Do you think students should be able to attend two years of college tuition-free?

In terms of job prospects, a college education is equivalent to what a high school education used to be. Students should be able to get 4 years of college tuition-free. The rise in college costs in recent years is ridiculous. The extra money is not going to the teachers but to the administrators.

Yes! Community Colleges were pretty much free just a few years ago, it is only in the last twenty years that they started charging. It’s a very good investment in human capital, one that benefits society as a whole.

When i was a senior in high school I took Calculus at the local JC. Cost me $1 per semester, $10 more if I wanted full health insurance with no co pay and no out of pocket at any doctor.

It’s a start towards universal free college education as it is in Germany.

Add my name to the yes column.

Absolutely. But why stop there? Bachelor’s degrees should be free as well.

I think that State and or Federally funded junior colleges with little or no cost to U.S. citizens is a good thing. (Remember that nothing is free. Taxpayers are paying for it)

Back in the 1970’s the State of California paid all the tuition for me to help me get a BA. For which I’m very thankful. All I had to pay were low amount fees, insurance, books and room and board. I was able to get a good job and have become a good tax payer to put back into the system.

It sounds good in theory but I’d need to see something specific. How are they going to keep the costs from rising exponentially? would we pay for Trade Schools as well? Generally when things are free or appear to be free, costs rise out of proportion to the service provided and our government has a very poor track record for controlling costs.

I am with @Jaxk on this one….the devil is in the details and not to be pessimistic but I have no choice as we have almost never been afforded any details on most of his policies and initiatives to date. Costs are everything in making these type of policies. He says free tuition for those willing to work for it? What does this mean? What is this work? I’d like to also hear his definition of transparency.

How and who are going to pay for the billions in tuition costs? So far all I see in writing is that participating states are going to have to foot a portion of the cost? My state is way broke so it won’t be an easy sell to shove us any deeper into debt.

Obama promised Obama care would be affordable….someone should have asked him his definition of affordable was. My company I now paying $4,100 MORE a month plus that F’n re-insurance tax of $326.00 per month tax fee. That is over a 28% increase in my insurance cost in one year and I am promised another 20–30% increase next year! I am very afraid of anything our President has on his agenda and can’t wait to get him out of office.

@zenvelo If you don’t mind me asking, what year were you a senior in college?

K-12 is changing to jr.K – bachelor. I would spend money towards PBS and libraries and free ebooks.

I have the same reservations as @Jaxk & @Cruiser.

My knee-jerk? Better to spend the money on the current k-12 system in place.

Obama legacy?:
“All the lofty ideals the Republicans thwarted in my last two years as President.”

I’m still waiting for some initiative on the “Universal High-Speed Internet Access” promise from the Obama vs. McCain campaign trail.

Pesky details…
But the plan has flaws that all but ensure it won’t be implemented and will serve only as a political proposal to make supporters happy. Among the reasons:

The price tag

It would cost $60 billion over 10 years. White House officials wouldn’t say where they’d find the billions to pay for it. And the spending would have to be approved by Congress, where Republicans just gained seats in midterm elections after campaigning against more federal spending.

Administration officials say they’ll indicate where the money will come from when Obama releases his budget proposal Feb. 2. “Without details to review, this plan is more like a talking point,” said Cory Fritz, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

The national debt

In December, the national debt reached $18 trillion, sparking renewed criticism from fiscal conservatives about the increase in government spending. Obama touted the declining federal budget deficit when he spoke in Knoxville on Friday, but he didn’t mention that the debt continues to increase.

“Why stop there?” Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said. “Why not have the government buy a car and a house for everyone?”

The states

While the federal government would pick up 75 percent of the tab, the final quarter would come from states that opt into the program. The states, which have already slashed funding for colleges and universities as they face budget shortfalls and competing priorities, would have to cut other programs to pay for the cost or to raise taxes.

The students

The program would provide aid to some students who don’t need it, instead of focusing on low-income students through, for example, expanding Pell Grants or reducing the paperwork for student aid. Administration officials estimate that 9 million students could participate if they attend at least half-time, maintain 2.5 GPAs and make progress toward completing degrees or certificate programs.

