It’s as though after losing an election, the first thing Democrats ask themselves is, “What else can we give the rubes for free?” Hence, Obama’s push for two “free” years of Community College, which was, of course, welcomed by the social parasites that make up the Democrat base. *
The idea is that Democrats propose that the Government should provide for free something people are eminently capable of purchasing on their own. And then, when Republicans say, “it will drive up the deficit and force people who don’t use a service to pay for those who do.” And then the Democrats can accuse Republicans of being heartless, greedy (ironically), and against both the thing being subsidized and the people who use it. With birth control, they accused Republicans of wanting to “deny women access to birth control” and being against women. Now, I guess, the gambit will be to accuse Republicans of wanting to “deny working class people access to education” and being against the working class.
Not to mention that if two years of Community College are “free,” it is suddenly going to become a lot more expensive; like everything else the Government subsidizes. If people have to pay for their own education, there is market pressure to hold down costs. But if Uncle Sugar is paying the tab, who cares what the bill is, aside from ‘Whackobirds’ who are troubled by our Eighteen Trillion Dollars of National Debt and Trillions More in Unfunded Liabilities?
I actually am a huge supporter of the community college system as an alternative to the overpriced and increasingly useless university system, which have become more like Social Justice Amusement Parks than institutions of meaningful learning. But I am not a big fan of community college being “the high school after high school” for teaching basic math, English, and other skills people (somehow) come out of high school lacking. But wouldn’t it be a lot more cost effective to reform high school to offer more meaningful educations; more intense academic training for the college-bound, more support for trade school for the less academic inclined. Of course, such reforms would require either free market alternatives to Government schools, or require unionized teachers to work harder. Neither of these things are going to happen as long as the Democrats and the JV Democrats (Republicans) are running the show.
And the real ironic part about this is that to Obama and his ilk, a community college degree is something they sneer at. But I guess they figure it’s good enough for the peasant class.
* [And no, I don’t care that a Republican governor apparently came up with the idea. 1. It’s OK for the states to experiment with these things. 2. A Republican governor created the model for Obamacare, and that’s been a catastrophe; whenever Republicans go progressive, disaster follows.]
Free crappy community colleges will result in the creation of magnet community colleges for students who can, say, read and write above the fourth grade level.
Do we have a shortage of unemployed hair dressers, sloppy mechanics, useless computer keyboard punchers, managers who can’t manage themselves, etc.?
Here is a definition of “potential”: Ain’t done sh*t.
Free community college would be for all those potential-constipated people who just sit on the pot. They aren’t actually students in any meaningful sense of the word; they are just attendees who may not even do attendance with any regularity.
Just think how different things would have been for Gentle Giant Michael Brown or Eric Loosey Gardner if there had been a free community college for them to discover how to unlock their potential and set them on the path of self-reliance.
My father attended the City College of New York at a time when it was free to NYC residents. He chose to do so primarily due to cost, even though Princeton had offered him a scholarship. He received an excellent education in Engineering.
A big difference between CCNY in 1950 and CCNY in 2015 (or even 1985) is that at that time, a potential student:
a) Needed to perform sufficiently well in High School to get in
b) Could fail, which many did
c) Would be thrown out for failing, which happened frequently
None of these hold true today, and so the “Free tuition” model is no longer viable.
In Maine, the realigned the state community college curriculum to match the state university system. A two year degree at a community college transfers 100% to the university system.
One of the issues Maine has is the taxpayer funded secondary education system provides a degree at a reasonable price to Maine residents who then move out of state with their new education.
When I lived in Holllywood, I took classes in cinema at LACC. I still have a couple to complete. Politics was my priority number one I paid my own way. It wasn’t expensive. I didn’t want to go through the red tape of the GI Bill. An academic education is nice to have but rarely opens the doors like science and math. Student loan debt is at an all time a high and are a large chunk of the deficit. Something should be done to make trade schools as an alternative to future paying jobs.
Oh great. More useless Communications, English and Psych’ majors with dubious educations and no salable job-skills on the Guv’ment-Dime. (re: the taxpayers’ backs)
Most community colleges lack the resources or the teachers to promote STEM, most only offer “soft” associate-degrees with the few-odd technical-school programs thrown-in that migrated there from the old underfunded County Vo-Tech systems they preceeded.
Plus the sneaky Bureau of Labor Statistics trick that “full-time students” don’t get counted as “unemployed” in the Government’s monthly labor reports nor the Fed’s Blue-Book. “…Look, unemployment is down.”
“Squirrel…”
Come on folks. This free education is nothing more than expanding and maintaining beholding unemployed voters to keep the dims(elitists, Marxists, progressives, and socialists) in power while dumbing down their serfs.
There really shouldn’t be any remedial classes in colleges, much less remedial biology for blacks in Harvard med. If the govt pushes this the 2 years will be full of social justice filler & remedial courses. BTW there are free gay studies lesions down by the railroad tracks.
Every attempt at accountability and merit in EDU is pushed away in the name of equality. The newest teachers altering answers on standardized tests scandal in is Philly.
https://educationrealist.wordpress.com/
And like everything else the government gives us for free, the cost will skyrocket.
I also think that the “free community college” could also provide another way to keep tabs on people. I mean, you would have to limit access to just two years, otherwise, people could just spend two years here, two years there, two years here. There’d have to be done way to track and limit it, once they’re in the system. So, it’d have to be coordinated among all the gazillions of community college. Which would mean they’d h have to view more people to keep track of it.
This works be such a huge, huge, huge mess.
Community college is already inexpensive enough that people who really want to get started in college can go there. Alas, we already have too many people going to college when it’s not right for them. What we REALLY need is a better Vo-Tech system. If O was pushing for two free years of Vo-Tech, I’d be all for it – as long as it’s available to everyone. I’d go nights myself and get my HVAC certification. That would be a nice retirement job.
Disclosure: STEM professor at a community college.
“There really shouldn’t be any remedial classes in college…”
I spent most of the day enrolling new students. Almost every one of them needed remedial math and English. Makes you wonder just what they do in high school these days.
Disclosure: STEM prof at a community college
I’m just going to get to my point: Free community college is going to kill the value of a community college diplomas. The community college diploma will become the equivalent of the High School diploma. The whole point is to suck more people into 4 or more years of college toward a bachelors, masters, and doctorates degrees; which to Leftists in academia are opportunities for indoctrination.
We already have “free” community college in WA. We have a program called “Running Start” where high school students can go to CC their junior and senior years.
I think that what the president is saying here is that an Associates Degree from a CC is worth ……..nothing.
I do not believe that is true…but it is what he thinks…