Over regulation! Over litigation! Over taxation!
Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a rally held by the Orange County Republican party at Roger's Gardens on September 8, 2011 in Newport Beach, California.
Posted on 09/11/2011 3:00:07 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
My oldest child, Olivia, will be heading to college in two years. So it’s already become college-saving crunch time in our household. As we’ve been putting money away, I’ve become even more passionate about helping other people find ways to cut college expenses. So I’m intrigued by Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to come up with an affordable college degree program. Perry, who’s running for president, has created quite a buzz for a bold — some say unrealistic — higher-education plan.
“I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelor’s degrees that cost no more than $10,000, including textbooks,” Perry said during his State of the State remarks this year.
And just how does he propose that schools offer degrees at a such a discount?
“Let’s leverage Web-based instruction, innovative teaching techniques and aggressive efficiency measures to reach that goal,” Perry said. “Imagine the potential impact on affordability and graduation rates — and the number of skilled workers it would send into our economy.”
Yes, just imagine.
Imagine the financial stress lifted off so many families if they could send their children to school for $2,500 a year, not including room and board.
.....Aside from an unfair slap to community colleges, I’m more than perturbed that Perry’s idea is being so quickly dismissed by the education establishment. It’s long past time that professionals in higher education — from college presidents to professors — work harder to figure out how to reduce college costs. They can no longer smugly claim that just having a degree is a fast track to high-paying jobs.
And let’s remove the politics from Perry’s challenge. True, he’s now a presidential candidate, and candidates will promise anything, but Perry’s proposal has merit, and it’s something all the candidates should embrace, including President Obama.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Over regulation! Over litigation! Over taxation!
Republican presidential candidate and Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks during a rally held by the Orange County Republican party at Roger's Gardens on September 8, 2011 in Newport Beach, California.
Will Rick Perry Unravel the Strange Consensus on Public Education?
Leftists would rather students (and their parents) run up huge student loan balances that take years to pay back to the government (that government can forgive if you go where they want and do what they want) while they indoctrinate them.
Big UNION education and LIBERAL academic think-tanks are after Gov. Perry’s hide (as are the trial lawyers).
Perry’s not my candidate, but I give him credit for looking at this.
And I expect a lot of voters will too, as well as his longstanding positions against over regulation and litgation with, among others, the EPA and trial lawyers.
Rick Perry’s Air War (with the EPA)...........>>>Texas alone opted for the unfriendly approach. It’s the only state that did not issue a plan for compliance—and Perry has made it clear that Texas has no intention of complying. The move was a blatant slap to the Obama administration—and once again gave Perry the national spotlight. Defying the climate rules offered him the perfect opportunity to loudly decry the science of global warming—which in his book Fed Up! he calls a “contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight”—and to slam EPA as a “rogue agency” with an “activist mind-set” that has “targeted Texas.” Such rhetoric is viral catnip to the tea party voters who could help catapult Perry to the 2012 presidential nomination.<<<..............
Trial lawyers prep for war on Perry America’s trial lawyers are getting ready to make the case against one of their biggest targets in years: Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Among litigators, there is no presidential candidate who inspires the same level of hatred – and fear – as Perry, an avowed opponent of the plaintiffs’ bar who has presided over several rounds of tort reform as governor.
And if Perry ends up as the Republican nominee for president, deep-pocketed trial lawyers intend to play a central role in the campaign to defeat him.
That’s a potential financial boon to a president who has unsettled trial lawyers with his own rhetorical gestures in the direction of tort reform. A general election pitting Barack Obama and Perry could turn otherwise apathetic trial lawyers into a phalanx of pro-Obama bundlers and super PAC donors. …..”
Today, tuition is about $30,000-$40,000 per year. Starting salaries aren't that much higher than a single year's tuition
Either education is over-priced today, or companies are not paying enough... :0)
Funny how we’ve had a technology revolution since 1980 that should have both lowered the cost and improved the quality of education but neither happened.
Why of course. Just think how much money taxpayers would save if he limited the government subsidy of tuition to illegal immigrants to those who studied for this bargain degree?
I would tell any kid today to spend two years at the local community college and stay at home while he does it. When the kid finishes that...then I’d pay for the last two years...within our state. I just plain wouldn’t accept out-of-state costs.
In a day of Internet Info, there is no reason a BA should cost even this much!
If he wants to encourage it, fine, but if the end result is another government program, subsidy, entitlement, or control, he can take the idea and shove it. Look forward to hearing more.
Community college here cost us +/- $1,000 a semester for tuition, fees, and books. Multiply that by four years, and you’ve got $8,000. There’s no reason a 4-year degree in most subjects couldn’t be done with the same economy.
Admittedly, the community college is county and state supported, as well as tuition-supported, but after all these years of paying school taxes, we got some of it back by finally using a government school!
And we need to have less focus on - “only degreed and credentialed people can succeed” — and clean up just who decides who knows enough (and what) to teach.
One of my favorite lines from all time was in that movie Goodwill Hunting IIRC. He tells the smart ass from Harvard that someday he will wake up and realize he spent $250,000 for an educaiton he could have gotten at the Public Library for the cost of a Library card...Priceless!
Frank Zappa once said, "If you wanna (euphemism for premarital sex), go to college. If you want an education, go to the library."
Exactly!
Faculties at institutions of higher education are predominantly activist liberals who never held a job outside of academia. They go straight up through the “ranks” to tenure (speed can depend you how “correct” your thinking is).
These activists have an enormous impact on policy and regulations from what they pump out with their “research.”
For too long, students have not been required or encouraged to read.
But they do have sex ed.
“And we need to have less focus on - “only degreed and credentialed people can succeed” — and clean up just who decides who knows enough (and what) to teach.”
Maybe we should move to testing to see what people know. Learning is one thing; degrees are another. Two people can graduate with the same degree from the same school... one knows much and the other was good at cramming for exams. They look the same on paper.
Employers should be able to give tests to candidates without worrying about discrimination suits over the test results. If you are a self-taught learner and have the knowledge, it won’t matter if you have a degree or not. Knowledge is the thing desired.
Correct.
Exactly what our twin girls will be doing.
In fact, they'll already have a few college credits under their belt before they finish their Senior year.... thanks to our local high school's 'dual credit' program.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.