Collegee Aid Mistakes

Paying for College
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<p>That’s not true. Many countries offer free college education for its elite students. Under your Utopian system, all but one of my kids would probably go to school for free. And in Utopia, my poorer student could learn how to be an electrician or plumber without investment from me either. As it is, we’re a full pay family who will only consider state (or county) schools or schools that will give our kids merit.</p>

<p>Education is a commodity. As a society, we’ve decided that food, healthcare, and education, in addition to being commodities, are also basic human rights. But all three of them are limited by income. As much as I’d love to have champagne and caviar to go along with my dinner, we can only afford sliced celery sticks and boxed wine. </p>

<p>And @twoinanddone‌ is right - nobody needs to be going into 100k of debt to go to college. Nobody. If you’re a good student, you have merit options. If you’re an average or lower student, you’ve got community college and your education can end there. Or, for a little more money and with some motivation, you can continue on to a state school. And if you’re truly poor, you can probably knock a fair amount of that already low bill off with Pell grants, and that’s true even if you’re a crappy student. </p>

<p>In our country, education is free up to grade 12. Education as a basic human right is not the issue. Your issue, properly framed, is whether or not a kid should be able go to the school of his dreams and live there at the taxpayers’ expense. Welcome to life. He can do that, but he may have to pay for it. </p>

<p>There are a lot of reasons for social immobility in our country. One reason is debt, including massive, debilitating, student loan debt. Avoid it, and other social ills, like drug use, teen pregnancy, and babies you can’t afford. and you’ve got a good chance of moving up the economic ladder. On top of not making the big mistakes, if get up and work your tail off everyday, the odds are practically guaranteed that you won’t be as poor as when you started. Even without the taxpayers footing the bill for you to live away at your dream school.</p>

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<p>But why would you not focus on the individual examples? Because the answers are too obvious? The first kid lived in East Brunswick. You can practically throw a rock to Rutgers from East Brunswick. He could’ve commuted. If all his summer and part time earnings went to his car and he had to borrow every single dime to go to school, he could’ve come out with a comparatively low 44k in debt. From Rutgers. Instead, he borrowed 90k to graduate with a degree from Fairleigh Dickinson (fairly what?) What was he thinking? Why did he think that was a good idea? Why is he looking for sympathy? </p>

<p>The second kid got a windfall. And she didn’t want to hand it over to the school. Meanwhile, people who actually worked for their money are expected to just write a check and help subsidize her financial aid. </p>

<p>Yeah. I see why you don’t want to focus on the individual examples.</p>

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<p>I would not compare eating out to a college education. I’m not saying the government should pay for every student to attend a $60,000 a year university. But the problem is that even public schools are not as affordable as they used to be, and they are experiencing massive cuts in funding that place a greater burden of the cost on students through tuition, and there isn’t the government help to match. To bring in your analogy, yes, the government shouldn’t pay for everyone to eat out every night, but that’s hardly an appropriate analogy for a college education in today’s society. If you’re comparing the restaurant meal just to a high-priced private education, sure, I can kind of get the idea. But just like everyone has a right to eat, everyone should have access to a college education, and I don’t think there’s enough support to make that happen. Bring in the unpopular opinion puffin, but I’d be willing to pay more taxes for more public services, like universal health care and free public education.</p>

<p>The arguments for merit aid only hold down to a certain level. If you look at the students receiving merit aid, most of them will still be from a relatively decent socioeconomic background. There are many, many capable students who fall through the system much earlier because their economic status lands them in poor schools, their parents don’t have the time (or perhaps the education or necessary system-savvy) to help them from a young age, and the resources aren’t there to develop the students’ potential long before college is even seen as a possibility. Yes, there is help for low income families, but it is nowhere near enough, and it does not start soon enough. It seems naive to say “The problem is more in the family than in the school.” The problem is more systemic than that and is rooted in a poor social safety net that extends beyond college education into early education and long-term poverty reduction issues.</p>

<p>I think that, as a nation, we are squandering a lot of potential by only looking narrowly at the issue of access to college as a purely financial one that begins at age 18. The issue is much broader and much deeper.</p>

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<p>How? How is the issue much broader and deeper? Mediocre students from poor families can go to community college for free. Free. </p>

<p>If you think the issue is much broader and deeper because of drug usage, absentee fathers, lack of motivation due to reliance on welfare, racism, violence, and a host of other problems, I’d probably agree with you. But when we’re talking about education funding, and idiots who take on 100k to go to school, wringing our hands and saying the government isn’t funding college enough is not the answer. </p>

<p>The answer is to drive home the point that there are perfectly decent and affordable educations within everyone’s grasp. No matter how low their income.</p>