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It's the best and fastest way to get more kids into college.
God knows we need tens of thousands of kids with degrees now. it need is already critical, and if the United States is to continue to be an innovator and a world technology contender, degrees and advanced degrees will be the only way we stay at the top of the heap.
Two years of free community college essentially cuts the costs of a 4-year degree in half. Older Americans who need more education to become fully employed, or employed at higher wages, will benefit from this just as much as the kids.
The need for more 2-year community colleges to be built will increase. Those colleges will raise the level of eduction throughout the community afterward, especially in towns that have never had a college. And towns with colleges attract more new businesses than towns without a college.
This is one of the very best investments in America we can make. An educated informed citizenry is a strong citizenry.
We invest in 13 years of free schooling, and that's a disaster. U.S. public schools educate only 26% of all public school students to even basic grade-level proficiency in math, 38% in reading, by 12th grade.
What on Earth are you talking about? I realize that our public education system needs reforms and I'm generally opposed to the teachers union, but to say that public education is "worthless" is simply not accurate. Our public school system was the single most important factor in helping build America into what it is today. We've led the World economically and militarily for generations, largely because we led the World in pioneering a universally accessible public school system. There's lots of things we need to fix about our public schools, but they are definitely not "worthless."
Actually, at this point, they are indeed 2/3 useless. Social engineering dumbing-down because of the pursuit of social justice "equal outcomes" has resulted in this:
U.S. public schools educate only 26% of all public school students to even basic grade-level proficiency in math, 38% in reading, by 12th grade.
Under such a plan, the first two years of college would become 13th and 14th grade. Then the cries of students no longer being fed, and unable to concentrate due to hunger would arise. So there's another two years of breakfast, lunch and dinner for them. (When did schools become restaurants anyhow?) And daycare would be needed for the young mothers with peanut butter thighs. (You know the kind - easy to spread.) Parents' insurance would have to be extended another two years to allow the kids to stay on even longer.
It's the best and fastest way to get more kids into college.
God knows we need tens of thousands of kids with degrees now. it need is already critical, and if the United States is to continue to be an innovator and a world technology contender, degrees and advanced degrees will be the only way we stay at the top of the heap.
Two years of free community college essentially cuts the costs of a 4-year degree in half. Older Americans who need more education to become fully employed, or employed at higher wages, will benefit from this just as much as the kids.
The need for more 2-year community colleges to be built will increase. Those colleges will raise the level of eduction throughout the community afterward, especially in towns that have never had a college. And towns with colleges attract more new businesses than towns without a college.
This is one of the very best investments in America we can make. An educated informed citizenry is a strong citizenry.
Absolutely correct!
If you go out into industry now, at least into process manufacturing (Oil Production, Refining, Power Gen, Transportation, Defense, Pharma, etc...) the NUMBER ONE challenges these businesses are facing to growth is attracting and retaining qualified workforce. The US is already the world leader in inventing innovative technology, but we have to import our labor from countries who can "manufacture" a qualified worker in order to meet our demand. Talk to ANY manager at a major oil company, and ask them what the health of their workforce demographic looks like.
Our recent economic successes have been built on these industries, and the #1 limiting factor is qualified workers.
It's not just "giving someone a free education". It's infrastructure to keep our economy growing.
Rather than trying to dumb down our workforce to justify keeping wages low, we would benefit more as a nation (even/especially the 1%) if we were to invest in their productivity, and pay accordingly. As it stands today, USA has THE MOST PRODUCTIVE workforce in the industrialized world, but we have lost a lot of ground already, and will continue to do so.
The smartest thing we could do is educate our workforce.
*With that said, I would be 100% for "it's only free if you maintain certain standards". And I guess this is where the Republican comes out in me, I also think we should pass the cost along to the consumer. (Of course the consumer is big business in this case, so they should help foot the bill for building the workforce they need, but are currently not getting.)
Not sure how you're going to get all of those professors to work for free.
Ask Germany and many other nations who offer free univeristy education how they do it. Hell, the state of Washington is trying a program offering free university if I'm not mistaken, or it had explored it at one point.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
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Ya'll are also forgetting a big part of the financial equation. Scholarships. If a student is college caliber, colleges will throw money at them. Granted... maybe not Harvard caliber, but if a student matches their skills, GPA, test scores they can qualify for some righteous bucks. The junior colleges do this as well. My son did this by applying to those schools that he was qualified to attend based a lot of what scholarship dollars he could earn. It allowed him to get an education that exceeded his goals at a price that Dad and I could afford. Between the scholarships, the grants, and the loans every kid no matter what his current financial status can already go to school reasonable. It's those who have unrealistic ideas who get themselves in trouble. Higher education should cost something... because those folks who have skin in the game are the ones who eventually will succeed.
Ya'll are also forgetting a big part of the financial equation. Scholarships. If a student is college caliber, colleges will throw money at them. Granted... maybe not Harvard caliber, but if a student matches their skills, GPA, test scores they can qualify for some righteous bucks. The junior colleges do this as well. My son did this by applying to those schools that he was qualified to attend based a lot of what scholarship dollars he could earn. It allowed him to get an education that exceeded his goals at a price that Dad and I could afford. Between the scholarships, the grants, and the loans every kid no matter what his current financial status can already go to school reasonable. It's those who have unrealistic ideas who get themselves in trouble. Higher education should cost something... because those folks who have skin in the game are the ones who eventually will succeed.
In other words, where there's a will there's a way. This idea seems to escape those of the 'Big Brother Should Provide All' school of thought.
Ya'll are also forgetting a big part of the financial equation. Scholarships. If a student is college caliber, colleges will throw money at them. Granted... maybe not Harvard caliber, but if a student matches their skills, GPA, test scores they can qualify for some righteous bucks. The junior colleges do this as well. My son did this by applying to those schools that he was qualified to attend based a lot of what scholarship dollars he could earn. It allowed him to get an education that exceeded his goals at a price that Dad and I could afford. Between the scholarships, the grants, and the loans every kid no matter what his current financial status can already go to school reasonable. It's those who have unrealistic ideas who get themselves in trouble. Higher education should cost something... because those folks who have skin in the game are the ones who eventually will succeed.
who pays for all these scholarships, grants, and other "righteous bucks"?
Just like the ACA solution for healthcare, two free years of community college is far from a good enough solution. Just like most other first world countries have universal healthcare for their citizens, why shouldn't we have full free education for the citizens? I mean let's be serious, if having the schooling is a requirement to get the jobs, then why put up a barrier to keep people from being able to take these jobs? We didn't charge ridiculous student loans so people could go to high school when that used to be the only requirement for a good job.
Fine. You can pay for it.
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has resulted in this:
