Free community college!

[Ridge]

As long as it's only for STEM degrees, I think this is great.

[GilpinGuy]

Can this be a way to ease the looming student loan debt bomb that's primed to go off? Just tax productive citizens EVEN MORE and give it away and loan debt doesn't balloon as fast.

[Ridge]

The student loan debt bomb is a firecracker. The vast majority of student loans are already guaranteed by the government.

[cstone]

IMO, student loans should be provided based on the graduates ability to repay the loan. You want a degree in Italian Romantic Literature of the 16th Century? Not much chance you are getting a loan for that.

College loans are another way of subsidizing the Academic/Progressive Industry. Maybe some of the adjunct faculty at the local community college could actually teach high school subjects. They seem to be doing that now, since most high school graduates don't graduate with competency to learn at the college level. Here is a link to a NY Times article relating the "Myth of a Four Year College Education."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/ed...inds.html?_r=0

[Irving]

I agree about the loans. Loaning $100,000 for a career that tops out at $15-$20/hr in wages is like me buying a $500,000 home with what I make now.

[cstone]

I agree about the loans. Loaning $100,000 for a career that tops out at $15-$20/hr in wages is like me buying a $500,000 home with what I make now.

And that sort of loan can only happen when it is guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the US Treasury (see Freddie and Fannie)

[Ridge]

IMO, student loans should be provided based on the graduates ability to repay the loan. You want a degree in Italian Romantic Literature of the 16th Century? Not much chance you are getting a loan for that.

College loans are another way of subsidizing the Academic/Progressive Industry. Maybe some of the adjunct faculty at the local community college could actually teach high school subjects. They seem to be doing that now, since most high school graduates don't graduate with competency to learn at the college level. Here is a link to a NY Times article relating the "Myth of a Four Year College Education."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/ed...inds.html?_r=0

That only ensures the rich go to college. The poor can't, keeping them poor. Student loans should be provided based in how useful the degree will be for society.

[cstone]

That only ensures the rich go to college. The poor can't, keeping them poor. Student loans should be provided based in how useful the degree will be for society.

For students who are prepared and motivated, we have scholarships and grants. Rich kids will alway have their parents to pay for school. I don't believe the taxpayers should be paying for educations for poor kids who have little ability to succeed based on their mediocre performance in the first twelve years of their mediocre, tax payer funded, public school education.

You want a free or low cost education, enlist in the military, or get a job and pay for it.

Education is just one more area where I believe we have proven that pumping more money into the system does not lead to better results.

[HoneyBadger]

That only ensures the rich go to college. The poor can't, keeping them poor. Student loans should be provided based in how useful the degree will be for society.

As already mentioned and demonstrated by many on this board: A college education does not guarantee wages. There are many jobs that do not require a college degree which make substantially more than the mean income of a college graduate.

Get rid of your liberal talking point drivel and bring something of value to this discussion.

[HoneyBadger]

For students who are prepared and motivated, we have scholarships and grants. Rich kids will alway have their parents to pay for school. I don't believe the taxpayers should be paying for educations for poor kids who have little ability to succeed based on their mediocre performance in the first twelve years of their mediocre, tax payer funded, public school education.

You want a free or low cost education, enlist in the military, or get a job and pay for it.

Education is just one more area where I believe we have proven that pumping more money into the system does not lead to better results.

Again and again, privately-funded colleges and universities are head and shoulders above even the best publicly-funded schools.