Why Can’t College Be Free?

[marmar]

from In These Times:


Why Can’t College Be Free?
Three proposals to reclaim the promise of higher education.

BY REBECCA BURNS


On Monday, President Obama announced a new plan for student loan reform that will expand income-based repayment to millions of indebted borrowers. Some have criticized the plan for shutting out those saddled with private loan repayments, however, as well as those whose loans date back prior to October 2007.

Others have asked a more fundamental question: Instead of reforming student loans, why not eliminate student debt altogether?

Free higher education in the United States may sound like a fanciful idea. But it’s not a new one—for nearly a century after federal land-grant colleges were first established in 1862, many public institutions were free, or nearly so. Now, with more than $1 trillion in U.S. student loan debt hobbling both young people’s futures and the economy at large, some state governments are again giving the idea serious thought. Last year, the Oregon Legislature passed the Pay It Forward plan, which offers students a tuition-free degree in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings. The state is developing a pilot program, and Florida and Michigan are considering a similar approach. Meanwhile, Tennessee is investigating the use of lottery proceeds to eliminate community-college tuition for all graduates of state high schools.

.....(snip).....

Is the best tuition no tuition, and is that really feasible? In These Times asked John Burbank, executive director of the progressive policy think tank the Economic Opportunity Institute; Sara Goldrick-Rab, associate professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Bob Samuels, a lecturer at UCLA and author of Why Public Higher Education Should Be Free, to give their proposals.

.....(snip).....

Is it feasible at the moment to make higher education completely free?

Sara: My proposal is simply to make the first two years of higher education free. And I don’t mean just tuition-free: I mean the whole thing—books, fees, everything. There’s nothing empirical or even rational about financing the 11th and 12th years of education and not the 13th and 14th. According to my calculations, the United States has the money right now in the federal and state student aid systems to fully cover two years for anyone who wants to get that education at a public two-year or four-year institution. From there, we can shift to more of a split in the cost between students and government. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/16784/why_cant_college_be_free

[riderinthestorm]

1. Amen! Big K&R. I've been saying this for a decade on this site and in RL... nt

[xchrom]

2. du rec.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. Back in the '60s I went to City College for free...

the City University of NY was proud of its history as free higher education. Poor kids, immigrant kids... all deserved a chance at an education.

And it was a good one, with graduates like Ed Koch and Colin Powell. City College had this long list of illustrious graduates and a higher percentage of our grads went on to grad degrees than Harvard's.

The problem was you had to be good to get in, with a high enough combined score of your HS grades and college boards. Then it was tough to stay in.

Eventually, this was seen as discriminating against the vast mass of mediocre HS grads so open admissions was started, new four-year colleges were opened, 2 year community colleges were expanded, and the whole thing went to hell. And costs a bundle. The higher tuitions are largely paid for by several state and federal programs, so many kids are still going for free, but aren't getting the education we once got.

So it goes.

[hunter]

4. I graduated from college debt free.

College itself was nearly free.

Seriously, I think the very wealthy don't want to have their kids competing directly with the commoners.

Unpaid or underpaid graduate work and "internships" work the same way. Families with wealth can support their kids through those "lean" times, giving their kids an unfair advantage and easy passage into the upper echelons of our very stratified society.

[etherealtruth]

5. when did you graduate?

This was possible during the 1980's (someone could actually work their way through college in 4 years). I have a daughter attending a very good state school ... even with scholarships the cost of college is unbelievably expensive

[riderinthestorm]

7. 2014 University of Illinois in-state tuition and fees is $32,000 per year.

In-state tuition.

Its insane.

I graduated from there in 1984 with only $5000 in student loans. I paid for all of my college costs myself, worked during the school year and summers. Paid off the loans in less than 5 years.

Kids these days will never have that kind of educational opportunity until we change the way we think about student loans. We're destroying the futures of our best and brightest. What a damn shame.

[etherealtruth]

9. U of M is very similar

My daughter's tuition, room and board, books etc are killing me.

I graduated (the first time) in 1984 .... with NO student debt (albeit there was no prestige associated with that university). I graduated again in 2004 with $30,000 in student debt (a good in state university).

a kid can't (generally) even work FULL time and cover their tuition

[daleanime]

17. Amen....

[hunter]

11. Early 'eighties.

When I started college it was free, and I even got a few grants, not loans, to pay for books. Work paid pretty well too. My first summer job paid the equivalent of $20 an hour by some inflation calculators.

There's two reasons our family has no credit rating these days.

First were unforeseeable medical problems, the kind people who have insurance think they have covered. Guess what, it's hard to get insurance companies to pay for all the required medical care when dealing with major accidents or illnesses. From there everything can turn to shit, medical debts get sold to collection agencies, and then things only get more complicated... My wife and I were both uninsurable for a time.

Second, paying for our kids' colleges. They got good scholarships, but it's still incredibly expensive, and the kids who have the sort of parents who can write $50,000 checks without blinking avoid many of the pitfalls of financial aid snafus, unavailable classes, roommates from hell, etc.

[etherealtruth]

13. Tell me about it

It sounds like we have had very similar experiences.

