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This is not to say that these people are not underpaid; they absolutely are. They are the middle class that is rapidly being squeezed into poverty as the rich get richer.
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<p>I am puzzled that you say these people are middle class. At minimum wage? Middle class should mean being able to afford a modest house, eventually.</p>
<p>....is that what it is, or what it was?</p>
<p>Let me tell you a story about a man I met this week while waiting for a bus on the college campus where I work. Like me, he is a man in his 40's. He grew up in the area (a medium sized city in the south) and had gone to college (at his parents insistence) out of high school, got a liberal arts type degree and went to work in a local factory in a low level management type position which hired new college grads with any degree for such positions as well as promoting from the line to those positions. </p>
<p>He married, bought a modest home, but did not have children. His job was a grind. Eventually, life took a turn for the worse, with his marraige ending and things at work looking worse. He decided to take his savings (from the sale of the home) and go back to college. He decided he wanted to go to med school and help people. But with almost no math or science required for his original BA, he has basically had to start over on getting a more appropriate degree so he can apply to med school.</p>
<p>The fact that he was pushed to get his degree (basically meaningless to his career ideas at the time) put the idea in his mind that he COULD improve his lot through education. He now lives in a dorm with all the rest of the students and has a true passion for learning. I feel reasonably confident whether or not he gets into med school (he also thought a career at a local biotech company might be a fall back plan), he will move his life forward and be happy, productive and financially successfull in the end.</p>
<p>Now you might be asking, "What does this have to do with requiring a college application?"</p>
<p>Well the fact that he was pushed (in this case by his parents) into a liberal arts education (it was the easiest degree for him to finish) that he really didn't need for the jobs at hand (nor for the eventual promotion he got) made it possible for him to later have the confidence to pursue a passion when it appeared as he was digging out of a personal hole in his life.</p>
<p>I've seen several posters lament the lack of opportunities for college graduates, with the quality of the jobs being only marginally above those of HS graduates and hardly worth the tuition. The "Why bother" argument is the first discouragement that leads to a life of limited opportunities. Why train for jobs that are not there? Because when they do appear you had better be ready or you will be trapped forever.</p>
<p>Discouragement is the key ingredient to poverty. And poverty is more a state of mind than of income or assets. The poor in the US have more income and assets than the middle class of most of the world, yet they lament their situation and point out the great differences between them and the "rich". Yet the middle class of these developing countries, with fewer assets and less income are far happier in their lives and far more encouraging to their children. While they may not be well educated, they want their children to become better educated.</p>
<p>What I'm hearing from the Maine contingent is that the educational opportunities available are not worth the money or effort at overcrowded CCs. This is hardly the voice of an upwardly mobile middle-class, but more that of a defeated underclass - almost the same as you hear in inner-city ghettos.</p>
<p>The fact that Maine is trying (perhaps ham-handedly) to do is push their young towards what are uncertain improvements in their lifestyle, I see as very similar to what the man at the bus stop's parents pushing him to get a college degree. Somebody's got to break the cycle of low-paying jobs necessetating high tax rates (because there are few high earners to tax) and those high tax rates keeping better paying jobs out of the region.</p>
<p>The people of Maine (and many other places as well) need to understand that first you must make capital investments (education is a capital investment as it can pay dividends) BEFORE any improvement in income can be expected.</p>
<p>Yes, perhaps the Georgia (and Tennessee) model of lottery-funded college scholarships (for student of a fairly modest GPA requirement) is a better state led initiative, but I'd hardly criticize any push that is toward better educating the citizenry. </p>
<p>Oh, and by the way the factory where the man I met at the bus stop was managing a line has since shut down that line and moved the work to Mexico, he told me. His life was going to change regardless. But for him, the confidence that a meaningless (at the time) college degree gave him has been the difference between failure and potential for even greater success in life.</p>
<p>Poverty is a state of mind. The only way to change it is through education. You can give poor people money and they will continue to be poor well after the money is spent. Give them an education and they will have something on which they can build for themselves a better existence. How much you make at any one time is irrelevent if you future outlook is bleak. If you have the education (and confidence from that achievement), no matter how bad things get, you know that you can recover.</p>
<p>Getting off my soap box...</p>
<p>What about special ed kids? Special ed kids have graduated from my school but I'm pretty sure they weren't going anywhere post secondary.</p>
<p>Another current Maine resident here (but not lifelong).</p>
<p>I think paying3tuitions (#39) and MarathonMan (#55) have summzrized well what the real benefits here are. It's about opening some kids to new horizons, eliminating some of the "unknowns" about the whole post-secondary process.</p>
<p>Calling it "forced application" to college is a misleading shorthand for what is being promoted here. It's making sure that every hs senior goes through the process of making application for some form of post-secondary activity: 4-yr college, 2-yr college, SMCC (formerly our voc/tech school), military.... Even if the requirement were to fill out a college application, what is so wrong with that? All the research, for years, has shown that college grads have more options, better pay etc. </p>
<p>What is wrong with encouraging kids to apply for something they might not otherwise consider? Most of us, at any stage in life, if we were about to move on from our current occupation, would be foolish to think of only one possible option. If my job was about to be outsourced, I wouldn't apply to only one company. Kids who are thinking they want to go into the family business, fish or lobster, boat build, go into the lumber or paper-making industries should, of course, continue to think of those options. But let them also think about other possibilities. It's about options and not closing them down prematurely.</p>
<p>kfizzle - there are now post-secondary options for special ed kids, at least some of them. I'm not an expert, but I know that Strive U is one exciting option for this group.
