Obama's Free college, who is paying for this??

[Star_Cards]

I haven't read much about this program so I don't have set opinion as of yet. I will say that HABs brings up a great point... If the government covers k-12 education is it that bad to offer two more years of college level education? To me it would really depend on the cost. I don't mind our government offering programs like this, but waste of finances is pretty typical with some government programs at times. If I'm weighing things, education programs like this would be way up on my list of good things to offer over a lot of the other wasteful programs.

I'm not seeing the argument of devaluing a degree just by having more people earning one potentially. I guess it would increase the amount of qualified job searchers but I don;t see that as a bad thing. The more people we can educate the better off we will be.

It sounds like there will be grade levels that need to be met to get into the program and stay in. That's definitely a good idea. No point in allowing people who are not putting in the work to partake.

To the comment about liberals not saying Obama in a socialist... We've been a country with many socialist programs for decades. I'm not sure why people try to use the term as such a scare word.

[deansayso]

I haven't read much about this program so I don't have set opinion as of yet. I will say that HABs brings up a great point... If the government covers k-12 education is it that bad to offer two more years of college level education? To me it would really depend on the cost. I don't mind our government offering programs like this, but waste of finances is pretty typical with some government programs at times. If I'm weighing things, education programs like this would be way up on my list of good things to offer over a lot of the other wasteful programs.

I'm not seeing the argument of devaluing a degree just by having more people earning one potentially. I guess it would increase the amount of qualified job searchers but I don;t see that as a bad thing. The more people we can educate the better off we will be.

It sounds like there will be grade levels that need to be met to get into the program and stay in. That's definitely a good idea. No point in allowing people who are not putting in the work to partake.

To the comment about liberals not saying Obama in a socialist... We've been a country with many socialist programs for decades. I'm not sure why people try to use the term as such a scare word.

I see it as devaluing it because when it comes down to a high school graduate and a community college graduate who are exactly the same the employer will probably go with the CC grade. They took the time and took the risk of paying off student loans to go to the next level. If everyone is able to get an associates degree then it is no different from just graduating from high school.

You have to have drive to go to college and I can only see this as an everyone tries but doesn't put in the time and fails and wastes time and money of the colleges.

Don't get me wrong there are some brilliant high school graduates who have great jobs but I just don't see any reason for this.

[Star_Cards]

I see it as devaluing it because when it comes down to a high school graduate and a community college graduate who are exactly the same the employer will probably go with the CC grade. They took the time and took the risk of paying off student loans to go to the next level. If everyone is able to get an associates degree then it is no different from just graduating from high school.

You have to have drive to go to college and I can only see this as an everyone tries but doesn't put in the time and fails and wastes time and money of the colleges.

Don't get me wrong there are some brilliant high school graduates who have great jobs but I just don't see any reason for this.

I guess I don't see how you're valuing the education of a CC and a high school as the same. Even at 2 years they'd have more education than when they graduated HS or someone who didn't go to the CC program... in theory. In this program the difference between a HS and CC education would be two years of what I assume would be specific education within a specific field.

I would hope that the program isn't going to continue to pay for someone who isn't passing their classes with a certain GPA. I would think that would be a benchmark that needs to be hit to continue.

[deansayso]

I guess I don't see how you're valuing the education of a CC and a high school as the same. Even at 2 years they'd have more education than when they graduated HS or someone who didn't go to the CC program... in theory. In this program the difference between a HS and CC education would be two years of what I assume would be specific education within a specific field.

I would hope that the program isn't going to continue to pay for someone who isn't passing their classes with a certain GPA. I would think that would be a benchmark that needs to be hit to continue.

Because it would just be high school on steroids. It'll just be another thing people have to go through.

Community Colleges are great for learning skills. Why not just force the students to take an extra year of high school and have an introduction to skills courses that they can try for a couple of weeks to see what they like. If they like something specific they can take on community college then.

If this does end up happening then yes they need certain benchmarks but make them higher than C+.

[beachbum]

To the comment about liberals not saying Obama in a socialist... We've been a country with many socialist programs for decades. I'm not sure why people try to use the term as such a scare word.

Sounds like you are finally seeing the trend. Why is Socialist a 4 letter word? What is wrong with calling a spade a spade??

[Star_Cards]

Because it would just be high school on steroids. It'll just be another thing people have to go through.

Community Colleges are great for learning skills. Why not just force the students to take an extra year of high school and have an introduction to skills courses that they can try for a couple of weeks to see what they like. If they like something specific they can take on community college then.

If this does end up happening then yes they need certain benchmarks but make them higher than C+.

Ah, so your issue is that you don't see CC at a higher level than HS. I've never gone to CC so I can't really speak to the level of education it provides. I was assuming it would be.

[timber09]

It doesn't really matter does it - this isn't going anywhere and won't make it through congress.

The plan calls for $60 billion in funding over the next ten years - sounds like a lot but then you can go out and look at what we are spending to develop the F35 to put it in perspective. I have no idea where the numbers come in currently on that sucker but it's a heck of a lot of money on a plane we don't use.

If consevatives are so feverishly in favor of advancement based upon work eithic and individual effort then getting more people into the game shouldn't be a huge issue. The good students will rise to the top and those that can't hack it won't. Very similar to the process today.

[sanfran22]

Because it would just be high school on steroids. It'll just be another thing people have to go through.

Community Colleges are great for learning skills. Why not just force the students to take an extra year of high school and have an introduction to skills courses that they can try for a couple of weeks to see what they like. If they like something specific they can take on community college then.

If this does end up happening then yes they need certain benchmarks but make them higher than C+.

That was my thinking, what does an associates get you? I'd think it would be better to allow adults to go to trade schools for 2 years.
Fed Gov't shouldn't be involved in education to the level that they are in the first place. It's one of the huge reason we have terrible education and why it costs so much.

[Star_Cards]

Sounds like you are finally seeing the trend. Why is Socialist a 4 letter word? What is wrong with calling a spade a spade??

I don't see it as a four letter word. Since Obama took office a lot of people have tried to use it as such... as a slight on Obama or liberals... trying to drum up fear in a lot of cases. When the fact is most politicians have backed and promoted socialist programs even republicans. For some reason some people are scared of the word socialist like it links them to some sort of evil axis from the past. Our day to day way of life is benefited greatly by socialist programs.

[Star_Cards]

That was my thinking, what does an associates get you? I'd think it would be better to allow adults to go to trade schools for 2 years.

I could see trade schools being part of the program as well. I see no need to lock it down to just colleges.