Should we aim bigger on higher education demands?

Beyond free community college tuition for two years, as proposed by President Obama last week, should young people and students be demanding even more?

Political infeasibility aside, what about just making college tuition zero at all public colleges in the United States for four years? Implementation logistics might be difficult (who pays whom how much, when something is free to the end user?), but the projected Federal costs of such a policy are actually fairly reasonable:

If President Obama truly wants to transform the cost of higher education, however, he could make college free for all students without having to lay out more money to pay for it. That’s because the federal government could take the $69 billion it currently spends to subsidize the cost of college through grants, tax breaks, and work-study funds and instead cover tuition at all public colleges, which came to $62.6 billion in 2012, the most recent data. (The government spends another $197.4 billion on student loans.) That would give all students who want to get a college degree a free option to do so. It could also put pressure on private universities to compete with the free option by reducing their costs, which have risen 13 percent over the last five years.

Eliminating college tuition with the money spent on subsidies could also make the system more equal. Currently, the government’s tax-based aid mostly flows to wealthy families instead of low- and middle-income ones. And Pell Grants, which do go to low-income students, have been cut in recent years and cover a small percentage of the cost of college.

 
If a free tuition program were means-tested or something along those lines — to ensure affluent students were not being given free rides on taxpayer funds (though I’m sure that would prove very politically unpopular and might undermine support for giving it to anyone) — the cost would be even less.

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100th Episode! September 24, 2014 – Arsenal For Democracy 100

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Topics: Implications of the Scotland no vote, ADA non-compliance in higher ed, 100th episode celebration. People: Bill, Nate, Persephone. Produced: September 21, 2014.

Discussion Points:

– What are the implications of the Scotland referendum outcome for the United Kingdom and other European separatist movements?
– Why aren’t colleges and universities doing more to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act?

Part 1 – Scotland:
Part 1 – Scotland – AFD 100
Part 2 – ADA Compliance, 100th Episode:
Part 2 – ADA, 100th Episode – AFD 100

To get one file for the whole episode, we recommend using one of the subscribe links at the bottom of the post.

Related links
Segment 1

Boston Globe – Opinion: On education technology, college lobbyists are keeping disabled students behind
USA Today: U.S. Justice Department sues Kent State over student’s therapy dog
CentreDaily: ADA football parking changes off to rocky start

Segment 2

BBC: Madrid opposes Catalan referendum
Financial Times: Alex Salmond brushes aside the foreign policy facts for Scotland
AFD: April 14, 2014 – Arsenal For Democracy 80, Part 2: European Nationalism

Subscribe

RSS Feed: Arsenal for Democracy Feedburner
iTunes Store Link: “Arsenal for Democracy by Bill Humphrey”

And don’t forget to check out The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal, the video blog of our announcer, Justin.

September 17, 2014 – Arsenal For Democracy 99

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Topics: NFL, colleges, and handling assaults; Obama’s new Syria/ISIS policy. Content warning: Domestic violence discussion. People: Bill, Nate, Persephone. Produced: September 14, 2014.

Discussion Points:

– What role should institutions like the NFL and colleges play in investigating and punishing players and students for alleged domestic violence, sexual assaults, and other crimes?
– Is President Obama’s plan to strike ISIS in Syria really comparable to his airstrikes in Somalia and Yemen? Can it succeed?

Part 1 – NFL and Crimes Off the Field:
Part 1 – NFL and Violence – AFD 99
Part 2 – ISIS/Syria:
Part 2 – ISIS and Syria – AFD 99

To get one file for the whole episode, we recommend using one of the subscribe links at the bottom of the post.

Related links

ThinkProgress: The Most Discouraging Sentence in Obama’s Entire ISIS Speech
Arsenal For Democracy: Is Obama’s Anti-ISIS Operation Really Just Intended to Overthrow Assad?

Subscribe

RSS Feed: Arsenal for Democracy Feedburner
iTunes Store Link: “Arsenal for Democracy by Bill Humphrey”

And don’t forget to check out The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal, the video blog of our announcer, Justin.

August 13, 2014 – Arsenal For Democracy 95

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Topics: Big Ideas in U.S. Reform – Guaranteed Incomes vs Job Creation; Higher Education Reform. Iraq analysis. People: Bill, Persephone, Nate. Produced: August 10, 2014.

