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I don't believe that anyone is entitled to "free college", but there is a huge double standard that's come about for millennials that makes it a valid proposal.
I've heard multiple times that a Bachelor's is the new high school diploma, and it's becoming a more and more valid claim. Many entry level positions now require a college education, and these jobs don't necessarily pay appropriately, in fact they usually don't. So people who don't have aspirations towards a high earning career, must still go to college and either have parent's who can afford to pay for it, work to pay for it which usually adds a couple extra years and delay's their earning potential for even longer, or take out loans.
Society is telling HS grads that college is necessary if you don't want to be a minimum wage bum, but we don't want to make it equally available to all.
So either we as a society pay for it because we want our working force educated, or we re-evaluate the necessity of higher education for middle class employment.
This, but there should be conditions to free college. The way I would do it is this.
The government would grant students loans for college upon graduating high school. This loan would be dependent on high-school GPA (I would do it at 3.0 minimum).
Students would be required to complete their bachelors degree within ten semesters and keep a 3.0 GPA through college.
After college, if a student got a degree-related job within the first two years, their loan would be forgiven. If not, they would have to pay off their loan. This is so the government isn't paying for students to major in English Lit who will then continue to wait tables all through their twenties. Students would need to consider their major and whether or not its marketable, as well as take their choice much more seriously than they currently do.
The loans should be interest-free as long as payments are made on time. They were issued by the FED for nothing.
I think public universities should be cheaper and I'm willing to pay a little more in taxes to do it...it's an investment. We also need to make sure the universities aren't wasting too much money and students need to be taught about student loan debt....less is better.
I don't believe that anyone is entitled to "free college", but there is a huge double standard that's come about for millennials that makes it a valid proposal.
I've heard multiple times that a Bachelor's is the new high school diploma, and it's becoming a more and more valid claim. Many entry level positions now require a college education, and these jobs don't necessarily pay appropriately, in fact they usually don't. So people who don't have aspirations towards a high earning career, must still go to college and either have parent's who can afford to pay for it, work to pay for it which usually adds a couple extra years and delay's their earning potential for even longer, or take out loans.
Society is telling HS grads that college is necessary if you don't want to be a minimum wage bum, but we don't want to make it equally available to all.
So either we as a society pay for it because we want our working force educated, or we re-evaluate the necessity of higher education for middle class employment.
If that is the case, why not make the last two years of high school the equivalent of an associates degree in college? Why waste those years at high school going through a bunch of "social awareness" garbage and studying for standardized tests? I would have rather spent the time getting something of value.
I don't believe that anyone is entitled to "free college", but there is a huge double standard that's come about for millennials that makes it a valid proposal.
I've heard multiple times that a Bachelor's is the new high school diploma, and it's becoming a more and more valid claim. Many entry level positions now require a college education, and these jobs don't necessarily pay appropriately, in fact they usually don't. So people who don't have aspirations towards a high earning career, must still go to college and either have parent's who can afford to pay for it, work to pay for it which usually adds a couple extra years and delay's their earning potential for even longer, or take out loans.
Society is telling HS grads that college is necessary if you don't want to be a minimum wage bum, but we don't want to make it equally available to all.
So either we as a society pay for it because we want our working force educated, or we re-evaluate the necessity of higher education for middle class employment.
OK... How about implementing a 20-25% VAT tax to pay for it, like European and Scandinavian countries have?
I think public universities should be cheaper and I'm willing to pay a little more in taxes to do it...it's an investment. We also need to make sure the universities aren't wasting too much money and students need to be taught about student loan debt....less is better.
Paying taxes does not make it cheaper. You have to cut the administrative costs. Professors should have to grade their own papers instead of having a staff of 10 doing it.
I don't really buy the investment in our society notion. Income is often tied to IQ, which can't be taught. Sending more people to college doesn't increase their IQ, it just lowers the value of the degree. I'm sure some people might benefit from it, but it's not like we're making the population smarter.
If that is the case, why not make the last two years of high school the equivalent of an associates degree in college? Why waste those years at high school going through a bunch of "social awareness" garbage and studying for standardized tests? I would have rather spent the time getting something of value.
Where I live we actually have a program set-up between our local CC and our high schools called "Running Start" where you are able to graduate HS with your AA. It's a wonderful program and I never understood why more kids didn't participate.
People don't realize other countries have a testing schedule. If students in certain grades (say by grade 10). If those students don't perform well. They are shuffle through other studies that gear them towards more vocational occupations rather than college and professional jobs.
What liberals want is a blank check to slow slacker Johnny as many years in college as he needs to find himself before he success. Sorry. We have limited resources. Other countries have limited resources.
I'm not a millenial, I'm a 40-something grandparent who put myself through college, but I do support a free college system, and why? Well, maybe because:
1. For starters, I could ask why do you/we/everybody think that we should have a free K-12 education system?
2. Because college costs have become exhorbitantly, incredibly expensive. Just as an example in 1970 the minimum wage was $1.45, and annual tuition for Yale was $2500. That means you could work 4.72 hours per day and pay your way through school. Now, in 2014 the minimum wage was $7.25, annual tuition at Yale was $45,800, and you would have to work 17.31 hours per day to pay for it.
3. Because other developed nations are providing that post-secondary education for free. Places like Germany, the Scandinavian nations, and many others. This means that we lose competitive edge compared to them, as our workforce becomes less skilled.
If someone wants to attend college, to attain a marketable skill then by heck they ought to be able to do that. There are many ways to finance it. It can be done by college attendees signing to give a small percentage of their salaries back for "x" number of years. It can be done with federal funding. There are ways to work it.
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