Should college be a right?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>Back to the original question: Should college be a “right”? I agree with originalthought. And I also know kids for whom college is not the best option. They’re smart and motivated, but are not traditional learners and don’t enjoy school. Most of them are on their way to decent, secure careers as skilled workers in fields like electronics or auto mechanics. We need those kinds of workers too.</p>

<p>Most bright, hardworking students who do enjoy school have affordable college options. It’s not a perfect system, but there are a lot of good community colleges (our hometown has a fabulous one) and state schools that can get motivated kids off to a great start.</p>

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<p>I don’t think it should be a right.
I read an interesting article in a recent new yorker that reminded me of this a bit. Often times I’ve heard that nowadays, a BA is not as competitive as it used to be with a great amount of students going on from high school to undergraduate (since there are many, many uncompetitive institutions out there offering BAs, earning one is not too hard). </p>

<p>Echoing OtherWindow, I fear that if the gates were opened to a larger group of americans, not only would it potentially hurt the quality of higher education but would almost certainly devalue the degree as more and more job applicants can boast an undergraduate degree.
It’d be interesting to examine data (which I don’t have) wrt the following questions:</p>

<p>Do most kids that don’t go on to higher ed. do so because of money or inability (to get in, or get scholarships) or something else?</p>

<p>If higher ed were free, would class sizes multiply? by how much? at which schools?</p>

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<p>I think too many people are becoming lazy. They can’t be on their own rather they constantly need someone to hold their hand. This argument is just like every kid now gets a trophy for playing baseball. Parents are becoming crazy in the fact that try can’t see their child not win. If you don’t get first then you didn’t win. Where would be if no one had to work hard for achievement? College is something people should work for. College is a reward for working your butt off. Plenty of people have done well and succeeded in life even though they didn’t go to college. And no one can say college is too expensive because all of the top schools give so much financial aid. There are also plenty of community colleges and other cheaper options. There are also plenty of scholarships and programs to make college more affordable. My parent came from low income families, they spent their summers and school years working and saving money so that they could afford their education.</p>

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<p>Most state-funded, university systems are affordable such that anyone with a GPA better than 2.7 and a plan can go to some form of college. Ironically, the places where state tuition is increasingly going up are states where socialist policy has already incurred ridiculous amounts of debt. (I’m not going to name names but…)</p>

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<p>It is your own responsibility to make college an option for yourself, not society’s. Besides, not everyone is cut out for college.</p>

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<p>@strat94 I hear you. every parent wants to hear their child is a special snowflake and instead of pushing their kids they make excuses… (why else do you think psychiatric disorders are getting diagnosed every 2 seconds?) </p>

<p>You have to work with the circumstances you are given. If you can make the best of them, you will be successful no matter your background. if you want a degree you should figure out what you need to do to get it and do it. In no way is the government or society obligated to make something happen for you.</p>

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<p>The problem is.</p>

<p>So many of these kids are addicted to the internet and other things.</p>

<p>Why can’t they just learn that if you do the hard work, eventually it gets easier?</p>

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<p>^Just because you work hard, doesn’t mean it gets easier. It’s not that straightforward.</p>

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<p>^It makes it easier than if you don’t work hard.</p>

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<p>^^and there will always be someone else that has it “easier” than you to get where you are going.</p>

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<p>^Very true, but no one should have the mindset that if (s)he works hard now, it will be smooth sailing. It will be smoothER sailing, but it won’t give you a free ride through life.</p>

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<p>My response was to dreamer2012.</p>

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<p>Dusterbug, I’ll put it this way:</p>

<p>This nation’s economy is not sustainable with a population that does not have access to basic education. Our K-12 education system ensures that you live in a society with the economic means to support a comfortable lifestyle.</p>

<p>That, and when the streets are flooded with young people with no education and no way of getting a job, they’re a whole lot more likely to commit crimes and make life outside of gated communities a whole lot more difficult.</p>

<p>There are no industrialised Western-style economies out there which do not have socialistic aspects. There’s a reason.</p>

