http://www.sltrib.com/news/2039864-155/utahs-governor-is-concerned-about-obamas
Governor Herbert, when asked by reporters about the president's newly announced plan said he was "concerned" about it, but it would be great in the long run. He wasn't sure on the specifics of the plan, but where the money came in from was his main concern. He also suggested that trying to lower tuition rates would probably benefit the nation more.
I think that two years of free community college is a great idea. It would benefit so many people, not the least of which being the ones who desperately need educations, the ones stuck in low incomes who can not afford college. This plan could open doors for a lot of Americans, and bring up the education level of the nation. I don't know what the results of such a plan would be. I'm assuming community colleges would have huge influxes in class sizes, and that they might also try to raise tuition. Universities would undoubtedly make it purposefully more difficult to obtain transfer scholarships for people attending community college. They might raise tuition too. I like the plan presented, but I think that our government should put forward legislation allowing for government regulation of the cost of attending college. Education is a precious commodity, especially in the modern world, and an expensive one. It needs to be attainable for more people, maybe even all people, at this point in America, it is not attainable for everyone, at least not without going into thousands upon thousands in debt. But, change needs come step by step, gradually, to be able to be effective for the places of higher education in the USA, if Obama's plan passes, the first step towards a better nation would have been taken.
I like the idea of a free community college education for two years. I think this could really help people avoid excessive debt, and get more people considering upper level education. Many people get an expensive education believing that they will easily pay their student loans once they get their dream job after graduation, but life doesn't usually happen that way. This will open up more teaching opportunities since more people would enroll.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a good idea because it means a more educated populous. My concern is that universities will raise tuition and it's already outrageous. This also means higher taxes which it would imagine most people don't want to pay.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, let me say that I support the community college aspect of this.
ReplyDeleteNow, I'm going to talk about why it could be a HUGE mistake to limit what private universities can charge. To begin with, there will be a huge uproar about the federal government regulating private business. Also, our universities in this country are amazing because they compete with each other to be the best. Even the state-funded universities try to get the edge on education. When we limit how much those larger universities can charge their students, we're limiting how much they can afford to fund research programs, professors, and innovative techniques. And is that really a good thing?
If it's the large universities you're worried about, consider that the majority of their funding for programs comes from donations, and, if a public university, from the government. Tuition does help offset expenses, but also consider I never suggested tuition should be really low, but it should be regulated, and hence have a maximum. Let the colleges agree on the number, and adjust every few years for inflation. The point is to make college affordable, and at this point, without scholarships, students go into immense debt, in the tens of thousands, because it is nearly impossible to pay the tuition costs of good universites working part time, college is not affordable. That's what needs to change, if colleges are businesses, they should be regulated, because at this point they could literally all raise tuition by 100,000 dollars per year, and we would have to pay it, paying it because a college education is not just a frilly benefit, it is an essential commodity for survival in the modern world. Tuition costs don't need to be as high as they are now, they shouldn't be, it's not healthy for the economy to send hundreds of thousands of young people into the world with huge student debts. They can take decades to pay off.
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