About That "Free College" Program

Standard political wrangling. Vote to cut military spending, and you hate our wo/men in uniform. Don't vote to build a redundant high school, you hate education.

It's a wonder anything ever gets done.

 

Yup and yup

 

I'll make it easy. **** anything that takes money out of my pocket to give to someone. At this point I'm tired of paying for people to eat, watch TV, talk on the phone, sit in a free house, get free medical, and God only knows what else. **** it all. You want to eat, work. Hell, go out on the corner and beg for food. There's too much waste and corruption for me to care anymore about the people that really need it anymore.

 

My raven with this month's encoded marching orders hasn't arrived yet (unionized), but this does seem like such a wounded duck that when Republicans inevitably give it mercy, it will be spun as "republicans don't care!" I just don't see the point of this 2 years free college, especially if they are going to literally fund it by directly taking money from those who saved. Why not address the ever-expanding bureaucracy at universities that are running up cost, instead of throwing more students at them?

 

That would mean someone is doing their job.

 

I'd actually be in favor of funding for trade schools for professions that have labor shortages, but there are plenty of community college courses that are going to already glutted jobs.

 

Before I wade through this, can you tell me if there is an answer to my question(s) regarding your thoughts on the President's planned policy change to pay for "FREE" education by removing the tax incentives from college savings plans?

I'll read it, either way, but at least tease me with the belief that you aren't still evading the matter at hand.

 

That's a good idea, but **** that too. Let the employers pay for trade schools too

We can't keep making people that work pay for people who would rather sit around fanning their balls.

 

He said earlier he wasn't familiar with it. Neither am I. I don't think anyone on this board has been even lukewarm to this free college thing.

 

I agree with this, wholeheartedly.

What's stopping us from going in this direction, you think?

 

Part of it would be finding a proper mechanism to do so. There probably isn't one federally. For state schools, this could indeed be addressed. What is stopping them is that a big part of how colleges and universities are ranked by media outlets everyone goes by is through the sort of fringe programs and bureaucracy that is the problem in the first place.

Just guesses.

 

What if I take a turn for the worse?

 

Now, having read the Forbes article, and if you find it reputable, do you think it's a good idea to pay for the "free college" plan by removing the tax-free status of 529's when used for college tuition?

Is it even fair?

If it's neither a good idea, nor a fair one - is it ok to believe it to be a bad policy?

How could someone argue, otherwise?

 

It was a bad plan even if it were funded completely by Hollywood actors. No, I don't think disincentivizing saving for college is a good way to get more people to be able to go to college. I definitely don't think changing the rules on people midstream is fair.

I feel like I've been calling it a bad policy before you did, to be honest. Go check the "Obama is coming to Knoxville" or whatever thread.

 

I "get" - and even appreciate (sorry, Un) - that many things are disagreeable to various groups of people.

I also "get" the notion of wanting to protect the "D" and "R" brands.

But we've got to get to a point where we can fairly evaluate things and make reasonable determinations on them.

That's my larger point, my poking at Un, aside.

 

The biggest issue would be the government accepting that they've created the problem. The federal money is soaked up by administration. The student is just the vehicle to transfer funds in the name of making college affordable.


It's the same at K-12. Federal money doesn't go to the students. It just means more central office jobs and administrators.

 

IP hasn't been a fan of this from the start. He's in education and I'm sure feeling the squeeze. The money is soaked in by administrators, and the students are getting less of a ROI on their education

 

Yep. We actually pay more per student than anyone in the world. It just doesn't end up in the hands of the teachers or students or facilities.

 

If they only taxed the upper 5%ers 529s, I'd be all for it.

 

I'm perfectly fine with this. I just don't like the pretense of a free debate being set up with caveats of "I guess I'll be called a racist" if you disagree with the statement or something similar. Laying out your position, in my two cents worth opinion, is perfectly fine.

Otherwise, on the face value of it, there's no reason to support taking money from those who enroll in these plans for money for education. Secondly, I wholeheartedly agree with IP in that not everyone needs to go to college and we've had no one address the proliferation of higher administration offices and wasteful spending on things other than research and professors.