How would we fund cheaper public colleges?
@bjkmom Taxes. Or a year of compulsory public service, either before or after college. Or a business-college partnership where students do unpaid internships in exchange for a fee paid by the business to the school. I know, I know, all of these ideas have problems. But you have to start somewhere with some creative thinking, because the status quo isn’t really working. We have more income inequality and I think less economic mobility (I’d have to look that latter one up) than we did in the 1950s when fewer people went to college. Public education has not made the US into the American Dream factory in the way that the opening of education to all in the 60s and 70s intended it to.
I like to hold up my adopted home state (Georgia) as an good example of funding higher education for their citizens. Lottery funds pay full tuition for all graduating high school students at all eligible public post-secondary institutions in GA with a Georgia Futures GPA of 3.70, certain rigor requirements, and a 26 ACT or 1200 SAT (Zell Miller Scholarship). You also have to keep a 3.30 GPA in undergrad to keep the scholarship. You can get ~70% of tuition paid at all eligible public post-secondary institutions by getting a Georgia Futures GPA of 3.00 in high school and keeping a 3.00 GPA in college. Students also have alternate paths using lottery funds (technical schools) which makes college costs affordable for most in-state students. Georgia also pays for dual enrollment classes while a student is in high school. I met a student last spring who is putting himself through Georgia Tech on his own and will graduate debt-free by taking well paying co-ops after every 2 semesters and the Zell Miller Scholarship. I personally want the federal government to do less (stop giving outrageous loan amounts to people who obviously not afford them), because they are a part of reason that higher education costs have exploded.
How about linking public university costs to federal aid, with tuition never above max Pell Grant.
Then, two scales: for Pell Grants students, basic room&board= federal loans. For everybody else, a variety of amenities and prices. (When Pell Grants were created, they were calculated to cover tuition, fees, room, and board at public universities, instate rates).
What bothers me is public colleges follow private colleges in admission practices and tuition and fee structures.
At the time I graduated from a public college, COA was $4500-$5500 and salary for new engineering graduates was $24,000-$32,000 - 5 or 6 times the COA. I was able to pay off my car loan ($6.5K) and student loan (around $8K) after 3 years. Students cannot do that now.
I think that community college should be free, and then the last two years based on a sliding scale based on family income. Or, four years fully funded in exchange for working in a public service or nonprofit job for four years after graduation.
We do, indeed, have public colleges that provide substantially more services and amenities than German ones. We also happen to be the one of the wealthiest nations in the history of human-kind. I’m certain we have the resources to make public education tuition-free. All that’s really required is that the wealthy, who have already benefited disproportionately from the economic regime of the past fifty years, give a little bit more money to the government.
More vocational schools would, of course, be an excellent thing. But anyone who wants to pursue a higher education should be able to do so without undue financial stress. We live in a country where we can make that happen, and we should.
^ If you look at the wealthy to pay for college cost then it may not work. We should look at where the money is wasted in our society. Tons of money have been contributed to political campaigns from both the rich and the pour but our society still has a lot of problems. Don’t pound on the wealthy too hard. We should act as a duty of every society member.
It’s really not that complicated. The cost of public tuition can be paid for with a relatively small tax on Wall Street speculation and derivatives.
If it’s not complicated then why we don’t have the solution?
I think tuition for community colleges should be free. I’d also like to see tuition free programs for any state schools. I think there should be some stipulation on how many courses and repeats are free. Also some schools like Pitt, Penn State that are only slightly funded by the state should have tuition charges. OOS students should have to pay , however
I’d like to see this funded with money pulled from private schools. Like PELL subsidized loans etc.
We are getting towards free tuition in NY state. The SUNY network is quite extensive so most residents have a state college within a commuting distance . We have TAP funds and the Excelsior available as well as reasonably low tuition with federal and state programs, low income families, even mid income, are covered. Top 10% of class who study STEM get free tuition
Room and board is expensive, however. I do think subsidies should be available for those who are not within a certain commutable distance from a college.
@CupCakeMuffins, look to Europe or Canada. Even for Internationals (us Americans), some degrees at McGill (one of the top Canadian unis) are comparable to in-state costs. Yet while some Americans go there, I don’t see Americans flocking there.
LSE (which is an Ivy-equivalent) for a 3 year bachelor’s costs less than some American colleges at in-state costs.
@coolweather, the cost of publics has tracked those of privates because the percentage of public college budgets funded by state governments has dropped like a rock since you were in college. Not sure about now, but at one point in recent years, PSU, UVa, and CU had roughly 2% of their budget funded by their state.
Yet you don’t want to increase taxes on the rich. Where would the money come from then? Why do you think people and entities make political donations?
@Sybylla, I don’t see how it is worse to be middle income in Germany.
Yes, taxes are higher, but you don’t have to pay for healthcare or education and with a strong safety net, not much fear of becoming destitute from losing your job.
The largest number of bankruptcies in the US come from medical costs. Does that happen in Germany? In the US (where a huge number of households live paycheck to paycheck, you have folks who lose their job and become homeless. Does that happen often in Germany?
Community college is essentially free, the US average for CC is $3,000 a year. It’s the cost of a four year degree at say a UC that is less affordable at 13k a year and total COA of 35K x 4 years = $140,000.
When I attended a UC in the early 90’s tuition was around $700 a quarter x 3 quarters or $2,100 a year.
3,000 dollars a year is not “essentially free”, especially for someone that is working to support a family at a low-wage job and struggling to pay rent.
@Aspiringacademic, no, not free, but you can cover with Federal loans.
@socaldad2002, look at post #32 for why the cost of publics have skyrocketed.
Thinking about it more, it is possible to work your way through college in the US if you are close to a public or private with a nontrad program, but it would likely require living at home and commuting.
Or distance programs like U of London International or Harvard Extension School.
Nothing can be considered free if it doesn’t include the cost of room and board. Just because a student commutes doens’t make room and board free. Adlut students who live at home still eat and need to be housed. Not every family is willing or able to shoulder these costs. It might be reasonable to expect students to cover room and board costs by working during school and over the summer, but don’t mistake that for “free.”
I also don’t think its fair to tie the cost of college to the parent’s income. Dont’ get me wrong, we saved for our kids and are paying for them to attend. But there are plenty of kids with parents who can’t or won’t pay, despite havin decent incomes. Regardless of the reason, its unfair to deny the kids a college education because of the actions of the parents. Its also unfair to place the whole burden of educating the next generation on parents when those educated kids will benefit society as a whole.
Publc college should be available to all kids whether or not their parents are willing to pay. Kids should be able to fund school through work and reasonable loans. I just don’t know what that cost should be.
@gallentjill: “Adlut students who live at home still eat and need to be housed. Not every family is willing or able to shoulder these costs.”
Yes, but even Germany doesn’t pay for room and board. You’re essentially saying that someone else should pay for your food and lodging, in which case, why limit it to college students?