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<p>college is not a ‘right’ anywhere in the world. even in places with a highly-subsidised public university system, the only people who have access to it are the upper echelons of the academic class. If you aren’t a strong student, you don’t go to college.</p>

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<p>While we’re at it, let’s make housing a right. And a regular supply of food. And health care. And an income. And books and DVDs and video games. And vacations. And then after we’ve built our perfect society (what can go wrong?) I’ll sit on my butt and not work and reap the benefit of all of the “rights” I haven’t earned while all you suckers go to work and earn it for me.</p>

<p>College should NOT be a right for a very good reason: despite what some people would like to believe, college is a means of improving one’s career prospects. Only rich people or government workers who don’t live in the real world believe that college is all about bettering oneself. That’s what the library and wikipedia are for, that’s what chat forums on the arts are for. College is for getting a job. I know this sticks in a lot of peoples’ craws, but that’s what it is.</p>

<p>Which means that college is an investment in oneself, and just as a company must either borrow the money or spend its own money in order to invest in a new factory or the research and development of a new product, and just like a restaurant must put up its own money to invest in better tables, furnishings, more eye-pleasing surroundings, and tastier food, and just like a car dealership must use their own money (or borrow it) to hang up shiny balloons or big stickers, or expand their lot, or print out loan application forms, an individual must pay for their own investment in their career. People complain, and quite rightly. when the government spends tax-payer money on a private company. The economic principles are the same if the government subsidizes college education.</p>

<p>If you are one of those people who wants to major in art or something (you know, one of those things you don’t actually need to go to college to become an expert at) and you don’t see college as a means to a career but as an act of enlightenment and self-improvement than clap clap clap for you. I happen to agree, I find learning about culture, history, the arts, etc. very fulfilling. But I would never be so vain or selfish as to think that somebody else ought to pay for it against their will. And that’s what making college a “right” would mean, forcing people to pay for my intellectual hobbies.</p>

<p>Many things are not considered a “right” and yet are common, even among the low-income. Most American households classified as impoverished by the government have such niceties as air conditioning, cell phones, fridges, ovens, a regular supply of food, color tvs, DVD players, current-gen video game consoles, cars, etc. These things have not been declared “rights” and yet they are affordable even to the poorest among us.</p>

<p>More to the point, college isn’t for everybody. In fact, I don’t even think it’s for most people, I think it’s for fifteen to thirty percent of the population, most other people would be better served in trade schools or apprenticeships. The problem is, most Americans these days have too much pride for an apprenticeship, they are too good to work their way up from the bottom, they want to start out making $50,000 a year in a field they love.</p>

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<p>How about starting by defining ‘college should be a right’. Does that mean that college should be free? All colleges? For everyone? For how many years?
I will also note that there are a lot of affordable options.
Two year colleges typically cost under $3,000/year for tuition. With most students living at home, that’s very affordable.
Average public four year colleges charge $8000/year for in-state tuition. Also very affordable.
Nearly half of all undergrads attend schools charging less than $9000/year for tuition and fees.
Of course there are a lot of expensive private schools ( and out of state publics). But that’s not the only route to a decent education.</p>

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<p>But no guys! We live in a utopia with infinite resources to spend on every wittle extwa- special snowflake! </p>

<p>Of course we will be using ** your ** money to fund all these rights, aren’t you excited?</p>

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<p>My German teacher says that a kids go through school, there comes a point where the smartest are sent to a Gymnasium (college prep I think) and the others go on to learn a trade (I’m guessing anything from cutting hair to construction). So the kids who are fit for college can go to college paid for, so thefront hand out money and degrees to those who aren’t fit for college. I see it like this: every job must be done. Someone must build things, design it, run electricity through it, etc. They get it all (no wonder German engineering and medicine is the ****!!) so in all, I think we should model after this</p>

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<p>^ That’s why god invented morons</p>

<p>Somebody has to deliver those pizzas :p</p>

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<p>

Or we get rid of money and use social conditioning to eliminate inane senses of entitlement.</p>