Free Republic

The $10,000 bachelor's degree could be coming to a campus near you. What began as a challenge from billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates to make college more affordable is now catching on with governors eager to stem spiraling tuition costs and mounting student debt. Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced recently that 23 state-run higher education institutions will soon offer the four-year degree programs for $10,000, following similar calls by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. At least one lawmaker in California is calling for that state's vaunted university system to embrace the idea, too. The bargain baccalaureate...

[snip] Tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities jumped 8.3 percent nationwide for the 2011-2012 school year, the organization said. The numbers were skewed by California, which raised in-state tuition and fees by a whopping 21 percent this year. But even without California, costs rose seven percent, according to the College Board’s annual “Trends in College Pricing” report released on Wednesday. [snip] Private, non-profit colleges raised prices as well according to the report, but not nearly as much as their budget-strapped public counterparts. Tuition and fees rose 4.5 percent, which is still more than twice the core rate...

...systematic data on how much public school teachers are paid, relative to other white-collar professionals. [snip] Among the key findings of this report: According to the BLS, the average public school teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005. The average public school teacher was paid 36% more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker. Full-time public school teachers work on average 36.5 hours per week during weeks that they are working. By comparison, white-collar workers (excluding sales) work 39.4 hours, and professional specialty and...

Last year, college expenses rose at twice the rate of inflation, making it more difficult for middle and lower-income students to afford a four-year college degree. The non-profit College Board reported that annual tuition and fees at a four-year public university averages $5491. It's $21,235 at a private, non-profit school. The annual bill jumps to $12,127 at a public school and $29,026 at a private college when room and board are figured in. More than a dozen bills have been introduced in Congress this year that address college costs. The fever pitch on Capitol Hill has led to the American...

School vouchers are now back on the front burner because the House of Representatives has just passed and sent to the Senate a $10 million program for the poorest students in the D.C. public school system. The plan gives them an opportunity to escape failing public schools and switch to any other school their parents believe will provide a better education. This is an idea whose time has come – actually, it came a generation ago. But most Senate Democrats are gearing up to kill this opportunity for these children. Why are they doing that? First, we look at the...