President Obama to Propose First two Years of Community College Free on Friday

[DarthShizNit]

Holy education policy batman!

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Thursday announced a proposal that President Barack Obama said would make community college "free for everybody who is willing to work for it." But administration officials provided no details about the program's costs or where the money would come to pay for it.
Obama planned to formally announce the plan Friday at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee. He gave a preview in a videotaped message shot aboard Air Force One and posted on Facebook.
"It's not just for kids," Obama said. "We also have to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to constantly train themselves for better jobs, better wages, better benefits."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_6439752.html

No specifics at the moment, but a bold move considering a brand new GOP congress out for blood.

So, does America stand a chance at bold education reform? Or will this nice idea simply die like most ideas in Congress?

[Big War Bird]

"Free for everyone willing to work for it"

My double talk detector's needle just broke the speed of light.

[removeduser_487563287433]

"Free for everyone willing to work for it"

My double talk detector's needle just broke the speed of light.

Depends on whether you want to find out what that means or if you want to be a partisan waste of space. Could just mean free for those that meet the grades.

Anyway, sounds like a great policy, and of course what every other western nation already has.

[justicar5]

"Free for everyone willing to work for it"

My double talk detector's needle just broke the speed of light.

get good enough grades don't pay.

Yea, two more years of highschool free!



A time when people are figuring out a college degree for the sake of one is useless, someone wants to give away half of one for "free".

Great, sounds good, does nothing, costs a fortune, thanks Obama!

ofc they should sign up with the republican plan and go and slaughter brown people, either at home by joining the police or abroad by joining a mercenary company and commiting war crimes on a scale not seen since Vietnam!

Or go to the Republican plan universities: be so massively in debt you have to sell your children as sex slaves to the republican congress men, after all if they don't rape at least one child a week to death they get antsy and demand another war.

[Big War Bird]

We already have more college grads than we have college level jobs. It's a waste.

[removeduser_487563287433]

We already have more college grads than we have college level jobs. It's a waste.

Having a more educated American workforce may encourage more educated jobs in the USA, however. The alternative is the USA sacrificing its quality of life to compete with China and Bangladesh.

[Big War Bird]

Now you are talking like a supply sider. Last I read about a third of college educated people in the us are employed in high school level work. The supply is ample. Throwing more money at college degrees is in diminishing return territory.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Now you are talking like a supply sider. Last I read about a third of college educated people in the us are employed in high school level work. The supply is ample. Throwing more money at college degrees is in diminishing return territory.

May I see that source?

[Celsius]

Now you are talking like a supply sider. Last I read about a third of college educated people in the us are employed in high school level work. The supply is ample. Throwing more money at college degrees is in diminishing return territory.

Most of those people with degrees working in high school level jobs have degrees that are not in demand (arts and the like). However, degrees in engineering, computers, and medical are the ones where America tends to lack most, therefore creating a plethora of jobs right out of the gate for graduates who hold those degrees.

[Gaidin]

We already have more college grads than we have college level jobs. It's a waste.

That's mostly because nearly everybody that lists a job requires a degree whether or not the job needs one and that's the decision of the company listing the job not the person applying for it. Whine whine whine on your part. It's to the point that whether you like it or not a high school diploma ain't enough.

[removeduser_487563287433]

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/8/7518579/...munity-college

75% fed paid, 25% state paid, and yes there are attendance and grade requirements, so not as unfunded as BWB implied.

[Celsius]

Sending this to Congress with it's nice "Dead on Arrival" status

Oh Congress. You're like Santa Claus, but instead of giving gifts you give us nothing because you suffocated in the chimney. I love you, Congress.

[snuggans]

that the White House chose to publicly admit within the same initial announcement that this proposal is inspired by a very similar law signed last year in republican-heavy Tennessee means that they're putting the GOP into yet another situation where if they vote against this simply because it is Obama's proposal, it will only anger the younger crowd they've been struggling with PR-wise as well as yet again going against legislation that is similar to what republican governors/senates have passed in the past but is completely intolerable if any credit at all goes to Obama. states rights once again will not be able to be used as an argument because it is opt-in, which will likely be easier than having certain states refuse to expand medicaid.

[Phier]

Yea, two more years of highschool free!



A time when people are figuring out a college degree for the sake of one is useless, someone wants to give away half of one for "free".

Great, sounds good, does nothing, costs a fortune, thanks Obama!

[conon394]

Yea, two more years of highschool free!



A time when people are figuring out a college degree for the sake of one is useless, someone wants to give away half of one for "free".

Great, sounds good, does nothing, costs a fortune, thanks Obama!

Wow thanks Phier for a typically vapid and predictable response...

Community college is not High School and it is often a better option than paying Harvard rates to take Calc 101 for the same class (or often better since your not sitting a lecture hall with 100 students listening to an over worked TA). Community College is also a second chance if you will given the crazy quit and quality of HS in the US do to local funding.

Done right with tie in to business, unions and professional associations and thus with work experience options it could be the basis for effective apprenticeship type programs.

But why bother let's just be snarky

A time when people are figuring out a college degree for the sake of one is useless

Which ones are useless - that is a function spiraling cost, debt and programs that fail to be honest with students and provide proper space for mentoring.

[Vanoi]

Yea, two more years of highschool free!



A time when people are figuring out a college degree for the sake of one is useless, someone wants to give away half of one for "free".

Great, sounds good, does nothing, costs a fortune, thanks Obama!

Two more years of high school? There is plenty of associate degrees that can land a person a nice job. Paralegal is one. Law enforcement is another.

Why do people assume associate degrees are useless?

[Phier]

Two more years of high school? There is plenty of associate degrees that can land a person a nice job. Paralegal is one. Law enforcement is another.

Why do people assume associate degrees are useless?

I assume a free program which will keep people out of the workforce for 2 more years at taxpayer expense and for the majority won't make a difference is useless. Most university degrees end up being useless. This will end up with more useless than useful. Welcome to the real world.

[Sir Adrian]

I assume a free program which will keep people out of the workforce for 2 more years at taxpayer expense and for the majority won't make a difference is useless. Most university degrees end up being useless. This will end up with more useless than useful. Welcome to the real world.

Considering that many college graduates are unemployed and living off benefits I think keeping people out of the workforce for 2 years is not such a bad think.

[Simon Cashmere]

Yea, two more years of highschool free!



A time when people are figuring out a college degree for the sake of one is useless, someone wants to give away half of one for "free".

Great, sounds good, does nothing, costs a fortune, thanks Obama!

Well, when you are insolvent - may as well keep cranking out the goodies until the Fed, the IMF, World Bank, rating agencies and the Chinese take away the keys, amiright? Remember, it's not REAL money - it's PUBLIC money.

If they were identifying, what regional areas have job skill shortages - say welders - and were prepared to send people to school in that region to be a welder - and have the person pay *something back* maybe not everything but something when they get a job, I could see sense in that. But two years of community college - so you could do, Dr Sarkisian's 'All about the Misogyny of Gamergate' course on the public dime - how is that helping.

[Gaidin]

so you could do, Dr Sarkisian's 'All about the Misogyny of Gamergate' course on the public dime - how is that helping.

I have no clue why something so specialized as that would be in the first two years of college anyway. Those are typically the University Studies courses that every student has to take. I think you just did a really good job demonstrating you have no clue what you're talking about. You want to take something so advanced in sociology or whatever field that would be in, take it when you're ready for it. Like, when you're a damn senior. And shockingly paying for your school.