Community College "Free for all"

[kandrathe]

The other less horrific news of late.

Obama to propose two free years of community college for students.

"So far, that plan doesn’t have an official price tag — other than “significant,” according to White House officials. If all 50 states participate, the proposal could benefit 9 million students each year and save students an average of $3,800 in tuition, the White House said."

Which sort of sounds like 9 million students per year x $3800 which is in the neighborhood of 34.2 billion dollars. In perspective, this is about half the cost of our national food stamps program.

There is no talk of means testing this, yet. But, I'd assume we're not going to subsidize rich peoples kids.

And, most people may not know that in the US, most college is already "discounted" by between 30% and 45% -- that means that the price you see is not the price they pay. The better academic students and those with other factors influence the discount of individual financial aid packages.

Also, for Perkins Loans there is a built in forgiveness clause -- for those that;

• Volunteer in the Peace Corps or ACTION program (including VISTA)
• Teacher
• Member of the U.S. armed forces (serving in area of hostilities)
• Nurse or medical technician
• Law enforcement or corrections officer
• Head Start worker
• Child or family services worker
• Professional provider of early intervention services

For the other Direct student loans (Stafford -- which by law can only offered by our federal government), there is also an out clause for anyone who can make the case they have been a public servant and who have made 120 minimum payments on their loans (so after 10 years).

In the US, the community college has a reputation of pretty much teaching at a secondary school level, for students who didn't pay attention the first time. It may be a place to get "Gen Ed" -- ( the freshmen/sophomore general education requirements) out of the way. The hard core academic secondary school students are getting their "Gen Ed's" done in high school. We see an increasing number of "First time to college" students with more than 2 years of college work completed in dual enrollment courses, advance placement or CLEP testing out of them.

I did some research a few years back, comparing US higher education to Europe. In Europe, the percentage of students who are accepted and attempt the University is lower, but the percentage who succeed is much higher. The end result is that as a proportion of the population, the same amount emerge in the US and Europe with degrees. In the US, almost 2/3rds of all high school students will attempt college or university, and almost 1/2 of them (1/3) will not succeed. This results in a very high amount of wasted spending for a credential they did not get. Often these are students who are accepted, but are marginally prepared. I would propose a different course for an massive infusion of money for high school graduates. It would be to direct it more towards improving the accreditation, credibility and prestige of vocational, and professional programs (the trades).

TL;DR In a nutshell, its not that our kids don't try to go to college, it's that they don't succeed. One issues is that our public education system fails to prepare our kids for higher education. On the other hand, an argument is that some drop out due to financial burdens. At my work place, the 'A' and 'B' students find a way and have more eager support to get it done.