Posted on 05/09/2007 6:27:07 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
I’d like to see it stopped althogther, would you agree with that?
Students from all over the world are trained here. Then they go back to their home countries to work.
The debate is how much a gubmint (any gubmint) should dump into educating its population. Some folks believe it’s none of the gubmint’s beeswax, that private industry will take care of it. Others see it as a big deal that keeps America competitive. This is big stuff — a major debate that will determine who gets to lead in the 21st century, if anyone.
Not just that. If we continue to administer the programs as they are, we are not getting any real improvement. Every time the government pumps more into college tuitions, colleges just raise the tuitions and then send their lobbyists to ask for more money so that more kids can attend.
It’s like Charlie Brown running up to kick the daylights out of that football, every time Lucy holds it still.
>>>Some folks believe it’s none of the gubmint’s beeswax, that private industry will take care of it. Others see it as a big deal that keeps America competitive.
The government has a specific obligation to do this much more selectively. The way it works now, Sami Al-Aryan’s jihad classes were properly having their tuition subsidized by Uncle Sugar Daddy. We throw over half of this money after academic disciplines that may have socially redeeming value, but, quite honestly, aren’t going to make us code better or manage more efficiently than Chinese or Indian technicians and business professionals.
If we want to do something along the lines of IGY again, let’s try figuring out what we actually need, let’s not just hand out free money. Let’s also tell these colleges that we are funding to the tuition rate as charged now, and future increases will either come out of their hide, or cause the students to no longer attend. Let’s see how much some of these college administrators who lobby for more aid money *really* care about illuminating young minds.
>>>This is big stuff — a major debate that will determine who gets to lead in the 21st century, if anyone.
Only if the institutions providing this education still have standards. Government subsidized tuitions encourage the colleges to let in anyone with a pulse and a social security card. This dumbs down the educational process and makes the graduates less prepared to keep the US on top of the world.
I’m largely in agreement, but I would say that science and technology is not the end-all-be-all. We also need folks well versed in history, political science, and, yes, even the arts. In short, what we need is a better educated population.
I’m sure there are those that say that it’s none of gubmint’s business how well educated the population is or isn’t, but nothing good can come of an uneducated population that votes for pols the way they choose a soft drink or candy bar.
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