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I disagree with both of these points. As I see it, the main problem with college is that we as a society have put all of our eggs into a basket which is not ow

I disagree with both of these points. As I see it, the main problem with college is that we as a society have put all of our eggs into a basket which is not owned by we the people (the public). If you would like to see a future in which all Americans go to college, then the cost should be spread across everyone. If you don't, then, I think we have different views of what the future could be. We should go back to free tuition, at least for state colleges, because an education requires so much more material than it did a century ago that stopping at K-12 was shortsighted/irresponsible, and now other countries are eating our lunch. An analogy is the private prison system: when we began outsourcing incarceration we created an incentive for prison industry lobbyists to interfere with the criminal justice system. Show me a private school that costs less than a public one. Student motivation is a red herring. I've met just as many slackers who didn't go to college. In fact I would go as far as to say that pure book learning without introspection is not conducive to the human spirit. The best things I learned in college were how to redefine myself, and how to explore alternate ways of seeing the world. In essence my conscious and subconscious minds both grew as needed. Sometimes I wish that the US didn't have such a puritanical stance on recreation because we are in danger of creating a dystopian, authoritarian future. I wish with all our wealth and potential we could live more like europeans and invest in culture and the human experience. College isn't a trade school, I mean, who goes there to study besides freshmen?

kansface 13y ago
You missed the point. "Free" education for everyone is the largest contributing factor in the inflation of the cost of degrees. Free education is a nice thought, but you didn't propose any way to pay for it. The only way your proposed system could work would be if the government required all degrees to cost no more than X$ or severely restricted the number of people it paid for. More realistically, we can stop subsidizing students past 5 or perhaps 10K$ per year.
- zackmorris 13y ago
  I see what you're saying. Reading it now, it hit me that government programs have to ask for budget increases, but colleges can just raise the price and be guaranteed the money because students can always get more loans. So this was actually the intention behind transitioning colleges from free to paid. It created the student loan bubble because there was no check on how much college could cost. To fix it, we could just do the reverse and make state colleges free with their budgets set by the government, substantially lower than they are now.
  - TrainedMonkey 13y ago
    With students that get bad grades being kicked out from the 'free' track. This might actually be workable.
- true_religion 13y ago
  I don't really understand the need for discussion here. Free education is done from the K-12 level. Its' done in many European countries as well. Is there any reason that the US government is special, and won't be able to handle a free university education without going bankrupt?
  - kansface 13y ago
    You don't send everyone to college.
  - kansface 13y ago
    It also occurs to me that in the US, k-12 is paid for by local governments via property taxes.
  - truthteller 13y ago
    Entry into higher education is more competitive in most European countries...
JackMorgan 13y ago
With this argument, why even bother with the façade of classes and grades? Why not just have college be a four year cruise? It would be just as isolating, just as incubating, probably more fun. Students would get to see the world as they cruised around the globe. Those who wanted to learn, write, or discourse could absolutely do it, and those that just want to party wouldn't have to have grades or 9am classes to bother them. I've have been thinking of this for a while now. This idea reminds me of the grade schools that have stopped having classes and tests; the kids just study or do what they want, and come out just as prepared (according to the tests) as those from a public school.

kansface 13y ago

You missed the point. "Free" education for everyone is the largest contributing factor in the inflation of the cost of degrees. Free education is a nice thought, but you didn't propose any way to pay for it. The only way your proposed system could work would be if the government required all degrees to cost no more than X$ or severely restricted the number of people it paid for. More realistically, we can stop subsidizing students past 5 or perhaps 10K$ per year.

zackmorris 13y ago
I see what you're saying. Reading it now, it hit me that government programs have to ask for budget increases, but colleges can just raise the price and be guaranteed the money because students can always get more loans. So this was actually the intention behind transitioning colleges from free to paid. It created the student loan bubble because there was no check on how much college could cost. To fix it, we could just do the reverse and make state colleges free with their budgets set by the government, substantially lower than they are now.
- TrainedMonkey 13y ago
  With students that get bad grades being kicked out from the 'free' track. This might actually be workable.
true_religion 13y ago
I don't really understand the need for discussion here. Free education is done from the K-12 level. Its' done in many European countries as well. Is there any reason that the US government is special, and won't be able to handle a free university education without going bankrupt?
- kansface 13y ago
  You don't send everyone to college.
- kansface 13y ago
  It also occurs to me that in the US, k-12 is paid for by local governments via property taxes.
- truthteller 13y ago
  Entry into higher education is more competitive in most European countries...

JackMorgan 13y ago

With this argument, why even bother with the façade of classes and grades? Why not just have college be a four year cruise? It would be just as isolating, just as incubating, probably more fun. Students would get to see the world as they cruised around the globe. Those who wanted to learn, write, or discourse could absolutely do it, and those that just want to party wouldn't have to have grades or 9am classes to bother them. I've have been thinking of this for a while now. This idea reminds me of the grade schools that have stopped having classes and tests; the kids just study or do what they want, and come out just as prepared (according to the tests) as those from a public school.