3 ms·

Wait a minute: Why won't it solve any problems??? If universities are funded by the salaries of their graduates, then 1) they have to ensure that graduates ha

by JPKab 13y ago

Wait a minute: Why won't it solve any problems??? If universities are funded by the salaries of their graduates, then 1) they have to ensure that graduates have decent earning potential, so bloated programs which are sending students to flooded markets (I'm looking at you Psychology) will have to shrink drastically while engineering, and god forbid, vocational education would grow, and 2) Colleges will no longer have a magical hat of endless, low interest, risk free (from the college's perspective) debt to draw on from each student. This, and only this, will force them to cut the bloat. The Oregon program is the only one I know of that both guarantees qualified students can go to college and simultaneously forces the universities to stop endlessly piling bloated expenses onto taxpayer financed debt. People don't seem to get this: these universities will have a fixed (but growing annually if they properly prepare graduates) cap on their operating expenses, while simultaneously being able to grow their budgets by training students in skills that the market demands.

Zimahl 13y ago
The problem isn't that there are student loans - people take loans out for many other things and have no problem with those. The problem is that the repayments are killing the spending power of the middle-class. Where does paying back a loan or paying back a fixed amount of income differ? Do you honestly think that the gov't is going to curb the costs of education? More than likely the gov't will just jack the repayment % on future students. So, like I said, it just kicks the can down the road. No where in the Oregon plan is an outline of how to bringing state college costs back down to a reasonable level that doesn't require loans except in extreme cases (where it was in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s).
- ihsw 13y ago
  It does away with the Sword[1] and instead opts for an olive branch -- some cannot risk the sword (great debt) for a reward (greater career opportunities), and they will now have a new opportunity. By the same token, the Sword will never be held to the throat (bankruptcy). A happy worker is a productive worker. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Damacles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Damacles

by JPKab 13y ago

Zimahl 13y ago

The problem isn't that there are student loans - people take loans out for many other things and have no problem with those. The problem is that the repayments are killing the spending power of the middle-class. Where does paying back a loan or paying back a fixed amount of income differ? Do you honestly think that the gov't is going to curb the costs of education? More than likely the gov't will just jack the repayment % on future students. So, like I said, it just kicks the can down the road. No where in the Oregon plan is an outline of how to bringing state college costs back down to a reasonable level that doesn't require loans except in extreme cases (where it was in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s).

ihsw 13y ago
It does away with the Sword[1] and instead opts for an olive branch -- some cannot risk the sword (great debt) for a reward (greater career opportunities), and they will now have a new opportunity. By the same token, the Sword will never be held to the throat (bankruptcy). A happy worker is a productive worker. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Damacles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_of_Damacles