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ya know..Bernie has to include free books, free lab fees, free parking stickers and free college fees as well.
My son's books for next semester are totaling near $600 and those are used books.
Which is ridiculous and part of the reason I can't get fully on board with "free" education. His books should be available online for a few bucks. It takes 5 minutes to then update the information as opposed to making a $180 book obsolete.
Those who argue for "free" education never seem to want to address the cost side.
"Free" Healthcare and education.
A intelligent and healthy population is the systems worst enemy, thats why it is made impossible for a lot of people to have them. Conversely, shame on us for putting WALMART and gratuitous junk consumerism over all.
It actually wouldn't that hard to make "tuition" free.
Tennessee and Oregon are already doing it for their community colleges. All you do is say, once you've exhausted your existing options for FAFSA grants like Pell, etc... or whatever state grants exist, then a new grant will make up the difference. For tuition, not for room and board, books, etc...
Probably not that much money since "tuition" is only one aspect of what makes college expensive. As others have said - books can be $200 a pop, room and board 6-10K a year, etc...
Also people aren't reading the Sanders plan. It's not "free" - it's a matching federal grant to incentivize states to subsidize tuition to the levels they used to. There would be nothing forcing the states to do this. It's actually the model that a lot of countries use to subsidize their higher ed.
The difference between the U.S. and Germany or Brazil - which use this model - is that we have a much larger higher ed industry - many more and bigger colleges and a greater percentage of the population that goes. They have educational tracking in those countries - so the kids going to college are set up for success, you're on track for college as early as middle school.
Here, we have a crapshoot coming out of high school and we throw them at colleges hoping they make it whether they're prepared or not.
Obama threw out this idea last year and promoted free community college. Knowing that it had no chance, that is.
As the election season is heating up and with his national popularity growing, Bernie Sanders has also been busy touting the free college rhetoric for all 4-year universities. Seems like this idea has been taking off in recent years especially with student loan debt ranking just behind credit card debt.
Do you support the left's idea of free college tuition? Good or bad for America?
Not really.
I work in a non-technical industry - I'll leave any analysis of the STEM industries to others. My observation is that the practical purpose for a college degree in most non-technical fields is to show a potential employer that you can commit yourself to a task (job) for at least four years, meet the basic requirements for completing it, and then actually completing it.
It's the best reference that an employer has, beyond your history of working at the local burger joint, that you are employable, i.e. you can be trained, you will do what you're told, and you will stick around after they've invested in your training. It's like a 4-year long test to verify that have a good head on your shoulders.
After I was hired, I never looked back on my college education and, for the most part, 15 years later it has been forgotten. The only proof that I went to college is the 8.5" x 11" piece of paper we call "a degree." Not once have I thought, "I learned that in school!" No, I learned "that" on the job. And, although employers may ask about my college education, what they're mostly interested in is my work experience.
The sooner people recognize that they're paying for a piece of paper, the sooner people would stop paying silly college costs (especially when they can get the same at an in-state, public school like I did). The colleges can't sell what no one is buying. Also, today's students should consider paying as you go, i.e. work while going to school. Not only is the work experience helpful (or at least it will keep you busy and 'socializes you to the work environment'), it beats taking on a loan that you'll have to repay with (low) interest.
I only owed about $3000 when I graduated. Now, before someone says, "But that was 15 years ago," keep in mind my brother and his wife both went to private colleges and graduated around the same time as I did, and they owe, combined, six figures. Whatever is happening today is not new.
[what may be new is some people's unrealistic expectations]
I work in a non-technical industry - I'll leave any analysis of the STEM industries to others. My observation is that the practical purpose for a college degree in most non-technical fields is to show a potential employer that you can commit yourself to a task (job) for at least four years, meet the basic requirements for completing it, and then actually completing it.
It's the best reference that an employer has, beyond your history of working at the local burger joint, that you are employable, i.e. you can be trained, you will do what you're told, and you will stick around after they've invested in your training. It's like a 4-year long test to verify that have a good head on your shoulders.
After I was hired, I never looked back on my college education and, for the most part, 15 years later it has been forgotten. The only proof that I went to college is the 8.5" x 11" piece of paper we call "a degree." Not once have I thought, "I learned that in school!" No, I learned "that" on the job. And, although employers may ask about my college education, what they're mostly interested in is my work experience.
The sooner people recognize that they're paying for a piece of paper, the sooner people would stop paying silly college costs (especially when they can get the same at an in-state, public school like I did). The colleges can't sell what no one is buying. Also, today's students should consider paying as you go, i.e. work while going to school. Not only is the work experience helpful (or at least it will keep you busy and 'socializes you to the work environment'), it beats taking on a loan that you'll have to repay with (low) interest.
I only owed about $3000 when I graduated. Now, before someone says, "But that was 15 years ago," keep in mind my brother and his wife both went to private colleges and graduated around the same time as I did, and they owe, combined, six figures. Whatever is happening today is not new.
[what may be new is some people's unrealistic expectations]
College is not, and never was, supposed to be only job training. It's impossible for a classroom to approximate a workplace, anyway.
You must have learned SOMEthing at college. I know I came out of college a much better writer, a much better statistical analyst, a much better critical thinker. I'm smarter with words and numbers than I was going in. Did you have those qualities when you came out of high school? I can't remember every little thing I "learned," but sometimes I actually do remember something a professor said at random times which comes in handy in or outside of work.
Possibly the class I feel I got the most out of was Islamic History, which was an elective. A lot of what I learned in there seems regularly relevant to what's going on in the middle east. We never discussed stuff like that in high school and had I not gone to college, I would probably not even care.
College is not, and never was, supposed to be only job training. It's impossible for a classroom to approximate a workplace, anyway.
You must have learned SOMEthing at college. I know I came out of college a much better writer, a much better statistical analyst, a much better critical thinker. I'm smarter with words and numbers than I was going in. Did you have those qualities when you came out of high school? I can't remember every little thing I "learned," but sometimes I actually do remember something a professor said at random times which comes in handy in or outside of work.
Possibly the class I feel I got the most out of was Islamic History, which was an elective. A lot of what I learned in there seems regularly relevant to what's going on in the middle east. We never discussed stuff like that in high school and had I not gone to college, I would probably not even care.
Exactly. But that is how people are treating it. How many times have you heard people say, "Go to college so you can get a job?"
Regarding your question about having the qualities when I finished high school - yes. I read a lot back then (more so than I do now since I don't have as much time). I didn't need college for that. Nobody should.
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