Posted on 03/17/2019 4:37:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
Texas got the lottery on the promise it would pay for schools. That was a lie.
In the 70s, I paid $3 per college hour tuition. Today, it’s $1,750 on average. Wait until it’s “free” and prices jump even higher because, hey! it’s free money.
I know a couple of people who went into “landscaping”, meaning yard maintenance, and have done well enough without college, one now has his own boat and runs a saltwater fishing guide service, he is living his dream now and twenty years ago he seemed to be headed for oblivion.
A trade will probably earn him more money than most degrees. Look at what plumbers charge just for coming out and scratching their head.
Ha!
Higher-ed is a cartel which seeks to monopolize government money by suppressing competition, innovation, and keeping prices high. Free college is the stupidest idea- ever. Price controls would make more sense than that and everyone knows those are dumb.
Accreditation reform is the way to go.
Free college = the quality would equal the cost!
Isn’t there a difference between “free college” and college for everyone?
There wouldn’t be enough room to take in everyone & like today’s grade & high schools, the learning slows to a crawl trying keep everyone up to speed in 11-teen different languages.
Neither version is a good prospect.
I don't know about that.
Leonard Susskind went from journeyman-plumber to theoretical physicist, even besting Hawking, and relies on plumbing references to better explain his black-hole theory physics.
I don't think he resents his trade-training experience at all.
Then there's a NYC sandhog that went back to digging after getting a PhD in Geology.
He is the exception rather than the rule.
Needless to say, pretty rare to go from working as a plumber to becoming a quoted physicist.
Now that I think of it, I’ve known a lot of engineers that loved having had “trade” experience, more on-the-Summer-job training than Voc-Ed, but it served them well.
We’re not talking about the same thing. And my guess is that you are perhaps too young to recall when “tracking” was controversial for the way that guidance counselors would channel academically lower-performing kids into voc ed-type classes through their high school experience.
Then, if they decided they wanted to go to college they often didn’t have the transcripts to support it. At least not to a “respected” school. That is, of course, when college actually was to some degree exclusive. That is also what has been the “European” system for years.
Anyway, there was a backlash against it back in the ‘70s, roughly, and I don’t think it has been nearly as widespread since then.
I don’t believe college is for everyone, but because education is so bad a bachelors degree is now the equivalent of a high school diploma (with everything that implies for those without them).
As a college graduate with a Bachelors from a technically oriented university and a Masters from a public university, I'll be the first to tell you your statement is factually not true.
The only thing a College degree ever really says about someone, is that they're "trainable." I received my Bachelors in the mid 1980's and my degree managed to open a door to an entry-level position in my field. From there, I worked my way up (emphasis on WORKED.)
My Masters Degree I obtained in my early 40's when I wanted to advance my career and "guarantee" my future employability after losing my job post 9-11 as so many people did.
If you think the hollywood/college bribery scandal is the "start" of all this nonsense - think again!
When I went back for my Masters in my early 40's I ran into so many "kids" in their 20's with a sense of entitlement it was absolutely sickening to me. They did little if any work towards their advanced degree, constantly sought out myself and others like me (with actual work-life experience) to "help them along" (read that: do the work so they could latch onto it.)
These "kids" genuinely believed that they "paid their money" and showed up for class, that was enough for them to get their advanced degrees!
The sense of entitlement in this country just makes me want to VOMIT. The hollywood/college-bribery scandal is really just an extension of that. This kinda shit has been going on a long time and it's easy to spot when your boss from one major east-coast university hires and promotes his buddies from the same east-coast university and they all graduated together in the mid 1980's to early 1990's.
As I said, it's been going on a loooonnng time.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.