<a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6129770%5B/url%5D">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6129770</a></p>
<p>And I agree with goaliedad (even if he had to climb onto a soap box to express his views ;) ). We're talking about a mind-set here. At the very least, this type of requirement gets people to think that, yes, this might be for me - now or someday. </p>
<p>Just think of the power of a kid applying to college (on a lark? because they were "forced") and being accepted. Now, they're not interested. Fine, they don't go. They follow whatever they had for Plan A (lobstering, factory work). Fast forward to when, perhaps, physical limitations or factory shutdown eliminates that job. How much easier will it be for such kids to consider careers which require post-secondary education, knowing that they were accepted once before and could now apply again?</p>
<p>Maine is trying to reverse a generational dynamic. When parents have gone to college, their children tend to grow up expecting to go to college. Well, Maine has a low college attendance rate, so there are lots of parents who do not instill this expectation. The new policy would take a step to do so, and it is PART of a broader economic development strategy.</p>
<p>I wouldn't mind more education for everyone, but I'm not inclined to want to pay $100,000 for it if I can't make a return on my investment.</p>
<p>If that happens, then don't go to college. And the supply of education goes down again. Hardly a problem.</p>
<p>Fact of the matter is, as technology becomes more sophisticated, the need for higher education can only grow. Economic growth can only be increased by increasing aggregate supply, and aggregate supply is increased by worker education.</p>
<p>After reading the arguments, and thinking about this for a bit, I have decided that it IS a good idea. It brings kids into contact with opportunities of which they might otherwise be aware. </p>
<p>It made me look back on my own history. I wish someone had had me do this, only either at the end of my junior year, or beginning of my senior year. No one from my family had attended college. Mother & father were not HS graduates, siblings had been, with one earning a GED in the military. After HS the boys went to the military. Eventually, one sister made it to a local nursing school. No one was against, but no one knew how to be for it. It wasn't until I heard about other kids being "accepted" at college that I had a clue one applied in HS for college. I had some friends who decided to go to the local community college and knew how to apply. They harassed me into going to the school and filling out an application. I needed a lot of help in doing so. I filled out an application in the fall, and attended about a week later. I was lucky and clueless. It changed my life. I ended up doing doctoral work at a truly great university in a field I love, did the research, teaching, college administrator thing, founded related businesses, and was fortunate enough to add a little to human knowledge along the way. The "way," it turned out, was quite difficult with many starts and stops. If I had actually begun the process a little sooner, and had come in contact with the requirements and the opportunities, it may have made it a little easier, and perhaps simple blind luck would not have been so necessary. </p>
<p>If even a few of these kids, who might not otherwise have thought about it, get their chance at college, etc., then it is worth it. So what if there are a few more applications? Few seem to be concerned about all the applications coming from top kids to improve their admission options, and the colleges seem to put a lot into marketing to get increased applications, so a few more applications from kids who just might have their lives turned around, sounds like a good deal to me.</p>
<p>Good story, idad. Sounds like your HS could have used more proactive counselors, as could those in Maine.</p>
<p>mommusic: That is an understatement, I believe 23 students from a class of 405 went on to a 4 year college.</p>
<p>I went back to try and see if things have improved in the past *&#! years and was able to find these numbers for my old HS. No college numbers were posted, but I did find some interesting other numbers. The average annual ACT score for the school is 20, the average SAT score (CR/Math) 1005. </p>
<p>Here is the mission statement for the high school.
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______ High School staff desires to provide quality, up-to-date instruction that prepares our students for the world of work. We are also concerned that our students leave us with the skills and knowledge necessary to function as concerned citizens capable of providing for themselves and their families. Our students are introduced to a variety of career options and are assisted in identifying the education, skills, and attitudes necessary to attain their career goals.
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<p>And here is the posted college prep advice:
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At the beginning of senior year, students should narrow down their college choices. It is important to know the deadlines for applying to choice schools. Applying to at least four schools is beneficial. In winter of senior year, applying for financial aid is important because the sooner it is applied for, the more there is available. Most schools require a decision by April or May.</p>
<p>Remember to pass all required classes, do research, and make an educated choice!
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<p>This school has few URM's, and is simply a typical working–class school. I doubt these kids get much information about college and what it takes during their entire high school experience. I would bet they would be hard pressed to name 3 Ivy's and if that term were used, probably none. The state flagship, some regional U's and the local community college is probably it. These kids, as I would have, could probably benefit from Maine's proposal.</p>