“Making tuition free for all students regardless of their income is a missed opportunity to focus resources on the students who need aid the most,” said the Institute for College Access & Success, which usually sides with the Obama administration.

The emphasis

The lure of free tuition might lead some students who should go straight to four-year institutions to attend community colleges instead.

“Why support community college instead of college?” asked Russ Whitehurst, a former official at the Department of Education who now heads the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, a center-left policy research center.

The regulations

States and community colleges would have to abide by certain rules to get the federal money. For example, states would have to agree not to cut higher education funding elsewhere to pay for the proposal.

Community colleges would have to offer programs that transfer to public four-year colleges or lead to degrees and certificates that are in demand among employers, and implement programs that would improve student achievements.

The program still sounds like a good start and is better than what we have now, with so many students being shut out because they can’t afford college. Like any program, you learn as you go and make adjustments accordingly.

I’m fortunate to have my dad pay my tuition, but it would’ve been great if it was free!

I’m all for free PHDs, provided the schools:
Don’t receive payment, but reimbursement on successful completion.
Are not allowed to lower current standards.

Additionally, a portion of the debt should be repaid as community service. Say a forth, hours in kind.

It was the United States which demonstrated to the laughing ridicule of the rest of the world the societal value of FREE public education. It was an example of the enlightened measures promulgated when New England Quaker progressive leanings dominated the country. One of the great glories of our country lies in the fact that within 20 years of of its inception, this country had achieved the miracle of converting a land peopled by the “refuse of the earth” to first in the world regarding literacy. Other countries learned the lesson and as with other arenas in which we once led , have gone ahead to surpass us. Any fool should be able to appreciate that is in the NATIONAL INTEREST to realize the highest levels of knowledge to the greatest numbers of our citizens as can be achieved. The fact that it is no longer possible to approach a college degree in this country minus the specter of crippling debt shows just how far from old line Quaker common sense the country has strayed. It would now appear that the center of gravity regarding the duties and responsibilities of government for the common good has shifted considerably to regions with a different mindset regarding the “benefits” of knowledge, and the country is dumbing down accordingly.

@stanleybmanly Call my hat tinfoil if you want, but I think there is a concerted effort to “dumb down” the electorate.

@Yetanotheruser I think about that a lot. It’s tough to prove it, but there’s no problem demonstrating that little is being done to prevent, check or reverse it. It seems to me that there is this creeping development in the country for tolerance and acceptance of the “dummy on public display”. This phenomenon is particularly prominent among our friends on the right, and is foisted on the society behind the shield of “just plain folks.”

@Yetanotheruser – The electorate is already dumbed down. For whatever reason we seem to want the school system to take over the role of parents. Our community Colleges were the best deal in town and now we want to hand that over to the Federal Government. I guess because they’ve done so well with the K-12 education. Education was handled locally until 1979 when Carter created the Dept of Education as a cabinet level agency. Since then our education system has been dropping behind other countries. So obviously the solution is to federalize the higher education as well. If it doesn’t work just keep doing it over and over until it does. ‘No Child Left Behind’, now ‘Common Core’, Our success rate at the federal level has not been good. So let’s hand them more of the education system, I’m sure that will solve the problem.

Let’s make all of life free.

Based on the merchant’s willingness to seek reimbursement after a person has become a productive member of society.

Here’s how it works:
When you graduate from High School, colleges, landlords and employers bid against a portion of your future earnings.
I have an apartment in Chicago. I bid $800 a month for your tenancy for 4 years of college. Payments start on your graduation from college, the federal government the insurer of payment.
Others bid for your nourishment, education, transportation, etc.
The government collects your paychecks and re-pays the nanny’s until all are repaid.

The ultimate nanny-state.

@Jaxk Yours is a very good point about the schools being tasked with roles formerly reserved to parents. The question then arises, “why are parents falling down on the job?” The reason that schools are increasingly taking on parental roles is simply that it is at the schools where the problems endemic to a disintegrating society can no longer be ignored. IF parents are failing at rearing their kids, whose job is it to take up the slack.?

@stanleybmanly _“why are parents falling down on the job?” _ Not so much falling down on the job, but being prevented from performing the job by the economic requirements of a dual paycheck for a standard US household.

