16 Comments on Is There A Flaw In The Logic Of Making Higher Education More Accessible?

PD on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 11:02 am


help for in demand fields only
remember if salaries for a particular field goes up too much – it is simply outsourced overseas or cheaper labor is imported

Lindsey G on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 12:30 pm


Well people have such a problem with helping poor people, welfare and food stamps. There has to be some sort of compromise, good question though. I think we need to stop outsourcing jobs and then there might not be as much competition.

TheOrange Evil on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 4:47 pm


Somewhat agreed. In recent years, the bachelor’s degree has been become more and more worthless because of the accessibility of higher education. Fortunately, the B.A. club is still a little exclusive, but it’s almost considered a necessity, not a highlight, on a resume.
If education were market based, then it would correspond more neatly to the market demand for higher education. I do think, though, that the economy is expanding and that we’re growing new jobs that require higher education – jobs that didn’t necessarility exist ten or fifteen years ago.

Tarot Readings online by an experienced Psychic on Sat, 26th Dec 2009 8:13 pm


Yes.
Wow!!! That’s too logical. Democrats hate that kind of thinking.
Obama has just promised FREE COLLEGE for Everyone.
It will all be FREE. Doesn’t cost Anyone, Anything.

Son of Liberty! on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 12:04 am


Yes, there is a flaw in the logic. Not every high school senior is traditional college material. In Europe, students in the 8th grade take an aptitude test to determine whether they go on to University or to a technical trade school.
That is one aspect of the European system I like because they realize not everyone is cut out for the rigors of a college education and that society needs trade trained citizens.
If the number of college is reduced then the value of a degree is elevated. The value of a college degree today is the same as a high school diploma in the 50s.

Freedom's Oracle on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 3:16 am


Chicken or the egg?
I see higher ed as a stepping stone to self sufficiency.
If there are more grads there will be a greater amount of innovation in the economy, because some of them will be inventive or entrepreneurial. That will increase the demand for grads.
If the economy is expanded first the results are the same.

Spock (rhp) on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 5:22 am


you’re darn close there — yes, the “proposal” is election pandering to the voters.
providing more money to the colleges and universities in the form of more federal loans only raises tuition without forcing the education providers to become more efficient.
more efficient is coming from private enterprise outfits like the Univ. of Phoenix.
direct example from my wife the Professor:
she’s completing her 10th book. all of the latest books have pre-prepared lesson plans available in the form of a teacher’s guide. this sort of thing sells to the inhouse teacher trainers that all of our major school districts have — lots cheaper than flying the author out for a three day “how to” seminar.
she discussed the subject of similar teacher’s guides for college level material with a colleague at No Name State University. the colleague told her flatly that no one she knew anywhere in the college/university system of America would ever teach a class other than by making up his/her own lectures and exercises. And every college or university wants to choose its own textbook.
Meanwhile, over at University of Phoenix (my sister teaches there), all regularly repeating classes have a uniform syllabus and uniform lecture notes. Exams are uniform across all campuses for the same class. The inclass teacher is, almost always, a professional in the field BUT the basic class material is prepared by the central staff of Professors in Phoenix.
you tell me which system is more efficient.
and since employers in any other state have no idea of the quality of a degree from No Name State University, while they’ve all heard of University of Phoenix, guess whose degree gets more respect in the job market?
***
the current education loan system is easily sufficient to provide all the funds any student needs to complete a four year degree at his or her state university. adding more money is only going to perpetuate the archaic “not invented here” system of the inefficient colleges and universities.
don’t do it.

Portable Greenhouses on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 6:49 am


Here’s Obama’s plan, as described in his book “The Audacity of Hope”:
Stop the subsidies to the oil companies. Use that money to offer a $4000 annual grant to anyone who wants to use it to attend college. This will enable more people to get an engineering or teaching degree. But, this money is not free. The recipients have to put in x-amount of hours of community service work a week to get the money.
The main reason for people not becoming teachers is that the profession pays so low that they cannot repay their student loans without being broke. This grant then encourages more people to become teachers and, therefore, there are more and better teachers in the pool for teaching our nation’s children (particularly in the inner cities, where the quality of education is poor).
The surplus of engineers will then be available to bring outsourced jobs back to America. It will also encourage the innovation required for America to become independent from foreign oil. This would be in the form of the development of vehicles with very high mileage (and thus low emission) standards, as well as the development of vehicles that use alternative fuels (biofuels, hydrogen cells, etc.).
I think it’s certainly worth a shot. I would definitely feel better about having that money go to someone who needs it, instead of further lining the pockets of fat, wealthy, Porky-Pig-looking executives at Exxon.

Bored at work on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 1:35 pm


yeah its just like the health insurance thing, once EVERYBODY has it, its like NOBODY has it, the same shift has happend in college, its like a college degree is equal to a high school diploma of the past, and a masters degree is equal to the college degree of the past. since everybody can go to college now, its like nobody can get the benefits, unless you get your masters. so go get it

MadLibs on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 6:16 pm


Yes, I had heard that graduates fresh out of college were having a very hard time finding jobs. A lot of them have loans they need to start paying back.

joeanima on Sun, 27th Dec 2009 9:51 pm


you will just have more highly educated janitors cleaning up the Universities~!!!
anymore the wealthy educated have all the strings pulled guaranteeing them a lifetime of employment, inbred~!!!
now regular college graduates might have a long wait and have to go back to Burger King till somethin good comes along, cause the wealthy shipped all their companies overseas, and hired cheap labor, and they sent their wealthy college gradute kids over their to run things for them~!!!

anti-virus on Mon, 28th Dec 2009 3:00 am


if you expand the economy and don’t have the people to fill it.. it’s just as useless. You have to balance the two.

a face in the crowd on Mon, 28th Dec 2009 5:23 am


I really doubt that government funding would ever give more than an associates degree or a vocational job.
I wonder why they can’t just get student loans out the rear like the rest of us have to do?

RitchWil on Mon, 28th Dec 2009 9:28 am


You could pretty much double the number of colleges and make it free and you wouldn’t get a very large increase in the number of folks in college or the number of college graduates. Higher education in this country IS accessible. It’s accessible to all. It’s not free, but money has never been a real reason why a person does not get a higher education. There are grants, scholarships…even for the not so scholarly…loans, you name it. The money is out there and is not that hard to get. Not only that, but many colleges are down right cheap. You may not go to Harvard, but a degree from a community college is still a degree and these days that’s all that matters. The real reason is that they don’t want to. Either it’s too much work, they don’t want any more school or they simply do not see the value in it. What ever the reason, accessibility is not the reason.

BrushPic on Mon, 28th Dec 2009 2:38 pm


I think there is a shortage of skilled workers in this country, college grads, we are mostly importing those workers from overseas especially in the engineering & medical field.
Whatever happens, I believe higher education should be made more accessible to everyone financially, I can only see benefits coming from this policy.

pdooma on Mon, 28th Dec 2009 6:08 pm


I have very little issue with making higher education more accessible, but I also think standards need to remain high. No babying people through college. Otherwise, what’s the worth of the degree? There are lots of stupid people with college educations.

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