The value of American education...

[wa3zrm]

Obama to propose two free years of community college for students

President Barack Obama on Friday will propose making two years of community college free for students.
In a White House video posted Thursday evening, Obama said he wanted to offer “a little preview” of his plans for the Jan. 20 State of the Union address.
“What I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody who’s willing to work for it,” Obama said. “It’s something we can accomplish, and it’s something that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world.”
The proposal would make two years of community college free for students with a C+ average who attend school at least half-time and who are making “steady progress” toward their degree.

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...

[Thunder_Snus]

I think I would rather see him mandate public schools to act more like public schools rather than corporate banks. I would also like to be reimbursed for the "student-to-student" fees I am charged every semester so they can take my money and give it to other people who don't work while they are in school.

[wa3zrm]

Obama's Free Community College Proposal Is Ridiculous

As someone who has spent over 15 years teaching at community colleges, I cannot think of a worse idea than President Obama’s proposal for the federal government to provide “free” community college tuition nationwide. Here’s why:
Nothing in life is “free”: The lesson we should be teaching our students is that nothing of value is free. “Free community college” for students translates into “a tax increase for somebody else.” Who is going to pay for the billions of dollars it will cost to provide “free” tuition at community colleges, which are heavily subsidized by taxpayers already? College should be affordable, but students need to responsibly shoulder most of the cost.
The federal government has no business in education: Article 1, Sec. 8 of the Constitution enumerates the powers of the federal government. Education is not one of them. The 10th Amendment stipulates that all powers not granted to the federal government belong to the states – and this includes education from kindergarten through graduate school. States are perfectly capable of maintaining community colleges without interference from federal bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., and all the strings they will invariably attach to the “free” program.
You get what you pay for: If community college becomes “free,” it will attract even more unserious students than the ones already enrolled in community colleges. Anecdotally, I’d say that about half the students in community colleges are not ready for college-level work. (I worked at one community college in which the department that offered the most course sections of any department on campus was the remedial education department.) Many students enroll in community colleges simply because they were handed a high-school diploma based on grade inflation and social promotion and have no clue what to do next. Fall semesters tend to produce the worst students...

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...