride the bus all the way in.
Sounds like what many people would consider the perfect life.
I heard that if we let Obama win for 4 years, Americans would realize the error and toss him out.
I don’t think they would open their eyes suddenly after 4 years of Bernie. Has Bernie Sanders even offered a health physical report to show he is up to the job?
Colleges are either private, or state run, so unless private colleges forgo tuition and fees or all 50 (57?) states do the same, then congress would have to pony up the money. Bernie is not black, so even the scum in congress like Paul Ryno won't roll over for him, like they do for 0bama.
At least in the medical school people should be treating patients, with teaching/training students, residents, fellows etc. as a part of that. Of course, in the university setting there are those in the medical school who do little or no clinical work and are primarily research faculty. If they are working hard and are productive, they should also be rewarded, but the primary responsibility of any university medical school should be provision of excellent patient care first, and education second. After that come the other aspects of the mission.
I was speaking more on the side of the undergraduate side of higher education.
at least 50% and probably more of the people enrolled should not be there. They require lots of remedial education (things they should be proficient with from attending high school but aren’t)...
In Texas, community colleges have created a cottage industry providing remedial education (high school level courses) to college students. New students generally are placement tested in math, reading, English, etc. and course suggestions are made by counselors based on the results.
I have a nephew who went to a very good public high school but only transferred in for his last 2 years from a state with lower standards. His placement test showed he needed to repeat his high school math via 2 pre-algebra courses. He was naturally hurt, but when I went back to college after a long absence, I chose to do the same thing to build a good math foundation. He listened to his aunt, took the courses and went on to get a science degree with no problems. Many of the kids who chose not to remediate, dropped out of their early math courses. It’s a sad reality that high schools don’t provide adequate preparation in many cases, but community colleges have become very good places for academic redemption.
Most of the Western world has cheap or free public colleges. To say the plan is ludicrous is kind of dumb. We spend like 50 billion on food stamps, with a similar amount to public schools it would essentially be a minimal burden.
But it’s always someone else*s money - taxpayers pay for it so it’s not free. All those European countries are pretty much socialist and when people talk about how cheap this or that is it’s because they’re heavily taxed. Socialism works until the government runs out of citizens money. Look at Venezuela to see how well that worked.
I understand now, and I agree.
The issue Sanders is attempting to address has a couple of wrinkles. First, for debt forgiveness to work it will have to apply to everyone who is still in years-old debt or between those payments and the tax increases necessary to support future debt forgiveness, they'll get clobbered, and not even bankruptcy can get them out of it. Second, about those tax increases - the costs for a university are quite well-established and will have to be recovered from the taxpayer if they are not recovered from the student. Certainly there is waste to be cut, but if it's all "free" there will be absolutely no incentive to do so. My university won't be competing for students with the one downstate, at least on the basis of cost. Why would it? And third, again with the tax increases: a student graduates, presumably gets a job (we hope), has no educational debt load, and then the first paycheck comes in and the graduate finds out where that debt load went. Congratulations, graduate, you're now a taxpayer! Now let us tell you about who pays for that free lunch...
I was referring to the University/Campus non-medical side of salaries. Example, Professor teaching Anti-White classes and making 250K a year,plus bonuses and perks, no, no way.
And I agree on Medical school side of teaching, should be rewarded to continue excellent patient care.
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