Free Republic

I gather from Obama's "free" community college proposal that his plan for dealing with the Republican Congress over the next two years is to throw out ridiculously expensive ideas no one has ever heard of before, and then denounce Republicans for being naysayers. Community college is already incredibly inexpensive. The only thing that will jack up the price is making it "free." How about a big federal program to provide every American with free toilet paper? Coincidentally, that's about all most college degrees are good for these days. Obama's moronic proposal has presented the GOP with a fantastic opportunity. Since...

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...

The logic behind the “free” community-college program President Obama announced last week is understandable. A high-school education once put many well-paying jobs within reach of Americans. Today, post-high-school work is increasingly necessary. So President Obama has proposed that two years of community college be free for students in most programs, accompanied by more oversight and accountability from Washington. The problems begin where they did with efforts to improve elementary and secondary education from Washington: Why is a locally provided good the concern of the federal government? And since when was America’s K–12 educational system, let alone the federal government’s attempts...

Two stars from the Seattle Seahawks took time away from the field to cut an ad shilling for Obamacare. The ad, posted Friday, features Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and rhetorically explosive cornerback Richard Sherman touting the benefits of President Obama’s healthcare law and its web portal Healthcare.gov.

It’s one thing for conservative pundits to question the Obama Administration’s latest higher education subsidy. It’s quite another for a writer in The Atlantic to start asking inconvenient questions. “President Obama wants to provide free tuition at community colleges, a proposal that could benefit as many as 9 million students, according to a White House outline of the plan released Thursday,” Fawn Johnson wrote on the Atlantic blog. “But there's one big caveat in the proposal: There isn't plan to fund it, other than to ask Congress for the money.” “Without that crucial piece of the program, which would be...

As someone who has spent over 15 years teaching at community colleges, I cannot think of a worse idea than President Obama’s proposal for the federal government to provide “free” community college tuition nationwide. Here’s why: Nothing in life is “free”: The lesson we should be teaching our students is that nothing of value is free. “Free community college” for students translates into “a tax increase for somebody else.” Who is going to pay for the billions of dollars it will cost to provide “free” tuition at community colleges, which are heavily subsidized by taxpayers already? College should be affordable,...

When it comes to student debt, it's not fair to blame students for being in over their heads. In the first of its reports (April 2014), the BCEP concluded that not only is the price tag for governmental student loan relief programs much higher than originally thought, but their existence presents an irresistible temptation for students to “engage in more risky behavior because they don’t have to bear the full cost of their actions.” As such, the center urges policymakers to eliminate the forgiveness portions of the various relief programs to “reduce the potential for over-borrowing by requiring borrowers to...

The odds are stacked against low-income Americans seeking the education they need to move up. Chelsey Stone had already escaped so many of the traps that keep poor children in poverty for life. She recalls begging neighbors for dinner when her mother sold their food stamps for drug money. She slept on the trampoline outside when the heroin showed up and her mom locked the door and the binges began. When she rebelled as a teenager, it was with poster board: She plastered her house with bright signs warning, “Do Not Throw Needles Away Here.” Her teachers saw that spark....

As head of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano followed the U.S. government’s official practice of refusing to negotiate with hostage-takers. As head of the University of California system, she has become the hostage-taker. Napolitano is demanding that the cash-strapped state of California pony up an additional $100 million for the UC system, and she threatens to inflict a 5 percent tuition hike on students for each of the next five years in retaliation if Sacramento does not comply. This puts her on the wrong side of Governor Jerry Brown, who by being eternally fixed in anno Domini 1978...

Two months before 17-year-old Alexa of northern New Jersey—a national merit scholar, Girl Scout Gold Award recipient and standout soccer player—planned to submit her application to Amherst, anxiety set in. Even though she met all the requirements to land her on the college's competitive playing field, she wanted an independent education counselor (IEC) to give the final nod on her application. It didn't matter that her parents, guidance counselor, coach and teachers invested more than 100 hours steering her through the college process. Her parents contacted a pricey New York City college-planning service and, after relating Alexa's long list of...

