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Is “free” community college just another out of touch elitist scheme? [Obamacare for college]
Hotair ^ | 01/13/2015 | Bruce McQuain

Posted on 01/13/2015 7:57:46 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The short answer is “yes”. Megan McArdle makes the point :

Higher education is becoming the ginseng of the policy world: a sort of all-purpose snake oil for solving any problem you’d care to name, as long as we consume enough of it. Education is a very good thing, but it is not the only good thing. An indiscriminate focus on pushing more people into the system is no cure for society’s ills–and indeed, often functions as a substitute for helping the people who are struggling in the current system.

In fact (beside the fact we can’t afford “ObamaCare for colleges”):

What if people in the policy elite stopped assuming that the ideal was to make everyone more like them, and started thinking about making society more hospitable to those who aren’t? My grandfather graduated into a world where a man with a high-school diploma could reasonably hope to own his own business, or become someone else’s highly valued employee, a successful pillar of a supportive community. His grandchildren graduated into a world where a college diploma was almost the bare necessity to get any kind of a decent job. Why aren’t we at least asking ourselves if there’s something we can do to create more opportunity for people without diplomas, instead of asking how many more years we can keep everyone in school? Why do all of our proposed solutions essentially ratify the structure that excludes so many people, instead of questioning it?

Indeed. For too long our policies have been driven by an elite. And for the most part, the elite have made an awful mess of things. Now they want to take on “community colleges”.

Anyone? How long before they start looking at 4 year colleges?

McArdle suggests the following probable effects of any program like Obama has proposed:

1. Offer a subsidy to middle-class kids who don’t really need the money?

2. Encourage middle-class families to transfer their kids to community college for the first two years of school, and thus help to moderate college costs?

3. Encourage financially constrained students who might not have gone to college to enter the system en route to a degree?

4. Encourage marginal students with a low chance of completing a career-enhancing degree to attend school, mostly wasting government money and their own time?

As she points out 2 and 3 are actually not bad policy goals in and of themselves. However, the much more likely effect will be 1 and 4. Another government sponsored and taxpayer funded boondoggle that will essentially give community colleges a subsidy (it’ll be all about headcount – no one will really care if the student’s succeed) and create bureaucratic jobs while doing little or nothing in terms of “education advancement”.

Oh, yeah, did I mention we can’t afford it?

I thought I did.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: college; communitycollege; tuition

1 posted on 01/13/2015 7:57:46 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind


2 posted on 01/13/2015 8:10:36 PM PST by Iron Munro ("Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms - Open Up!" "Must be another UPS delivery, honey.")
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To: SeekAndFind

BE CAREFUL! Some universities will not accept credits from a community college, even though the same UNIVERSITY teachers may moonlight at the Community college. GET IT IN WRITING that they will.


3 posted on 01/13/2015 8:17:24 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Students must attend a regionally accredited Community College to have their classes accepted at a University.


4 posted on 01/13/2015 8:34:16 PM PST by Kackikat
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Which only proves it is about the money and not learning. Too much social engineering in college through General Ed classes. If everybody should know something it should be taught in K-12.


5 posted on 01/13/2015 8:58:40 PM PST by greatvikingone
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To: Kackikat

All certified by the government-—Hmmmmm.

GK Chesterton stated a hundred years ago that mandatory public education was to destroy the Common Sense of the Common people.

It is true-—the artificial Prussian system keeps people out of the real world and teaches usually worthless stuff and creates conformity to Marxist, godless ideology-—and destroys Individuality and the “thinking outside the box” which made America great. Individuality is mainly learned in dealings in the Natural Family (Reality/Natural Environment for children) with siblings and family members—never in groups which put the same ages together—that is for indoctrination.

Lincoln hardly ever set foot in “school”, and if he did, it was with all ages, nor did Mark Twain. Learning is not filling a vessel-—it is kindling a fire and the public schools usually destroy that Natural desire to learn-—which only comes from inside a person.

Look at the people like Gates-—they never wasted time being brainwashed into immorality and thinking like a Marxist-—although he is certainly corrupted by his wealth and power.

Ben Franklin learned his trade by actually making money and working for people as a young man. By the time he was 21 he had so much life experience that he became very successful (with no debt when he was starting off).

The reason they want children to remain dependent and children throughout their 20s is to prevent “breeding” and families from forming. The Malthusians want to control population and kill of 6 billion people, so they don’t want kids breeding early-—they will have more than two children.

The Progressive German worldview (pharmaceutical groups) from Wundt and Fichte is to destroy Free Will in children and make them so irrational they believe Snow is Black.

It is to destroy Common Sense and the ability to understand the Laws of Nature and our Constitution which is embedded with Individual Natural Rights. Collectives can’t function if individuals have “Natural Rights from God”.

John Taylor Gatto wrote about the infantilization of people, by putting them in large “group think” institutions-—to force conformity and destroy Virtues through humiliation and curricula which teaches Lies/half truths. Children have plastic minds and never should be in a “system” until after age 8 at the earliest. Only tutors or parents should teach children and they should be read to and educated by the time they are born-—and shown how the world works so they don’t fall for the irrational, artificial, evil ideology of Marxism.

You should NOT allow TV to form their Reality-—0r have them interact with machines for long periods since controlling REAL emotions is essential for the young—and it takes lots of interaction and play with other human beings-—not with machines where their minds are stunted because of lack of other sense feedback.

The Leftists like the Socialist John Dewey took out Classical Education and Rhetoric (the Trivium) and forced young children into the system away from parents—they destroyed the ability for there to be a future Jefferson, Lincoln or an Adam Smith.


6 posted on 01/13/2015 9:11:10 PM PST by savagesusie (Right Reason According to Nature = Just Law)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

this is a leftist plot to ruin community college by making them a extended high school. it will make it so that instead did you graduate from high school as a minimum requirement for an entry level job it will be did you get your AA. and this will be for unskilled jobs that don’t pay very much. and jobs that use to require a bachelor degree will start asking for a masters this wont happen immediately but will creep into being in the next 10 years if it is done


7 posted on 01/14/2015 12:17:27 AM PST by PCPOET7 (onated)
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To: SeekAndFind

A massive bailout of insolvent higher Ed Pensions + the usual Rat money laundering of tax dollars through public unions.


8 posted on 01/14/2015 1:46:19 AM PST by 4Liberty (Prejudice and generalizations. That's how Collectivists roll......)
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To: SeekAndFind
Free Community College for the commoners, and of course, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. for the elite ruling class!

Government subsidized community college would probably spell the end for a lot of 2nd and third tier universities in the US. But I think that is the point - the new groupthink will come exclusively from a very small handful of Ivy League universities by government decree...
9 posted on 01/14/2015 11:24:21 AM PST by indthkr
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

The issue isn’t the qualifications of the professors. It is the capabilities of the fellow students—and thus the rigor and standards of the courses.


10 posted on 01/14/2015 11:27:50 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: savagesusie

Thank you for reading and commenting.


11 posted on 01/14/2015 11:46:27 AM PST by Kackikat
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