Posted on 05/07/2009 6:43:33 AM PDT by freespirited
Fifty-six percent (56%) of American adults say that every American should receive further education after high school by attending either a college or vocational school. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 30% disagree and 13% are not sure.
Fifty-four percent (54%) believe that it’s already possible for just about any good student to find a way to attend college, while 31% disagree. Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans hold this view along with 47% of Democrats and 52% of those not affiliated with either major party. While upper income Americans are more confident in the ability of any good student to attend college, a plurality of those earning less than $20,000 a year share that view as well.
Forty-one percent (41%) believe it is more important for the government to provide assistance for low-income students than to help the best and the brightest. However, 30% hold the opposite view and 29% are not sure.
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Most of those who earn less than $60,000 a year say the government should focus most on low-income students. Most of those who earn more than $75,000 a year say the government should help the best and the brightest.
There is a partisan difference as well. By a 3-to-1 margin, Democrats say it’s more important for the government to aid low-income students. A narrow plurality of Republicans hold the opposite view while unaffiliateds are evenly divided.
Providing every child with a college education is one of four major priorities outlined by President Obama in a joint address to Congress earlier this year. Of the four priorities, deficit reduction is considered most important and health care number two. Health care is considered the top priority by Democrats.
That's no more of an insult than to say not everyone has the ability to play professional sports.
Actually I think you have understated the case. In terms of a four-year college degree, I would say that a majority of the population is not true college material.
"Would you support Federal government subsidies for higher education expenses for others if it would mean raising your family's taxes to pay for it?"
Let's see that poll.
My answer would be definitely “no” if high schools did the sort of job they used to do. Today, I do think most people could use some sort of post-high school education—vocational education, if the young person is not suited for college. Very few jobs can be done competently when the worker is only supplied with the current miserable level of instruction at public high schools. It’s appalling how ignorant modern high school kids are compared to the graduates of the past.
If the gubment gets into college education it will completely devalue it making it the equivalent of a current high school diploma. Good news is, it will raise the value of Master’s and other post graduate degrees and will likely spawn a whole new type of institution outside of government run “colleges”.
agreed! I hope that conservatives will stop sending their kids to college(unless their career choice specifically requires a degree ie doctor, priest, teacher, lawyer etc) and instead EDUCATE them. Then, take the money you would have spent on college and use it as seed money to start their own business in their chosen area of study. Starve the beast!
If conservatives would do this, a college degree will become a detriment to getting a job instead of a requirement since only idiots would have them. Teach them to start their own businesses with the education they receieved on their own and they will never need an interview, much less a degree.
It may take a generation or so, but the reward being well educated small business owners doing what America does best would be great.
It is. The "poor" already get government (tax payer) grants. Heck, they even get an extra thousand or so a semester for travel expenses.
A students get scholarships.
BUT....when the democrats decided they wanted to take over health care, the polls said 85% of Americans were happy with their health care package. That was before the fascist left sent out their trial lawyers to destroy the system we had. Now, no one can afford it.
I expect layers will be descending on the colleges soon, so no one can afford to go. That way, the left can come in as the saviors and "fix it" for us.
Why should folks go to college and graduate anymore when there won’t be jobs here to accommodate them because Obummer the job killer is on the loose. In fact I think there is more value in home schooling, charter schools, private schools then there is currently in the public school and university system which have become luaghingstocks because of their liberal propaganda indoctrination and brainwashing our all naive young people.
“Every”???
Yeah. The retarded kid who cleans the hallway in my building really ought to spend four years sitting in a college classroom or two years in a “floor polishing” school.
Idiots.
You could also send your kids to a private university (preferrably one that has a religious affiliation). There are a number of excellent small private universities in this country and they provide a solid education.
The reasons you list are just a few of why my kids are in private Christian schools...
Not any more than high school. Both will be government controlled and run for the lowest common denominator.
Anyhow, neither will be for education any more. They will exist primarily for indoctrination and rewarding their political friends. "Excellence" need not apply.
They need to fix our PUBLIC high schools FIRST.
Colleges these days are NOTHING more than Leftist indoctrination camps.
“...if any of you students tries to argue with me that there is a god, you will fail this class...”
My middle son is going next year. His profession will need to have a degree ( he is going into the priesthood) My oldest is a personal trainer. He got certified and has ongoing education. My youngest is thinking about military service to obtain his degree in computer programming, but is not sure yet (15).
College is the new caste system. Too often there are jobs out there that people are qualified that need a college degree.
I am a CPA. Half of the classes I took are not relevant to my work although I would admit they have helped me. I can take someone off the street and train them to do tax returns in 3 months and have them handling stuff a recent graduate/CPA could not handle fresh from graduation.
We have created a system that is similar to a caste system where the requirements of time and money are not necessarily relevant to the end product.
Before we require more people to enter into this uneconomical system, we seriously need to focus on what the outcomes need to be and direct the education process toward those outcomes.
Perhaps a 1 year program of intense technical training, get someone working, then supplement with additional courses that would provide the more general background that is needed as someone advances in their field.
I don’t think the government should be anywhere near education. Everything it touches either gets extremely expensive due to price distortion or completely perverted from its original intent, or both.
I agree. With allowances for technological changes, that would put them on par with a competent eighth-grader in the 50s.
We want to pay our fair share in taxes, we want more government assistance in our lives.
The election of O’Bummer coupled with the make up of the house and senate make it fair to assume that most Americans are either ignorant, stupid or both
This is the danger when a Republic morphs into a Democracy. Mob Rule!
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