Free Republic

Two stars from the Seattle Seahawks took time away from the field to cut an ad shilling for Obamacare. The ad, posted Friday, features Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and rhetorically explosive cornerback Richard Sherman touting the benefits of President Obama’s healthcare law and its web portal Healthcare.gov.

It’s one thing for conservative pundits to question the Obama Administration’s latest higher education subsidy. It’s quite another for a writer in The Atlantic to start asking inconvenient questions. “President Obama wants to provide free tuition at community colleges, a proposal that could benefit as many as 9 million students, according to a White House outline of the plan released Thursday,” Fawn Johnson wrote on the Atlantic blog. “But there's one big caveat in the proposal: There isn't plan to fund it, other than to ask Congress for the money.” “Without that crucial piece of the program, which would be...

As someone who has spent over 15 years teaching at community colleges, I cannot think of a worse idea than President Obama’s proposal for the federal government to provide “free” community college tuition nationwide. Here’s why: Nothing in life is “free”: The lesson we should be teaching our students is that nothing of value is free. “Free community college” for students translates into “a tax increase for somebody else.” Who is going to pay for the billions of dollars it will cost to provide “free” tuition at community colleges, which are heavily subsidized by taxpayers already? College should be affordable,...

When it comes to student debt, it's not fair to blame students for being in over their heads. In the first of its reports (April 2014), the BCEP concluded that not only is the price tag for governmental student loan relief programs much higher than originally thought, but their existence presents an irresistible temptation for students to “engage in more risky behavior because they don’t have to bear the full cost of their actions.” As such, the center urges policymakers to eliminate the forgiveness portions of the various relief programs to “reduce the potential for over-borrowing by requiring borrowers to...

The odds are stacked against low-income Americans seeking the education they need to move up. Chelsey Stone had already escaped so many of the traps that keep poor children in poverty for life. She recalls begging neighbors for dinner when her mother sold their food stamps for drug money. She slept on the trampoline outside when the heroin showed up and her mom locked the door and the binges began. When she rebelled as a teenager, it was with poster board: She plastered her house with bright signs warning, “Do Not Throw Needles Away Here.” Her teachers saw that spark....

As head of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano followed the U.S. government’s official practice of refusing to negotiate with hostage-takers. As head of the University of California system, she has become the hostage-taker. Napolitano is demanding that the cash-strapped state of California pony up an additional $100 million for the UC system, and she threatens to inflict a 5 percent tuition hike on students for each of the next five years in retaliation if Sacramento does not comply. This puts her on the wrong side of Governor Jerry Brown, who by being eternally fixed in anno Domini 1978...

Two months before 17-year-old Alexa of northern New Jersey—a national merit scholar, Girl Scout Gold Award recipient and standout soccer player—planned to submit her application to Amherst, anxiety set in. Even though she met all the requirements to land her on the college's competitive playing field, she wanted an independent education counselor (IEC) to give the final nod on her application. It didn't matter that her parents, guidance counselor, coach and teachers invested more than 100 hours steering her through the college process. Her parents contacted a pricey New York City college-planning service and, after relating Alexa's long list of...

Nearly every high school senior applied for Tennessee Promise, but a small percentage of them may not be eligible for free community college tuition. Before getting the state funding, students must apply for federal financial aid — which leaves undocumented students behind. Tennessee has about 6,000 high school students who are undocumented, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The governor’s speech introducing Tennessee Promise may have encouraged that hope: “To every student, from every kindergartner to every high school senior, we will promise that he or she can attend two years of community college or college of applied technology absolutely...

A father of eight has sparked controversy by refusing to save money for his children’s college education. Guerilla Parenting author David T. Fagan told the Washington Post that college is 'a lot of wasted time' and if his children want to attend, they will have to pay for it themselves. The 37-year-old marketing entrepreneur, whose family lives in Orange County, California, added to MailOnline: 'The focus is too much on a piece of paper and not enough on self-reliance.'

There are a couple of ways to keep your house warm this winter. You could choose the reliable heater you’ve known for years. Or you could keep gasoline and matches handy next to a fire pit you dig in the living room. Most of us are going to pick the heater. The other choice seems … reckless. Your vote for lieutenant governor isn’t so different. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat, has been a steady legislative hand for two decades. Her opponent, Republican Sen. Dan Patrick, is potentially explosive, impact unclear. Also on the ballot are Libertarian...

