Maryland Patriot
Gold Member
- Jun 10, 2015
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Ever since that nut case Sanders came up with the idea, I have been playing with the thought in my mind. Naturally being a good conservative I was forced to immediately speak out against the idea. mostly because it came from a liberal and because it means more of my tax dollar being spent on "welfare" that had no benefit to me.
However after thinking about it now for some time I see where it actually could be somewhat of a good thing if done properly. And, if done properly I dont think it would cost anywhere near as much as people think.
My idea would be to essentially extend high school by two years. Yes the little tykes get to have their prom and get their high school diploma after meeting the requirements upon graduating the 12th grade, but, they still 2 more years of public education. It could even be optional for them.
One of the problems that I see is that there are too many fields of study to offer two years for free, so Im thinking, what if that two year degree was a liberal arts degree? It is true that one would have a difficult time finding a great paying job with a degree of any level if that degree was liberal arts, but there really is a value in that degree.
It teaches critical thinking, students come away with that degree with a greater ability to look for alternatives to a problem, they have the ability to look at given information and analyze that information with a greater understanding, and as I said the thought process to not only see it in different ways but also to utilize the information in more ways than one. This is a valuable asset to have in any field of study or job that they are trained for.
The reason I would suggest that they all be given this 2 year degree, is based on not only the logistical nightmare and expense of letting them choose whatever field they are interested in, but also the problems that would arise with the spaces in the colleges suddenly being flooded with thousands more students all at once. The answer to that is fairly simple.
Since they will all be studying for the same degree, we basically continue high school for an additional 2 years. liberal arts has no labs to worry about setting up, taking up space and costing the taxpayer out the back side so the high school classrooms should be sufficient.
The last issue is transportation, if the 2 year degree is done with classes at the local college and it is mandatory (unless a waiver has been issued) we have an obligation to provide transportation for the students. Now if the 2 additional years of school is done at the high school, the bus services that are being used for the students for high school will work for the ones that have reached the 13th and 14th year of school. so lets take your average high school community, the only real expense to do this would be the salary for the professors and that would not be noticed by the average taxpayer. As a matter of fact, since high schools are funded through property taxes, In most areas, the cost of the college degree would not be done at a federal level.
and finally, something that may
So other than the critical thinking benefit, how is this going to be of value.
for very little investment we end up with almost all students in the country having an associates degree and our national graduate rates will be huge. But the even greater value to society is that all of these students are now better equipped to pick a field of study and do well in it.
We as a society are going to end up with a much better educated registry of professionals.
so, in short, I now agree with Bernie that free college would be a great benefit to our society.
However after thinking about it now for some time I see where it actually could be somewhat of a good thing if done properly. And, if done properly I dont think it would cost anywhere near as much as people think.
My idea would be to essentially extend high school by two years. Yes the little tykes get to have their prom and get their high school diploma after meeting the requirements upon graduating the 12th grade, but, they still 2 more years of public education. It could even be optional for them.
One of the problems that I see is that there are too many fields of study to offer two years for free, so Im thinking, what if that two year degree was a liberal arts degree? It is true that one would have a difficult time finding a great paying job with a degree of any level if that degree was liberal arts, but there really is a value in that degree.
It teaches critical thinking, students come away with that degree with a greater ability to look for alternatives to a problem, they have the ability to look at given information and analyze that information with a greater understanding, and as I said the thought process to not only see it in different ways but also to utilize the information in more ways than one. This is a valuable asset to have in any field of study or job that they are trained for.
The reason I would suggest that they all be given this 2 year degree, is based on not only the logistical nightmare and expense of letting them choose whatever field they are interested in, but also the problems that would arise with the spaces in the colleges suddenly being flooded with thousands more students all at once. The answer to that is fairly simple.
Since they will all be studying for the same degree, we basically continue high school for an additional 2 years. liberal arts has no labs to worry about setting up, taking up space and costing the taxpayer out the back side so the high school classrooms should be sufficient.
The last issue is transportation, if the 2 year degree is done with classes at the local college and it is mandatory (unless a waiver has been issued) we have an obligation to provide transportation for the students. Now if the 2 additional years of school is done at the high school, the bus services that are being used for the students for high school will work for the ones that have reached the 13th and 14th year of school. so lets take your average high school community, the only real expense to do this would be the salary for the professors and that would not be noticed by the average taxpayer. As a matter of fact, since high schools are funded through property taxes, In most areas, the cost of the college degree would not be done at a federal level.
and finally, something that may
So other than the critical thinking benefit, how is this going to be of value.
for very little investment we end up with almost all students in the country having an associates degree and our national graduate rates will be huge. But the even greater value to society is that all of these students are now better equipped to pick a field of study and do well in it.
We as a society are going to end up with a much better educated registry of professionals.
so, in short, I now agree with Bernie that free college would be a great benefit to our society.
