Posted on 04/17/2017 9:58:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
New York liberals recently celebrated the realization of a long-held dream: giving a free college education to anyone who wants it.
Well, not quite "free" as in nobody has to pay for it. It is one of the primary conceits of the liberal welfare state that they can refer to a taxpayer-funded benefit as "free." Hence, we have "free" public housing, "free" food via the SNAP program, and "free" medical care for those on Medicaid.
Ah, would that it were so.
We all know that there is no such thing as "free" when it comes to government benefits. The money to pay for the goodies does not grow on a tree or even a bush. It comes out of the pockets of ordinary Americans.
So let's refuse to play along with this fiction and look at the real costs of government-funded college tuition.
Providing students four years of tuition-free college does not mean that professors have generously decided to forgo their salaries and academic buildings now come rent-free. In fact, it does not even mean that universities have a plan to cut administrative bloat to focus more of their efforts on academics.
Indeed, offering free college to students means that someone else is now paying for it: New York taxpayers, many of whom do not hold bachelor’s degrees themselves and will likely earn less in the future than their college-going counterparts for whom they are now footing the bill.
Recent history has shown that removing any financial responsibility from the student to pay for their degree does more harm than good. Economists have found that virtually unrestricted access to federal student aid encourages colleges and universities to raise their tuition prices.
When universities are not directly accountable for their prices to consumers, tuition can gradually increase without jeopardizing the loss of significant numbers of students. However, American taxpayers feel this tuition increase quite a bit when students default on their loans.
The proposed budget plan for New York couples the state taxpayer-funded grants with federal Pell Grants, which has been shown to increase tuition as much as 40 cents on the dollar.
Creating a state grant for higher education, coupled with federal grants, will likely lead to further increases in the cost of higher education. The program is slated to be phased in over three years and is expected to cost taxpayers $163 million in the first year.
What about the effect on private colleges? There is little doubt that many private schools will see a falloff in enrollment. This will be true even though the plan includes an increase in funding for them as well. There is just no competing with schools that offer tuition paid for by the government.
What high-school graduate is making more than $125K? Unless you mean their parents make more than that.
I have always said the worse thing that we did to our country was to end the draft. When our young men were drafted it gave them an education on the reality of life. And for many it also gave them marketable skills.
Bring back the draft, which needs to include our young women. It would be an eye opening experience that would be life changing for most if not all.
wait until the state decides what you’re allowed to major in. don’t think for a second that being utterly unable to support yourself with a women’s studies degree will prevent the state from coercing people from “earning” that worthless degree.
Of course, it is based on family income, like all college financial aid and calculations.
I hope it’s a tie, with both CA and NY going under at the same time.
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What about we people in Illinois? We want free chit too!
Good practical list. Many students who I have tutored already qualified for college credit because of their AP high school courses.
The first lesson I taught my economics students was always..”There is no free lunch”. Giving “free” tuition also raises the old tragedy of the commons situation.... free resources will always be over exploited as there are no economic consequences. Think of all the little snowflakes who will not bother to show up for class, spend their time in safe spaces with coloring books, take classes in underwater basket weaving and having nothing to show for their free college.
Speaking as a New Yorker, a taxpayer in New York, and a recent student of the NY state university system (as CUNY, changing careers in my 30s), I don’t see this as a terrible idea.
(1) CUNY, at least, is pretty career focused. Most of the people I’ve taken classes with, both grads and undergrads, are focused, hard-working, and intelligent. A lot of older/immigrant students as well. It doesn’t meet the stereotype of a party school nor of being very PC. Just ordinary New Yorkers trying to get a leg up.
(2) CUNY actually used to be tuition-free (provided that you got good grades) until the mid 70s. There’s historical precedent here, and the past experiments hardly ruined the system. They had to start chargine tuition during the economic issues of the 1970s, but it’s no longer 1977.
(3) City/state universities in NY are 80% funded through non-tuition sources anyway. This will increase costs less than one thinks.
A lot of CUNY students I know do not have the luxury of having the so-called “College’ Experience”.
Many are working part-time while juggling their time taking classes in the CUNY schools that do not even have huge campuses like they have in the suburban areas.
These are the ones who would tend to study the non-fluff courses that get them useful jobs after they graduate.
Anything that keeps the young libs in NY and out of my state can't be all bad.
Even some conservatives I know do not comprehend that NOTHING is ever free. We take for granted way to much.
Higher than high.
We need to get the good old word “ARMAGEDON” into the mix.
Please, let us not ignore reality.
“Providing students four years of tuition-free college does not mean that professors have generously decided to forgo their salaries and academic buildings now come rent-free. In fact, it does not even mean that universities have a plan to cut administrative bloat to focus more of their efforts on academics.”
They don’t have to forego their salaries. They just have to teach classes. Schools should add classes to their schedules. Instead of teaching one class for 150k they can now teach four.
The only number I saw in the excerpt was an estimate of $163 Million for the first year of a three year phase in. The actual annual cost five years down the road will be at least ten times that.
Yes, exactly — CUNY’s Hunter campus is 2-3 city blocks square. It enrolls about 40% of the number of students that Rutgers in NJ enrolls in all of its campuses — most of which are measured in square miles.
Then again, it works because it’s in a major city, so it “outsources” a lot of things like recreation, dining, and housing to private business (landlords, groceries, restaurants) or to the city (Central Park) itself.
I don’t see the problem with giving the kind of student that goes to CUNY a bit of a leg up.
Yep, having talented and bright people have even more incentive to stay in NY or move here (vs fleeing to Nebraska) is awesome. For New York, that is.
See # 20
Must start to defund Berkeley and other university in Ca. People had been complaining giving free education to illegal,and ourout of State American kids have to pay out of State tuition. All they learn from school is how to rob Paul’s labor without shame and to give it to John for free.
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