I guess taxes that we pay to government and endowments of colleges go towards that but what I meant was to say was, why not make kids earn their education? Even, ones whose parents end up footing the bill.
Get admission on merit, maintain a good GPA, get your degree, work for government for few years in areas where your services are needed most as modestly paid interns. Once you paid your debt, go on to job market as proud men and women who earned their way without handouts. Ones who aren’t interested in colleges could do same in trade schools and community colleges.
It depends upon what sort of colleges they went to. If you want to attend an expensive school, you have to work longer. If you don’t want that, get your degree from local community college and pay it off in two years. If you want to expedite it, work part time, weekends and during summers/winters as well.
Community colleges mostly don’t offer bachelor’s degrees. I’m studying chemical engineering. Couldn’t get that at a community college.
Even the cheapest four year schools are still tens of thousands of dollars a year. We’re paying less out of pocket because of merit, but according to your plan I’d then go into indentured servitude for years and years to…erase the fact that I got merit?
Furthermore, you want adults to live on a “modest intern” salary for years after school? The time when they might want to start families? Get their own place? You can’t do that on an intern salary.
You haven’t received a college bill yet, have you? What makes you think kids aren’t earning their educations now?
Not everyone wants to work for the government. Why should a college graduate work as a modestly paid intern when companies will pay them real money? That’s not the way our system works.
Most people don’t get enough aid to attend residential college anyway. You know who’s paying for college? Parents. Your kid has high stats, but don’t make the assumption she’s going to get a full ride somewhere. Maybe you should go to a few college websites and run their Net Price Calculators so you can get an estimate of what college may cost you. I suspect it’s going to be more than you think.
Who should pay for education if not parents? Why should the government (i.e. other taxpayers) pay for your kid?
Sugarless- you get “handouts” for all sorts of things. If you own a house you are taking a tax deduction on your interest payments- why should folks living in apartments be giving YOU a handout to own a house? You give money to your church and get a tax deduction for that- I’m an atheist- why should I be subsidizing your religious organization.
Other than government loans (which should be paid back with interest) and grants to extremely low-income families, how others choose to finance education is their decision, whether that decision is colleges and universities offering aid or parents footing the bill. As a parent, you are more than welcome to require your kids to contribute to their education.
“Why should the government (i.e. other taxpayers) pay for your kid?”
All taxpayers will see a ROI on an educated society. Remember that the kids you are financing in college today are going to support you in your old age with their taxes. It is in your best interest that they earn as much as possible.
There are a very few very rich colleges that do not require some students who receive need-based aid to take out loans. Personally, I believe anyone receiving aid from a college should be expected to take out federal student loans so “they have some skin in the game.”
Most colleges that offer need-based aid to a student expect that the student will complete a work study job. Some students can avoid the need for work study jobs if they have a very good summer job, or a private sector job during the school year. Some colleges expect freshman to work an excessive number of work study hours, particularly because work study cannot be done during summer and winter breaks.
The vast majority of 4 year colleges “gap” low income students - they do not provide enough aid for them to attend, even after counting federal grants and stafford and perkins loans. If those gapped students still want to attend, they need to try to be eligible for Parent Plus loans, which require a credit check and which include many unpleasant costs and terms.
Previous posters gave good arguments. We hear so many stories about free college, students drowning in debt, good students not getting aid, students with good aid dropping out because they can’t handle college, middle class parents spending their retirement savings on tuitions etc etc that it seems right to come up with a self sustaining plan that works for everyone. If nothing else, this can start a new dialogue and we may find a better solution.
Handouts? My DD receives scholarship/aid money (in actuality just a discount on the list price) to attend her college. The transaction is at arms length, i.e. the school offers because they perceive my DD adds value to their student body and my DD accepts because she/we perceive the discounted list price is our best value for her. There’s no need for her to “earn” her education with forced servitude post graduation.
That makes sense, discounting it to attract good students who add value to the college.
However, would it be discounted for a higher stat student who can add same or even more value but can’t meet need criteria as parents have higher income though they are not willing or able to pay? For that student forced servitude of few years can be a life saver, giving him one chance to go to school that he wants to attend, can get accepted to, can add value to but can’t afford on his own?
It’s pretty interesting how some from older generations argue that the current generations of college students who are already burdened with much higher educational debt loads than previous generations even adjusting for inflation need to be burdened further by “forced servitude” and “having skin in the game” with more loans.
Especially considering not too long ago, older generations(Mostly Whites due to prevailing de jure discriminatory laws/policies in place back then) attended colleges at far lower expense while having far better Federal grants* and in some cases, could have attended one’s in-state/local public colleges for free**.
There’s also the factor that “forced servitude” has had a very long dubiously negative effects on marginalized groups in US history…especially among non-White populations ranging from slavery to the use of Asian “coolie labor” in the Western states:
Not to mention many other countries in the world do provide free college educations without feeling students who qualify need to “have some skin in the game” in the form of taking out loans or performing “forced servitude” in kind.
I experienced this firsthand when I noticed friends just a few years younger felt the effects of Federal cuts to Pell grants not too long after W became president. If I was just a few years younger, I'd have been facing higher levels of college loan debt rather than graduating with a three-figured loan I was able to pay off easily within 6 months of graduation thanks to a near-full ride FA/college scholarship package from my private LAC.
@SugarlessCandy If I understand correctly, you have a high stat/no need kid who wants to go but parents don’t want to pay and they weren’t offered merit aid (so already the college decided that in fact they did not add same or even more value, since merit is usually need blind). So your scenario is that grant money should go to kids that can pay but don’t want to rather than poor kids that truly can’t afford it; as long as the wealthier student really wants to go there and they are willing to give servitude for a few years. Of course cost of the bureaucracy to administer the servitude part of the package will also decrease funds available for grants to the poor kids…sounds like a winner for everyone but the poor kids. We can call the whole thing “school vouchers”
We do have this system available. Join the military and ‘prepay’ for your education. Enter a ‘high need’ profession like nursing or teaching, spend ~5 years in a high need area and have your loans forgiven. Work in a public service job for 10 years (120 payments) and have your government loans forgiven.
It’s not for everyone but it such a system does exist.
And even this has a major caveat assuming one fulfilled all conditions to have one’s loans forgiven. A huge tax bill as the amount of the forgiven loan is regarded as income by the IRS in the tax year it’s forgiven.
I don’t get this at all. Colleges can choose how to spend their money and if that means merit scholarships or need based grants, then that is their choice. Parents can choose where to spend their money and if that means their kids’ education, that is their choice.
After that, there is some federal money and room for some discussion. However, very little of it is free. Most of it are loans so therefore the kids ARE paying it back. (Well, okay, maybe some aren’t—is that where this is coming from?). So I don’t see where this modestly paid internship is coming in. Wouldn’t it be better for the student to get a job that pays well and pay off the loan quicker?