The Free-College Dream Didn't End With Trump's Election

[portlander23]

The Free-College Dream Didn't End With Trump's Election
Emily Deruy
The Atlantic

Until now. In a sign that tuition-free higher education could continue to expand in a more piecemeal fashion, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo unveiled a plan on Tuesday to offer tuition-free degrees at the state’s public colleges and universities for residents from families earning less than $125,000 a year.

The idea is significant in part because New York is home to the nation’s largest public-university system—serving some 440,000 students—and the plan, which will need to be approved by state lawmakers, could affect 940,000 families with college-age children, according to the governor’s office. What’s more, Cuomo—a Democrat—and other advocates hope that if New York successfully makes tuition-free college a statewide reality, then other states will follow.

Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s main Democratic challenger during the presidential primaries and a vocal advocate of tuition-free public colleges, joined Cuomo, who is reported to be considering a run for president in 2020. The pair explained the proposal in remarks at LaGuardia Community College in Queens. The days when a person could graduate from high school and count on a well-paying manufacturing job “are over,” Sanders said. In the current economy, “you need a college education, if you’re going to compete.”

But speaking briefly after Cuomo, Sanders, who grew up in New York, said he hoped the announcement would serve as a message to the state’s children that, if they work hard, they will be able to get a college education regardless of how much their families earn. “That is a message that is going to provide hope and optimism to working-class families all across the state,” he said. If New York makes the proposal a reality, he predicted, other states will implement similar plans.

2017 is already going better than 2016.

[KamaAina]

1. It was supposed to be free in California all along.

Technically, the massive hikes that have sparked protests on campuses statewide are to fees, not tuition.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. NYC was free once...

Colin Powell, Ed Koch, and many others went to CUNY colleges for free back in the 60's. It as tough to get in and tougher to stay in back then.

But, it was decided that everyone deserved a degree, so open admissions became the rule, and we couldn't afford all those students, so tuition started.

Anyone thinks we can actually afford to send almost a half million kids to college on the taxpayer's dime is fooling themselves. Or us.

And really, how many art history majors get decent work after graduation?

[HassleCat]

4. We need tougher standards,whether or not we pay the bill.

I went to college thirty years ago, and admissions requirements were pretty low. I'm sure they're lower now. I met people who were functionally illiterate. Even in grad school, there were many people whose critical thinking skills were almost non-existent. Maybe the "free college for all" idea is a good one. To afford something of that nature, we would have to tighten admission requirements. We might even have to look at handing out Administration of Justice degrees to all the football players.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. True story...

In 1966, I entered Baruch, the business school of CCNY. Cost me 20-something a term in registration plus books and the occasional lab fee. If you did not take advanced algebra in high school, you had to take a "remedial math" course before they let you take stat or math of finance. Wotta deal!

So, sometime in the 80's, well after open enrollment started, I was at a party and met a woman from the old neighborhood in Queens and after the usual how you been doin' for 20 years, she tells me she's teaching at Baruch. Baruch had become a separate college in the CUNY system by then and was no longer just business.

"Wow! that's my alma mater, what do you teach?"

"Remedial math."

"You mean advanced algebra?"

"No. Fractions."

It took me a while to get over the shock.

[hunter]

5. Well, if they started teaching art in high school again...

California always had some pretty stiff admissions requirements. UC and Cal State limited admissions to a percentage of high school graduates. My own SAT scores were high enough that my high school grades didn't matter much, which is a good thing because I quit high school at 16 because I was tired of getting beaten bloody, tired of having my bicycle vandalized, and tired of being called "queerbait" (among other things...) There was no high school equivalency test then. I tested into most of my first year college courses. (My sister, who had a similar high school experience, took the new GED as soon as she could, and likewise tested into college.

Community colleges were free, just a few fees and books. As I recall, fees at UC were about $1200 annually, which I thought too high. I got grants for my books sometimes, and my share of the rent for a typically crappy off-campus student apartment was $80. I already had some labor skills, and was paid more than the typical student. I graduated without debt. All these years later, the same jobs hardly pay any more than they did then, and college costs are through the roof. It's sad. I remember the first time I made over $100 in a day. That was more than thirty years ago. In some parts of the U.S.A. that same work still gets you $100.

My dad and my wife's dad both went to college, partly with work, partly with veteran benefits. My wife's dad was a medic who'd refused to take up arms, which is one of the reasons he ended up as a guinea pig in nuclear weapons testing. My dad was a nearsighted "Radar O'Reily" medical clerk.

The world is so different now. My own kids, A+ in high school, advanced placement, got scholarships, had jobs, and still graduated deep in debt.

Fuck this shit. The entire student loan fiasco was a bubble that grossly inflated college costs.

The oligarchs who run this nation want it that way. They are deliberately dismantling public education. Their kids will go to college no matter how ignorant and venal they are, and they'll never have to worry about student loans. Screw the rest of us.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. I'm not so sure it was planned so much as just happened....

because too many people were looking the wrong way and for the wrong things.

[frankieallen]

3. Sorry, this is a load of crap. I just put my daughter through state college

and she had free tuition due to her scores on the MCAS. Come to find out, tuition is practically nothing, it's all the fee's that cost thousands and thousands of dollars.
Free tuition means dick! Don't be fooled.