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The Real World Can Wait (11 Years In College, 28 Year Old Doesn't Want To Graduate)
Wisconsin State Journal ^ | April 7, 2005 | Doug Erickson

Posted on 04/07/2005 9:57:22 AM PDT by MisterRepublican

WHITEWATER - At the off-campus house Johnny Lechner shares with three other UW- Whitewater students, the stairway to his attic bedroom is lined with photos dating back to his freshman year.

Lechner has lost track of many of the buddies that posed with him at these long- ago fraternity parties and Homecoming parades. They have moved on to new lives - careers, wives, children, mortgages - and that's just not Lechner's scene.

"I could have - should have - graduated many years ago, but I keep passing on the real world's invitation," said Lechner, 28, who is in his 11th year as a student in the University of Wisconsin System, the last 10 at UW-Whitewater. He's taken a full course load every semester except the current one, in which he's taking seven credits.

Lechner has completed 234 college credits, about 100 more than needed to graduate and so many that he's now paying the so-called "slacker tax."

System students who exceed 165 total credit hours - or 30 more than their degree programs require, whichever is higher - pay double tuition. The Board of Regents instituted the surcharge this school year as a none-too-subtle hint that a state-subsidized education has its limits.

The slacker tax doubles full- time tuition at UW-Whitewater (12 to 18 credits) to $4,816 a semester. With the surcharge, Lechner is paying $2,810 per semester for his seven-credit load.

It is a measure of Lechner's campus notoriety that many classmates call the slacker tax "The Johnny Lechner Rule." While he doesn't mind being known as "that guy who has been in college forever," Lechner declines to take credit for the Regents' sweeping policy change.

(Excerpt) Read more at madison.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: academia; cheeseheads; highereducation
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To: MisterRepublican

Wow.

That's pretty sad.


21 posted on 04/07/2005 10:14:23 AM PDT by HowardDeanScream08
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To: MisterRepublican
"People talk about how it takes some kids five or six years to graduate. I should be so lucky," said John Lechner, an operations manager for an engineering firm.

LOL!
22 posted on 04/07/2005 10:14:30 AM PDT by Welsh Rabbit
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To: Stellar Dendrite

This guys sounds like a future professor.


23 posted on 04/07/2005 10:14:34 AM PDT by Skinn_dogg
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To: MisterRepublican
"He's one of those people in life who actually has the guts to do what makes him happy," Koskinen said. "He's one of the happiest people in the entire world, and if you reach that level of happiness, why not keep doing it?"

Hmm...I was perfectly happy being fed from a bottle and crapping in my diapers. (Happiest 8 years of my life.) I wouldn't have a problem with this clown being a student forever except that he isn't really paying his own way - student tuition never does - he's $30,000 in debt to his fellow citizens and a perennial drag on the taxpayer.

He should become a professor and never have to leave the womb. Additionally he could presume to lecture the rest of us on how to live lives he's never had the opportunity to try. I always marvel at a pampered academic presuming to tell a guy who repairs transmissions how the real world is supposed to work, but they all do it.

24 posted on 04/07/2005 10:15:28 AM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: EricT.

Unavailable for comment...

25 posted on 04/07/2005 10:15:34 AM PDT by Gunslingr3
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To: MisterRepublican

*LOL*

Slacker tax, interesting!

Girls, stay away from this guy..


26 posted on 04/07/2005 10:15:40 AM PDT by k2blader (If suicide is immoral, then helping it happen, regardless of motivation, is also immoral.)
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To: EricT.

At my 10 year H.S. re-union, the guy voted most likely to succeed was still in college. At the 20th re-union he was all excited because he'd gotten out that year and gotten his "first" job. Everybody else was excited because after 20 years they were almost seeing the "light at the end of the tunnel".


27 posted on 04/07/2005 10:16:00 AM PDT by stumpy (M)
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To: Deaf Smith

Big difference; if they were on the GI Bill, then they acually did something for a living before they went to college.


28 posted on 04/07/2005 10:16:04 AM PDT by kas2591 (Life's harder when you're stupid.)
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To: MisterRepublican
"Shelle Lechner of Pewaukee, a convenience store manager, said she likes that her son has used his college time to pursue his dreams, including a songwriting career. He has self- financed five acoustic-guitar CDs and performs widely.

"He's an adult. He's paying for college himself. I don't have a right to tell him to get a job," she said. "He's doing what he wants to do, and he's happy. I couldn't ask for a better kid."

Here's the source of the puke's problem.

29 posted on 04/07/2005 10:16:34 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: Dan from Michigan

It is the White Barry!


30 posted on 04/07/2005 10:16:49 AM PDT by MahaMarty (This'll probably get me suspended...AGAIN!)
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To: conservativeharleyguy
These guys just milk the system as long as they can, then default on their loans.

If I'm not mistaken back in the late 90's Congress made it essentially impossible to default on federally subsidized student loans.

31 posted on 04/07/2005 10:16:59 AM PDT by Gunslingr3
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To: MisterRepublican

College street person...


32 posted on 04/07/2005 10:17:29 AM PDT by Dallas59 (" I have a great team that is going to beat George W. Bush" John Kerry -2004)
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To: MisterRepublican

33 posted on 04/07/2005 10:20:10 AM PDT by OXENinFLA
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To: LouD

That's what I was wondering. Does he get grants, loans, are his parents paying? How does he afford this?


34 posted on 04/07/2005 10:21:42 AM PDT by kalee
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To: MisterRepublican
I had a nephew who was similar to this, he started college attending college when he was 20 and was 27 before he got around to getting a Bachelor's. It wasn't that he was a bad student or didn't take a full courseload, he just kept changing his major about a year from completing the program, he was an engineering major for three years, then changed to Business Administration, did that for a couple years, changed to Computer Science, did that for a year. He finally ended up graduating with B.S. in Industrial Technology.
35 posted on 04/07/2005 10:23:11 AM PDT by apillar
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To: MisterRepublican

I wonder how long it took him to get potty-trained.

BA in 3 years (not counting the community college I went to WHILE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL and the 1-year interruption by Desert Storm) so as to basically get my freshman and sophomore years out of the way.

Took summer I, II, and II classes and 20 credits every semester.

I enjoyed learning, but life is too short to not leave the ivy-lined womb.


36 posted on 04/07/2005 10:24:43 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan
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To: MisterRepublican

I've got to admit, if I could've put off going into the Real World ®, I would've done it. Hell, he's paying his own way, and he's enjoying life. Isn't that what we all want?


37 posted on 04/07/2005 10:25:06 AM PDT by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: Gunslingr3

"If I'm not mistaken back in the late 90's Congress made it essentially impossible to default on federally subsidized student loans."

No, you can still default. It's the bankruptcy discharge that's hard.

But, if you are an unemployed street person, with no prospects --- or in prison --- you can still get the discharge.


38 posted on 04/07/2005 10:26:33 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan
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To: kalee

Read the whole article. He pays his own way (double the matriculation fees of other students because he has more credits than he needs to graduate).


39 posted on 04/07/2005 10:27:10 AM PDT by Junior (FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC)
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To: Quilla

Your sister sounds like my brother in law's first wife....... exactly like her! lol


40 posted on 04/07/2005 10:28:19 AM PDT by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
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