Discussion Points:

– Big Idea: Should government guarantee minimum incomes or guarantee jobs? What is the purpose of employment?
– Big Idea: What is the government’s proper role in reforming and regulating higher education?
– Iraq: How far should the current U.S. intervention go?

Part 1 – Income vs Jobs:
Part 1 – Guaranteed Incomes – AFD 95
Part 2 – Higher Ed Reform:
Part 2 – Higher Ed Reform – AFD 95
Part 3 – Iraq Intervention:
Part 3 – Iraq Intervention – AFD 95

To get one file for the whole episode, we recommend using one of the subscribe links at the bottom of the post.

Related links
Segment 1

Vox: A guaranteed income for every American would eliminate poverty — and it wouldn’t destroy the economy

Segment 2

Slate: The Dangerous Conservative Idea for Making College Cheaper

Segment 3

AFD: Questionable complaints from Baghdad
AFD: Analysis of Mosul Dam, Mount Sinjar, U.S. Airstrikes
AFD: Who are the Yazidis at Mount Sinjar right now?
AFD: ISIS rolls back Kurdish forces in Iraq. What’s next?

Subscribe

RSS Feed: Arsenal for Democracy Feedburner
iTunes Store Link: “Arsenal for Democracy by Bill Humphrey”

And don’t forget to check out The Digitized Ramblings of an 8-Bit Animal, the video blog of our announcer, Justin.

Are Republicans going the wrong way on higher ed reform?

There’s a mounting push from Congressional Republicans (and some Democrats, possibly including Pres. Obama) to “break” the current accreditation system for higher education, to try to make college more affordable and more useful. Slate’s Jordan Weissman has a new piece out on the various efforts, titled The Dangerous Conservative Idea for Making College Cheaper. I think this article is on the right track and appropriately nuanced in its evaluation, despite the hardline headline:

Any conversation about fixing our broken accreditation system needs to think about both sides of the equation: making room for new ideas and pushing out bad ones. Right now, the majority of politicians are focused mostly on the first half, which should worry us all. You can talk about smashing the cartel all you want. But I’m not sure anybody would be happy with what might take its place.

 
There are some definite problems with the system as-is, but the solutions being pitched (by Republicans especially) are mostly off-base — such as ditching any system of regulation or quality control altogether, instead of fixing it — with some buried potential within them.

For example, it would actually be really interesting if major corporations could design apprenticeship-style programs that teach a transferable skills base useful to working in that industry (that company as well as the wider field) and have those programs being recognized in some way similar to a bachelor’s degree. But, again, that doesn’t require dismantling the entire accreditation system.

That said, I think the accreditation system does need to be dramatically shaken up to deal with the for-profit scam-school menace, which they’ve really let slide.

Additionally, I think that there’s some merit to the idea of reforming the financial aid system (though not the Republican way) to make sure it’s actually going to people who need it to go to school at all and that it’s purchasing a valuable education for those students. At the moment, it seems more geared toward handing out aid to upper-ish middle class kids (who will at least go to some college with or without financial aid) to help them pay for luxury name-brand schools instead of cheaper schools, and that’s allowing colleges to jack up everyone’s degree costs, given the inflated supply of available money to purchase them. In the same vein, we need to invest a lot more into the public higher education system to make those degrees both affordable to all and of exemplary and recognized quality.

AFD 55 – College Costs

Latest Episode:
“AFD 55 – College Costs”
Posted: Tues, 03 September 2013

Bill and Persephone critique President Obama’s proposed reforms to the cost of higher education. Then we discuss three military cases involving death penalty level crimes and the related issue of anti-Muslim attitudes in the U.S. Finally we look at the shocking number of squirrel-related power failures and what that says about America’s infrastructure.

Additional links referenced:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/31/barack-obama-jay-leno-muslim-universal-rights

http://www.theglobalist.com/passing-up-a-golden-opportunity/

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/14/210620446/10-years-after-the-blackout-how-has-the-power-grid-changed

http://www.theglobalist.com/doubling-down-on-wind-ireland-greens-its-grid-looks-to-export/

http://energyblog.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/09/as-u-s-plans-7-billion-effort-to-electrify-africa-it-faces-challenges-at-home/