Posted on 07/18/2019 5:14:36 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Democratic candidates for president, in their impressive expansiveness, are promising free college. Some limit their proposals to community colleges, others to state-run schools, and a few, going for broke, want also to forgive student debt for private-college tuition. Since no realm of American life has undergone greater inflation in recent decades than higher education, this is no piddling promise. The cost to taxpayers could be in the trillions, though the prospect would please a nephew of mine who this autumn is sending a son to Dartmouth at the annual price of $76,000.
If government is going to pay for college, at least it ought to try to bring down the cost. I taught at a university for 30 years and have a few suggestions. Start at the top: I would reduce the salaries of university presidents by, say, 90%. (At the institution where I taught, the president made more than $2 million when last I checked.) I would also evict them from their rent-free mansions and remove their cadres of servants. The contemporary university president, after all, has little or nothing to do with education, but is chiefly occupied with fundraising and public relations. If universities were restaurants, the president would be a maître d’. To encourage their fundraising skills, perhaps they could be paid a small commission on the money they bring into their schools—cash, so to speak, and carry—excepting that on money used to erect more otiose buildings filled with treadmills, computers and condom machines.
The next big cut in the cost of higher education would be in superfluous administrative jobs, for the contemporary university is nothing if not vastly overstaffed. All those assistant provosts for diversity, those associate deans presiding over sensitivity programs, those directors for student experience—out, out with them.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Not me! I already paid for MY college, thanks!!
“Free college” would mean that tuition would triple in 4 years, then triple again in 3 years, and so on.
It would be a direct transfer of tax money to colleges, as a gift, so they could carry on the work of socializing and de-Christianizing the USA.
They would still charge room and board, plus “student fees,” and only Whites would pay the full amount, as they would be subsidizing non-Whites.
I went through college on the GI Bill. I basically paid it back through increased taxes from getting a better career. I think free college should be through a predetermined contract which will include possible work as a payback.
In times past, before student loans and federal grants and subsidies, students still got a college education.
The problems started when everyone HAD to have a college degree. The colleges took advantage and tuition went up.
Also, nobody seeks to be a welder, plumber, electrician or auto mechanic any more.
We need to promote online education at all levels!
Eliminate brick & mortar schools and cut the required number of teachers/professors by 90%.
One teacher/professor can make an online video course that could be learned by tens of thousands of students. Let the teachers/professors compete with each other for best online course.
Without buildings, athletic programs and fraternities, an online degree could cost less than $1000.
Maybe the town can eliminate the campus property taxes, utilities can eliminate billing them for product and services to their facilities?
So what if everyone else’s costs go up, this is free college after all! The under 30 crowd will overwhelmingly vote democrat.
We also have to get employers to un-drink the Kool-Aid that says a Bachelors Degree is the minimum qualification required for entry-level jobs.
Get over the fallacy that universities will bear your training costs for you. It ain’t happening.
One alternative is to redefine citizen as one who has
served the United States under command, honorably, for at least 3 years
Military, CCC, Foreign Service, or some meaningful threshold of paid taxes
as examples
Only Citizens can vote locally, regionally, or nationally
Only Citizens can enter into Governmental Service, hold office
Only Citizens are supported by the social contract
Medicare, Social Security, Higher Education as examples
Others are fellow travelers that are protected by constitutional law
But not supported by the Social Contract
It would require a Constitutional Amendment
It will never happen, but one could dream
The two main reasons that has come to be are 1) the dumbing down / devaluation of the average high school diploma and 2) the practical limitations on testing as a corporate hiring criteria created by Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
Have you found a candidate for 2020 yet since Trump is so unacceptable to you?
AKA the Starship Troopers model.
Welfare for billion dollar endowments
Free College?
I’m for it. But let’s define what “Free” and “College” mean.
Graduate from High School?
Go to your STATE College for free.
But you need to apply and get in on merit,
Merit, for Teachers and Students is the sole credential.
Everybody reapplies every year.
ELIMINATE ALL PUBLIC UNIONS-
Private industry unions, fine.
My first year physics class had more than 100 students, with old-school style stadium seating (Room 309 in Havemeyer Hall) and a Chinese Grad student Instructor you couldn’t understand. Everybody used mini cassette tape recorders back then. First Year Sociology 101 could certainly have more students, maybe 300 in a class.
Or you could take MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) for all your basics, face it, it’s stuff that you should have learned in High School anyway.
So now, what’s “Free”?
In many cases, a child does not personally have to pay for elementary through high school. For most, schools are funded through general taxes, fees and other common revenue. If we believe that an educated population is more able to participate in a free society, then “free” education is required.
Folks need to keep learning to keep up on new trends in skills, technology, techniques etc . . .
In the old days, the public library taught generations of less-than-rich, industrious students. Today, the Internet and access to MOOCs is one of the modern tools for learning. Lots of Certifications and other technical accreditation can be earned without leaving the desktop.
If we redefine what “Free” and “College” mean, then yes, I am all for Free College.
There is no such thing as free.
Are you saying someone who hasn’t drawn a government pay check, is not entitled to his or her citizenship?
I paid for most of my college thru NROTC and a minimum of five years active duty, knowing that the only early exit led to reinstatement of my permanent rank of Seaman Apprentice. Motivation. I did not require my kids to serve in the military, but they all had skin in the game thru part-time employment. Anything given too freely is rarely appreciated.
What about a commercial showing a toddler happily playing suddenly being demanded to pay its thousands of dollars share of the national debt whereby the toddler breaks into screaming tears ?
Dear Mr. Joseph Epstein:
Government doesn’t for anything.
Taxpayers do.
“No.”
Anytime the government is paying the bills, costs inflate almost immediately. If colleges know that Uncle Sam is paying for the student loans, then they know they can increase tuition and still get paid. It's the same for defense contractors who charge thousands of dollars for a toilet seat. The government's paying so what the hey.
I read an article the other day about some gal who had a $499,000+ student loan to repay for a degree in a field where she will never be able to make enough money to afford to pay it back.
No private bank would have approved a loan so large because they would know that the student could never pay it back. Maybe a course of two in finances and economics might have prevented this gal from doing something so stupid.
Obama as much as said, that the government would bail out the students of their debt at some point when the majority couldn't pay. Well, I think we're well beyond that stage now.
The feds paying off student loan debt is just another of many examples of the government creating a problem and then the taxpayers having to bail the government out for the unintended consequences of their bad decisions.
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