This sort of thing doesn’t help.
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Hope this doesn’t go anywhere.
I think it’s well-intentioned and dumb. Instead of debt cancellation, we need higher ed reform so that people can go to college without taking on that much debt.
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I regret that I have but one star to give this post.
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You may like this less though:
I think we should treat higher education as a “right”. I think this makes sense from an economic and moral perspective, and I think more higher education would have a great effect on outcomes in this nation.
So I think every state should be required to provide an affordable public education to in-state students, with affordable being defined as “you can graduate without debt if you hold a part time job during the school year and a full time job in the summer”.
How do we pay for this? You allow states to figure it out on their own, with the condition above being the law. I recommend the states do this:
- a lot of taxes
- a large reduction in student services/staff/admin
- a consolidation of departments in the humanities and social sciences (instead of 8 identity departments, you have 1 political science and 1 sociology department)
- in fields where “research” is mostly meaningless (again, the humanities and social sciences), professors must teach more and have lower expectations in terms of grant money and publications. They should be evaluated primarily on their teaching and not on their publications
-government research grants can be reduced, especially in non-applied fields. Grants should go primarily to people in public institutions.
One problem we have with high ed is that our political class all went to expensive private colleges. Unlike most of us, they never experienced the ability to work their way through school. Their Harvards and Stanfords were charging $50,000 per year in tuition alone even back in the 90s when these people were in school. They have no idea that a quality alternative was ever really in place. They never saw their local public school as a quality alternative at all.
Does this belong in the politics category? Feel free to move it if it does.
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If community colleges are part of your plan, I like it.
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Sure, but states should make the flagship institution affordable (by my same definition of affordable).
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I love the federalism take on this, and pushing it back to the states. In that regard, I’d eliminate loaning money for education. That in turn would eliminate even more of the overhead and bureaucracy because those would not be affordable. By eliminating the overhead costs would drop. Hell, I suggest this time of thing for local school districts, cut the overhead, cut the bureaucracy. Shift that money to the teachers as salary and money they can use as they see fit in their classrooms to promote learning. Private institutions could do whatever they wanted, as long as they don’t take public moneys. If they take public moneys then get the the same reqs about cutting bureaucracies and overhead.
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My experience (20 years ago) was that the financials of college were what drove a large part of my choice. I hustled and went to the place where I had the best financial package - a full out-of-state tuition scholarship to the U. I hustled for a couple of other scholarships ($1k from my local credit union, $1k undergrad research, little engineering schollie) - I applied for a dozen or more. I got little $100 here and there as well. When I went to grad school, I was in a STEM degree, so my tuition was paid and I got a stipend to do research. All in all, I probably got $200k in benefits. Once, I calculated the time I spent in HS, studying, and participating in activities and it came out to $25/hr job - so my ‘job’ in HS paid off.
My point is this - some pick a college and will do/pay anything for that. Consider other options that fit financial aid, what can be afforded, etc. My youngest sister got all sorts of student debt to fund a lifestyle - now, she had a degree that made her a lot and she paid it off, but why not only limit borrowing to in-state tuition levels and that’s it (PT/summer job for living expenses)?
I realize others experiences are different, that I realize I had some privilege built in, and that the ‘game’ has changed. I’m tracking tuition and other costs as I plan for my kids and the acceleration is stunning, maybe 2nd only to healthcare.
My hope would be similar to @sancho - make education available and affordable to all. Perhaps even make community colleges free (get an associates degree or trade training then you could choose to go on for a bachelors degree).
Universities have become too much about research dollars and endowments - leave that to the private institutions and moderate at the state ones. More and more companies have abandoned their own research and outsourced it to universities, making the money enticing but it has increased the arms game. You may get world experts for professors, but they might teach 2-3 classes a year. Why should student’s be funding research labs (facilities)? Things are misaligned (teaching vs. research) for the bachelor education experience.
The taxes (state) invested in quality education helps the (state) economy and with additional financial aid for those that need it, helps raise people (in the state) to new qualities of life.
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My grandaughter did this, although to an out of state school. She is extremely bright and motivated, and had so much scholarship money that she had to report a good portion of it each year as income on her taxes (any money that doesn’t go directly to education expenses).
Here’s how we pay for this.
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Any public university has their undergrad tuition capped at $250 a credit
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Any college with an endowment over 1 billion automatically is taxed 50% of it’s endowment.
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Loans are capped at 3% interest.
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You have my vote!
Stanford President resigns. This on the heels of Stanford’s Provost stepping down in Fall. Stanford may be rudderless for a bit.