@Yetanotheruser That is an exquisite answer in its accuracy! It is the schools and the teachers in them who are expected to remedy the problems around the nation’s expanding legions of throwaway children!

We pay the most per student than any other country and the test scores and stats do not reflect higher performance at all as we are 10th in math. IMO unions are what is affecting our education systems ability to provide top education. Despite property tax increase after property tax increase, they are still cutting staff and programs at my kids school. My state is flat broke and has no extra funds to give to the higher performing school districts like ours and the news is much sadder down state and in the inner city. Legacy and pension benefits are robbing our kids of that better education they deserve. I just read with interest a comment from a gentleman from the Netherlands who said it costs much less to educate a student there and they test way higher because they do not have aal the social programs, sports and after school, proms etc distractions our students have. He said school is for learning and learning they do and it shows in test scores.

@Cruiser It isn’t the unions or the teachers which are responsible for our failing schools. It is in the schools and the prisons where the breakdown in societal norms become glaringly apparent. Frankly by the time many kids are tested (or noticed) they are already lost. Homeless kids with unemployed or dysfunctional parents are rising steeply in numbers. The population with the sharpest and fastest rise in numbers regarding dire poverty is children. While prisons are now the primary source for “diagnosis and treatment” of the mentally ill, our schools bulge with troubled kids suffering through precarious family relationships.

@stanleybmanly I did not say the schools in general are failing. We are failing our students by not utilizing the funding in the best way. Cherry pension and benefit programs that us in the private sector only dream of. This same dynamic is what drove the big 3 automakers into the ground, When other countries spend less than half per student than we do AND outperform our kids, then we have to take a long hard look as to why. IMO why is because a huge chunk is going to pay these pensions and beni’s and it is time to rethink what is more important to the educational welfare of the student.

What drove the big three automakers into the ground was not benefits and pensions. What drove the automakers (and the US steel industry in general) into the ground was a decades-long foreign trade policy that made it cheaper to import goods and services than to produce them domestically. If you want good quality workers (teachers included) you need to pay. I would rather pay good money for good professional teachers than have a race to the lowest and get folks that can not work in their field of training and end up teaching by default.

@Cruiser Those cherry pensions and benefits that we in the private sector only dream of NOW were routine 30 years ago. It isn’t that teachers and civil servants are pulling ahead of the private sector. It is that the private sector has been allowed to remove ROUTINE benefits from the work force. Teachers are merely receiving pensions and benefits we ALL had and DESERVE. It is true that other nations do a better job educating their children, and they achieve this while providing their teachers pensions and benefits superior to our own! Those pensions and benefits are the final feeble incentive to lure unsuspecting young idealists into a thankless profession under constant assault, with a burnout rate exceeding that of combat infantry platoons in Korea. Once again, it isn’t teachers or the schools that are failing our kids. The problem is that increasingly the kids arriving in our schools are so damaged and stressed from outside factors that they are in effect unteachable. As I said before, the schools are the place where the effects of a disjointed out of kilter society become impossible to ignore. It’s a dangerous mistake to suppose that ratcheting down pensions and benefits of teachers will solve a problem that is at heart about stressed out dysfunctional families and their resulting hopeless throwaway children.

By the way, you might believe that it was pensions and benefits that drove the big 3 automakers into the ground. My memory is that automakers problems were the result of shortsighted short term profit snatching market decisions on the part of people with stratospheric salaries and benefits.

@stanleybmanly It is time you look at the big picture. Years gone by and union were a powerful driving force behind cherry pensions and wages local and our National economy could support and health care for a family of 4 did not cost you 50% of your paycheck. Now with a growing global economy and foreign ownership of many companies and properties the ability to support cherry pensions and benefits is just a memory and things HAVE to change. Outsourcing is a cancer on our labor force and is a genie we cannot put back in the bottle. We have to face that times require that change our President spoke of but not the kind that is easy to swallow. Our local, state and national economies will not sustain themselves on old school pensions any longer. Our new governor is championing that this craziness stop now and privatize all these pension and SS programs so future generations can plan for retirement without burdening the next generation behind them. Pushing back against the Unions is a sure way to lose votes and I for one will welcome the day when we make policies in our state and Federal governments because it is the right thing to do and not the thing to do to insure votes next election cycle.