Obama - 'Free' Community College for EVERYONE!

Of course, Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Foghorn Leghorn Strayhorn proposed the same thing in Texas.
 
My father taking advantage of the GI bill was my family's ticket to the Middle Class. He didn't have to apply for military service, he got drafted.
 
I thought he said THREE years of community college for free. Aren't community colleges all two year junior colleges? So go for three years for free, leave with 90+ hours of free credits, only 30-40 of which may transfer?

Smoke and mirrors (what coming out of Washington hasn't been for last 55 years) or what am I missing?
 
Obama is just grand standing. He knows the Republican Congress won't allocate any money for his latest give away. I suppose he is just doing it to make the Repubs look bad.

He knows the Congress is going to send him a bunch of bills that he won't sign, so he is proposing a lot of stuff they won't fund.

It gives him something to do other than worrying about the officiating in the Lions/Cowboys game.
 
Huisache, nice try but no one's buying.

If Obama was the Governor of Texas, Lord help us, your daily show sarcasm might be worth something.
 
Here's the bottom line imho, Obama is trying to get rid of the system of winners and losers in our economy. Noble? Yes, especially for hardworking kids from traditionally marginalized groups.

But here's the problem. There are plently of vehicles available to the truly ambitious marginalized kids. They don't need me to pay for their 2-year 2.5 GPA associates degree. They have better scholarships, work/study, financial aid, GI Bill opportunities. What this plan would do, lilke a lot of his plans, is dilute the virtues of personal and generational responsibility, enterprise, and accountability. You want to be a college man? Then act like a man...study hard, live in moderation, and bust your a&$. If you do that, there will be a good respectable school that will want you.

Moving up in class shouldn't be an entitlement...that's why I still think "class" in the old fashioned sense still means something. It takes sacrifice. The GI Bill which catapulted working class boys into men of the middle and upper class in the 1950s required a hell of a lot of sacrifice...and those men and the values they passed on to their kids are better for it. For a middle class kid trying to break into the middle-upper/upper class, grad school/mba are often steps to acquire the assets wealth is based on. That requires taking risk/managing risk, making long-term mature choices instead of short-term satisfactions, and the discipline to pay off your student loans.

Class is also generational. Parents sacrifice for their children so they have a better life...meaning if you're young and think the world and the "1%" owes you something, think again. You better put your nose to the grindstone because your future children are depending on you. Real class, by every economic, social, and moral meaning, is not about entitlement.
 
2000: you describe the path I took fifty years ago to get through 11 years of undergrad, grad school and law school. It worked just fine when tuition at UT was $81 a semester. I sit on two committees that pass out scholarships for local colleges and the geography is a little different. There are a lot of funds available but that does not mean everybody gets them. The fact that a lot of the jobs we used to do are now going to people from foreign lands (almost all the jobs I did, in fact), when added to the extraordinary fees makes it real hard to get through even a cc.
Take a look at the parking lots around UT these days. Not a lot of poor folks there anymore.

I've done some teaching at the local CC over the years in night classes and a lot of the kids are underprepared and a lot are real sharp and a lot have to work way too many hours to be carrying the loads they take.

We need to give people every chance we can to make them more useful because otherwise everything is going to get out sourced to India and China.

...........and quit bringing in millions of low wage people from Mexico to do the jobs I used to do and depressing the wage scale. No help there from the Pied Piper President. He is an open borders guy.
 
I do believe that we have SOME accessibility issues in higher education but community colleges don't really have that problem. If you are working and want to take 6 hours at a time at ACC it is $510 a semester after all fees. Even if you have to take out loans, you would get out of the entire 60 hour program for $3,060. I was paying almost that a semester while working on my masters. There are barriers to entry such as having two work two low paying jobs to make ends meet but this doesn't help with that situation.
 
A major lesson of getting an education is learning how to pay for the education. I am always more impressed with a new grad that paid for their education versus someone who did not - regardless of where they attended school.

Some of the best employees I ever had came from working farms or military backgrounds through smaller state schools like SFA, Sam Houston and Southwest Texas State (or whatever they call it now).
 
Obama's proposal would make CC like a 13th & 14th grade. Why would two new grades be any more effective than the previous 12?

Much of what is taught in CC now is non-credit math and English to try to give people the skills they didn't learn in grades 1-12, so they can continue on in college.

I agree with what other posters have said; once you are paying for your education, your attitude changes and you sit up and pay attention.
 
Ex 2, your last paragraph is best I've read in quite awhile. Many times I have expressed that sentiment to my kids albeit less eloquently.
 
Of course, I admit I'm writing a little dramatically. There are a lot of brilliant motivated kids of all social classes coming out of high school. Some of them need that little bit of help to get them on their way.

I have no problem with a focused federal grant program to trade schools. I happen to think those institutions are more successful in delivering employable and lucrative skills.

But 2 years of CC on the taxpayers' dime for anyone that wants it...not enough accountability there imho.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top