Undocumented UC students who qualify for in-state tuition but are ineligible for federal assistance soon will be able to borrow up to $4,000 a year to make up the shortfall, thanks to a new law supported by the University of California and state legislators. “Giving undocumented students the same access to financial aid as other students can improve their chances of academic success and help them reach their dream of a college degree and a brighter future,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. “By investing in our students, we are investing in California.” Roughly 450 undocumented students at UCLA would be...

United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., issued the following statement today after her vote to invoke cloture on the DREAM Act. The cloture motion was defeated by a vote of 55-41. Sen. Landrieu said: "America is a land of enormous opportunity that is strengthened, not weakened, by the immeasurable contributions of people from different backgrounds. There are 2.1 million young people in this country who were brought to America by their parents as children. They are undocumented, yet they know no other home than the United States of America. I believe these young adults deserve a chance to earn...

Via Morgan Stanley,Amid rising tuition costs, an increasing share of students rely on debt to fund their education. Student loan delinquent balances have been on the rise since the early 2000s and those with student loans are likely to be less credit worthy than those without (Exhibit 50 & Exhibit 51). As a result, consumption for the student debt-laden population may be depressed. To be sure, the share of consumption driven by college age consumers has been in decline since 2003.These challenges are further compounded under the Qualified Mortgage (QM) regulatory regime that became effective in January 2014. The...

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation creating a new loan program for undocumented students in California’s public universities. California has already taken several steps to make college more affordable for undocumented students, including extending in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who graduate from California high schools and making them eligible to apply for Cal Grant scholarships. Brown signed the bill on Sunday without comment.

When I discovered my status in high school, I was worried I wouldn't be able to attend college at all.After I arrived home from soccer practice, the phone rang. “El Camino,” my mother said as she handed it to me, referring to a nearby community college. I was taking engineering courses there, offered in conjunction with my high school, but the woman from the registrar’s office had a problem: The Social Security number I had provided to receive college credit did not match my name, and if I couldn’t provide a valid number, I’d have to pay almost $2,000 for...

U.S. student debt has climbed to an all-time high, despite a decrease in consumer debt for all other major lending categories such as automotive debt, credit card and home equity loans. Behind mortgages, student loans are the second largest debt class. Now at $1.2 trillion, student debt has increased 84 percent since the 2008 Great Recession, based on a study by information services firm Experian. The national average balance of loans stand at $29,400 and 40 million consumers now have at least one student loan, originally reported by NewsOK. Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana had the highest amount of late payments....

George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's son and Republican candidate for Texas land commissioner, said that in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is just a "nominal" cost to taxpayers. Speaking at The Texas Tribune Festival on Friday evening, Bush said that until someone can present a "sensible alternative" to the Texas's version of DREAM Act, he would support the the law that Texas Governor Rick Perry signed in 2001. Bush said in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is just "a nominal cost from an economic perspective" for the state of Texas. Bush also suggested that in-state tuition for illegal immigrants should be indexed....

Courtesy of Cassie WesselyCassie on campus at Vanderbilt.People have turned to crowdfunding sites to raise money for all kinds of projects, from the latest tech gadget to recovery efforts after a tragedy.Now, college students are turning to sites like GoFundMe, Pigit, and Zerobound to raise funds to cover tuition, living expenses, books, and other school supplies. According to GoFundMe, the number of education-focused campaigns on its site has risen dramatically in recent years. The number of GoFundMe campaigns specifically mentioning "tuition" has risen 4,547% from 2011 to 2014. In 2013, 41,683 GoFundMe campaigns raised a combined $4.63 million toward educational costs. So far in 2014,...

College starts today for students across the country.With tuition costs surging, we can't help but ask, "What are they thinking?"In a new note, the New York Fed's Jaison R. Abel and Richard Deitz write that, looked at one way, these young people are making a sound investment as it now takes fewer years than ever for graduates to recoup their investment.While you used to have to work nearly 25 years to earn back what you'd fronted for your degree, only about 10 years on average are now required.  "Despite the challenges facing today’s college graduates, the value of a college...

Suit charges that both federal and state law prohibit UC system from using tax dollars to provide discounted in-state tuition benefits and financial aid to illegal aliens (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on August 26 2014, it filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court for the State of California, Los Angeles County, seeking an end to an estimated annual $19.6 million in non-resident tuition waivers currently being given to illegal alien students by the University of California (UC) Regents (Earl De Vries v. Regents of the University of California (No. 555614)). The suit also seeks an end...