Nearly every high school senior applied for Tennessee Promise, but a small percentage of them may not be eligible for free community college tuition. Before getting the state funding, students must apply for federal financial aid — which leaves undocumented students behind. Tennessee has about 6,000 high school students who are undocumented, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The governor’s speech introducing Tennessee Promise may have encouraged that hope: “To every student, from every kindergartner to every high school senior, we will promise that he or she can attend two years of community college or college of applied technology absolutely...

A father of eight has sparked controversy by refusing to save money for his children’s college education. Guerilla Parenting author David T. Fagan told the Washington Post that college is 'a lot of wasted time' and if his children want to attend, they will have to pay for it themselves. The 37-year-old marketing entrepreneur, whose family lives in Orange County, California, added to MailOnline: 'The focus is too much on a piece of paper and not enough on self-reliance.'

There are a couple of ways to keep your house warm this winter. You could choose the reliable heater you’ve known for years. Or you could keep gasoline and matches handy next to a fire pit you dig in the living room. Most of us are going to pick the heater. The other choice seems … reckless. Your vote for lieutenant governor isn’t so different. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat, has been a steady legislative hand for two decades. Her opponent, Republican Sen. Dan Patrick, is potentially explosive, impact unclear. Also on the ballot are Libertarian...

Undocumented UC students who qualify for in-state tuition but are ineligible for federal assistance soon will be able to borrow up to $4,000 a year to make up the shortfall, thanks to a new law supported by the University of California and state legislators. “Giving undocumented students the same access to financial aid as other students can improve their chances of academic success and help them reach their dream of a college degree and a brighter future,” said UC President Janet Napolitano. “By investing in our students, we are investing in California.” Roughly 450 undocumented students at UCLA would be...

United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., issued the following statement today after her vote to invoke cloture on the DREAM Act. The cloture motion was defeated by a vote of 55-41. Sen. Landrieu said: "America is a land of enormous opportunity that is strengthened, not weakened, by the immeasurable contributions of people from different backgrounds. There are 2.1 million young people in this country who were brought to America by their parents as children. They are undocumented, yet they know no other home than the United States of America. I believe these young adults deserve a chance to earn...

Via Morgan Stanley,Amid rising tuition costs, an increasing share of students rely on debt to fund their education. Student loan delinquent balances have been on the rise since the early 2000s and those with student loans are likely to be less credit worthy than those without (Exhibit 50 & Exhibit 51). As a result, consumption for the student debt-laden population may be depressed. To be sure, the share of consumption driven by college age consumers has been in decline since 2003.These challenges are further compounded under the Qualified Mortgage (QM) regulatory regime that became effective in January 2014. The...

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation creating a new loan program for undocumented students in California’s public universities. California has already taken several steps to make college more affordable for undocumented students, including extending in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who graduate from California high schools and making them eligible to apply for Cal Grant scholarships. Brown signed the bill on Sunday without comment.

When I discovered my status in high school, I was worried I wouldn't be able to attend college at all.After I arrived home from soccer practice, the phone rang. “El Camino,” my mother said as she handed it to me, referring to a nearby community college. I was taking engineering courses there, offered in conjunction with my high school, but the woman from the registrar’s office had a problem: The Social Security number I had provided to receive college credit did not match my name, and if I couldn’t provide a valid number, I’d have to pay almost $2,000 for...

U.S. student debt has climbed to an all-time high, despite a decrease in consumer debt for all other major lending categories such as automotive debt, credit card and home equity loans. Behind mortgages, student loans are the second largest debt class. Now at $1.2 trillion, student debt has increased 84 percent since the 2008 Great Recession, based on a study by information services firm Experian. The national average balance of loans stand at $29,400 and 40 million consumers now have at least one student loan, originally reported by NewsOK. Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana had the highest amount of late payments....

George P. Bush, Jeb Bush's son and Republican candidate for Texas land commissioner, said that in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is just a "nominal" cost to taxpayers. Speaking at The Texas Tribune Festival on Friday evening, Bush said that until someone can present a "sensible alternative" to the Texas's version of DREAM Act, he would support the the law that Texas Governor Rick Perry signed in 2001. Bush said in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is just "a nominal cost from an economic perspective" for the state of Texas. Bush also suggested that in-state tuition for illegal immigrants should be indexed....