2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: On opening college education for all who can benefit [View all]forjusticethunders
(1,151 posts)It is a MASSIVE transfer of wealth from the poor to the middle and upper class, almost Bush Tax Cuts level of expropriation of the working class (payroll and possible sales taxes to fund admission to colleges their children will likely never be able to attend, especially given the fact that they still have to pay board and other fees) to subsidize their access into professional networks and other realms of privilege and access.
To me, in order to help the working class, K-12 HAS to be the priority. Investing in schools, expanding curricula, moving away from high stakes testing, and then furthermore, we have to recognize that the traditional college experience is very much a racket - from the bloated athletic departments to the massive administrative pay. Not only that, it's heavily geared towards middle/upper class sensibilities and we're trying to shoehorn the working class into it (and the political aspects are important to note because part of the problem with the Left the past 50 years is that we're centering all our activism around privileged white college kids and look where that's gotten us). The European model works because it doesn't have as much bloat, and the other aspects of education are supported too.
We really need to destigmatize community college as well; there is ABSOLUTELY no shame doing community college, and there's no shame getting an education from a lesser ranked school or even an online college. Knowledge is knowledge. Again, a lot of this is centered around middle/upper class vanity rather than practicality.