Saturday, January 17, 2015

America's College Promise

The President's America's College Promise Proposal sounds like the best idea to come along in education in ages.  It would pay for two years of community college for students who have worked hard enough in school to have a 2.5 GPA and it includes both traditional and non-traditional students, and both full-time and part-time students.

Given how completely and totally unaffordable college tuition is these days and how much more necessary it becomes on a daily basis, I think tuition at all community and state universities should be publicly funded and free to students who are willing to make the grade.  This is, at least, a start.  it might also help the cultural issue with college-bound middle class students who think they need to move out and go away to college to be successful but who can by no means afford to do that.  Our old models of the college experience are getting more and more out of sync with what students can actually manage while trying to make ends meet, but the education one gets in college is still needed to create well-informed, well-rounded citizens and the degrees are still needed so that our citizenry can make a living.

Unfortunately, the plan requires states to opt in and pay a quarter of the costs, Mamas.  I don't think Abbott is going to go for that, do you? So much for access to higher education in Texas...

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