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http://change.gov/agenda/education/ http://change.gov/agenda/education/ says: "Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will make college aff

http://change.gov/agenda/education/ http://change.gov/agenda/education/ says: "Create the American Opportunity Tax Credit: Obama and Biden will make college affordable for all Americans by creating a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. This universal and fully refundable credit will ensure that the first $4,000 of a college education is completely free for most Americans, and will cover two-thirds the cost of tuition at the average public college or university and make community college tuition completely free for most students. Recipients of the credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service." So is actually required, or do you just miss out on $4k if you don't do it? If the latter, that actually doesn't sound completely unreasonable. If the former, I don't see this passing muster with Congress let alone the Supreme Court. There's nothing about a tax credit for the high school version, but plenty of high schools already require service hours to graduate and I haven't heard of the legality of that being challenged. I do disagree with the idea of the federal government micromanaging public schools in general, but that's a trend that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, given that even Republicans favor it.

cabalamat 18y ago
It sounds to me like an offer of $40 an hour for 100 hours of work. If I was a student, I'd probably consider this a good deal. If I was an American taxpayer, less so.
- tesseract 18y ago
  Taxpayers already seem reasonably happy with giving tax breaks to college students. If they get some work out of the bargain too, so much the better. Personally I suspect that the government showering money onto the higher education industry is a major factor in causing tuition to rise, but this doesn't seem to be a widely discussed issue in the public sphere so the chances of getting it fixed soon seem slim.
  - thras 18y ago
    Students do have to work for aid. It's called work-study. This just means that instead of useful jobs at the college where the student may gain experience, they'll be doing stupid Community Service type stuff (like the courts force criminals to do instead of jail time).
    - tesseract 18y ago
      There is aid separate from work-study. Specifically (and this is just the federal stuff; states have education aid programs too): Pell grants, Stafford loans (some are subsidized, and even the unsubsidized ones charge below-market interest), PLUS loans, Hope credit, Lifelong Learning credit, tuition and fees deduction, Education Savings Bond program, the ability for parents to claim full time students age 19-24 as dependents...
nradov 18y ago
Essentially they are planning to pay college students who choose to participate $40/hour to do community service work. That seems like a great deal for students, and a bad deal for taxpayers. How many college students are actually worth $40, or even $20? It would be better if they required something like 300 hours of work to get the $4000. That would be closer to the market rate for unskilled labor. And it would only be 6 hours per week for 50 weeks per year, which any full-time student could manage. Meanwhile the federal budget deficit continues to grow unchecked...

cabalamat 18y ago

It sounds to me like an offer of $40 an hour for 100 hours of work. If I was a student, I'd probably consider this a good deal. If I was an American taxpayer, less so.

tesseract 18y ago
Taxpayers already seem reasonably happy with giving tax breaks to college students. If they get some work out of the bargain too, so much the better. Personally I suspect that the government showering money onto the higher education industry is a major factor in causing tuition to rise, but this doesn't seem to be a widely discussed issue in the public sphere so the chances of getting it fixed soon seem slim.
- thras 18y ago
  Students do have to work for aid. It's called work-study. This just means that instead of useful jobs at the college where the student may gain experience, they'll be doing stupid Community Service type stuff (like the courts force criminals to do instead of jail time).
  - tesseract 18y ago
    There is aid separate from work-study. Specifically (and this is just the federal stuff; states have education aid programs too): Pell grants, Stafford loans (some are subsidized, and even the unsubsidized ones charge below-market interest), PLUS loans, Hope credit, Lifelong Learning credit, tuition and fees deduction, Education Savings Bond program, the ability for parents to claim full time students age 19-24 as dependents...

nradov 18y ago

Essentially they are planning to pay college students who choose to participate $40/hour to do community service work. That seems like a great deal for students, and a bad deal for taxpayers. How many college students are actually worth $40, or even $20? It would be better if they required something like 300 hours of work to get the $4000. That would be closer to the market rate for unskilled labor. And it would only be 6 hours per week for 50 weeks per year, which any full-time student could manage. Meanwhile the federal budget deficit continues to grow unchecked...