Posted on 09/11/2011 3:00:07 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
My oldest child, Olivia, will be heading to college in two years. So it’s already become college-saving crunch time in our household. As we’ve been putting money away, I’ve become even more passionate about helping other people find ways to cut college expenses. So I’m intrigued by Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to come up with an affordable college degree program. Perry, who’s running for president, has created quite a buzz for a bold — some say unrealistic — higher-education plan.
“I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelor’s degrees that cost no more than $10,000, including textbooks,” Perry said during his State of the State remarks this year.
And just how does he propose that schools offer degrees at a such a discount?
“Let’s leverage Web-based instruction, innovative teaching techniques and aggressive efficiency measures to reach that goal,” Perry said. “Imagine the potential impact on affordability and graduation rates — and the number of skilled workers it would send into our economy.”
Yes, just imagine.
Imagine the financial stress lifted off so many families if they could send their children to school for $2,500 a year, not including room and board.
.....Aside from an unfair slap to community colleges, I’m more than perturbed that Perry’s idea is being so quickly dismissed by the education establishment. It’s long past time that professionals in higher education — from college presidents to professors — work harder to figure out how to reduce college costs. They can no longer smugly claim that just having a degree is a fast track to high-paying jobs.
And let’s remove the politics from Perry’s challenge. True, he’s now a presidential candidate, and candidates will promise anything, but Perry’s proposal has merit, and it’s something all the candidates should embrace, including President Obama.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
At a university level, they're a black hole of student fees. Have you looked at a budget? If they bring in much more than they spend why do student fees cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance premiums for the few students who are participating? Why aren't the programs able to cover that themselves instead of fleecing the entire student body?
I've looked at K-12 sports too. It's a sea of red ink. Those should be community programs following a little league pay-to-participate self funding model, not the domain of school curriculums and tax dollars.
How many undocumented aliens do you really believe go on to college and graduate? Seriously...
It is hard enough to get them to graduate from high school. Look at the national statistics..
I had a better education in high school than today’s graduates get in college or university. It won’t make much difference. Kids just aren’t really learning much.
Most important they aren’t learning how to think, just what to think and they don’t read.
LOL, they are already doing all those things, we do have 19% unemployment. And the only artificial item brought up is the ignorance of subsidizing a substandard education. And as to completion, we have 30 million illegals in the damn country. If that is Constraining labor, you are out of the tree.
All true.
“He tells the smart ass from Harvard that someday he will wake up and realize he spent $250,000 for an educaiton he could have gotten at the Public Library for the cost of a Library card...Priceless!”
Indeed. The information and education is there if you have the motivation to do it. What high tuition provides is the personalized incentive, badgering, and certification of work done.
MIT’s curriculum, all of it, is available at http://ocw.MIT.edu - a top tier education if you’ll just DO IT.
So long as people demand top quality education and make clear cost is no object (by signing up for absurd loans), supply-and-demand dictate they will be charged a corresponding cost. If motivated, hit the library and internet for the education, and as noted get the lower courses at a cheap college and then go for the valuable certification when you know, and can afford, its cost.
I’m amazed at how many enter college with either no intention or no understanding of “do the work”. You don’t just plunk down the credit card, sit a few hours, and expect to know a marketable skill.
I agree fully on this. Well said.
How would it be easy? The ability to get a college degree, once you’ve made it into a college, should be dependent on your ability to learn the information presented.
I, for one, could never understand Calculus or standard Chemistry. But Physics and Organic Chemistry were topics I could pick up.
Same with Mideast Politics... that was a snap.
Single issue voter?
If Perry’s not your cup of tea, then you’ll have to find someone else. Unfortunately, there is no candidate that can offer anything close to a total border closure.
What to do, what to do...
(Not to mention that Perry signed legislation giving in-state tuition to *ANYONE* attending school in Texas for three years. I guess anyone strictly means illegal in your mind.)
Ah, well, you know that illegal immigration is the end all and be all of most voters!
:-P
Jobs, deficit, bloated and overreaching government... no good conservative would actually care at all about those issues! Oh no!
When I was in college (back in the early 90s) at the University of Florida, our sports program actually made money for the school.
Gatorade, ESPN television rights, merchandising, ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox television rights for the Gator bowl, etc, etc, etc.
“Single issue voter?”
That phrase has really gotten old and tired. It never was anything of intellectual value.
I don’t consider the sovereignty of the United States something to belittle or trivialize. Too bad you and Perry think it is.
Me? More like Perry, Palin, Romney, Huntsman, Cain, Santorum, and Newt.
The only, I repeat, *ONLY* Republican candidate that is even lukewarm on the subject is Bachmann.
Proof we’ve been treated to RINO from the RNC, not Conservative Republicans. Thanks for the reminder.
Really, you think the CEO appoints his bosses...wow ok. First I have heard of it. And no matter who appoints whom, my last post about the employer determining the value of a job still holds true. So I am not sure what the “lol” is about.
Most major college Football programs do make money. Ask those who enforce Title IX. I have seen the budgets... Schools fleece students for lots of fees, that does not mean the money wasn’t there in the first place to pay for it.
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