[NickB79]

28. Same here, in 2003 at a state university. College was virtually free.

Pell grants and work-study pretty much covered tuition and on-campus housing and food. I had to pay for my own textbooks (rip-off at those prices), but I got free bus rides around town with my college ID. I only really needed a part-time job once I decided to move to an apartment with a few friends and had to pony up a few hundred a month to pay my share of rent and utilities.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. The University of California was very cheap when I went there in the early 1970s

Virtually everyone from every social stratum could afford it. What happened to make college so expensive?

[LoisB]

18. Ronald Reagan

[Proud Public Servant]

8. You know what a side benefit of this would be?

Real grades.

Right now, professors are terrified of giving their students real grades; this is especially true of adjuncts, who have no job security (and who do about 75% of university teaching), but its pretty true across the board. It's been years -- decades even -- since students received humble "C" for average work, and the more they've been empowered as "paying customers," the worse it's gotten. There was a recent Slate article that beautifully outlined this problem, and it corresponds with my experience in a decade and a half of university teaching.

Make higher education free, and you'd go a long way toward making it rigorous again. That would be a serious bonus.

[Igel]

21. Right. Because the alternative is so alluring.

Make it like public education. No grade inflation there. No concern over employment.

Add to that the fact that it's free. To the students, at least.

Notice that it says "public schools." This would make private schools truly elite. Only the wealthy and privileged could go there--those who attend now and aren't in that category attend by virtue of three alternatives. If they're "highly desired" by reason of political forces--a disadvantaged minority member, for instance--they can get funding to meet informal targets. If they're highly desired for meritocratic reasons ("damned brilliant&quot they get funded. Or if they're willing to take out loans and get grants, most of which, these days, are part of that "student aid" that would be diverted to only public schools.

Most of those that like this want all education to be like public education. (Sorry--just recently read Swampy's--Bolotov's--pronouncements about nationalization of all and everything in Lugansk. No other centers of power allowed except him and his, whether political, social, economic, or armed. What could go wrong?)

[Zorra]

10. Because, uh, Republican Third Way privatization goals? nt

[Shankapotomus]

12. I like the Khan Academy concept

https://www.khanacademy.org/

Completely free.

[MineralMan]

14. I started at a state college in 1963 and graduated

in 1971, after taking some time and spending four years in the USAF. At that time, the state college and university system in California was taxpayer supported and fairly easily manageable for students and parents. State colleges in California, which were soon miraculously transformed into "Universities" had no tuition. There were some semester or quarter fees, but they were small. Books, even then, were expensive, but there were ways around having to purchase costly new books. The highest cost was housing and meals, but dorm and dining hall plans were not horribly expensive. If I remember correctly, housing and meals at my state college cost $600 per quarter. When I returned after my USAF service, I shared a low-rent, trashy house with a group of others and paid just $32.50 per month and prepared my own food.

Sometime after I graduated in 1971, state subsidies for the state's college and university system began to disappear. That began during the term of Ronald (the clown) Reagan as governor. Today, there is very little taxpayer support for that university or for most state universities, which now have high tuitions, high housing costs, and other costs that make it impossible for people like me to attend without going deeply into debt.

To change all of this, we need to elect strong Democratic majorities in Congress and in every state legislature. As long as Republicans are in control, we will continue to deny taxpayer support to our colleges and universities, in the spirit of Ronald the Clown. The answer will be to:

GOTV 2014 and Beyond! Nothing is more important.

[stevenleser]

15. It should. And it should be paid for by taxes on businesses and corporations and the 1%. The prime

beneficiaries of that education, even more so than the folks earning the degrees.

[Mustellus]

16. It basically is free, in Europe....

...once you pass the entry exams, that is.

The government will collect so much more in taxes over the lifetime of a college grad, that to claim she/he hasn't paid for their education is specious.

[Igel]

22. It is free.

And subject to the needs of the state.

It means there are far, far fewer graduates with a useless degree because they want to. If you want to be a film maker, literature student, or sociologist, there are limited slots and no way to increase the # of slots.

In fact, if there's a great increase in the # of students who want to attend, it's hard to increase enrollment. The number is fixed by government funding levels. No independent fundraising, sponsors, or increased funding through tuition. And since governments plan in advance, it means that if there's a sudden demand the government makes the first move, tells the university what to do, etc.

(It also means that great schools with selective admissions are subject to pressure to be non-selective to meet political goals.)

WYSIATI (what you see is all there is) is a crappy basis for policy. Usually what we see--"it's *free*, and free is *good*!"--is a small fraction of what there is to see on a topic. In this case, it's free for me, but somebody else is controlling the purse strings and making somebody else pay the bill.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. I like it when someone points out the cost of thse wars by comparison....

You know, like when they crunch the numbers and the entire budget for PBS is four hours in Iraq or the total budget for NASA is three days in Afghanistan.

During Bush we were spending $760,000 a MINUTE in Iraq.

[Chisox08]

19. College should be free as well as all student loan debt forgiven

That would be cheaper then our stupid wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as being beneficial for our country.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. Republicans LOVE to say, "We're broke"....

Then they claim tax cuts pay for themselves.

But only ones for the rich.

Any proposition that DOESN'T involve looting the treasury for the rich is called a "job killer".

[btrflykng9]

32. +1

[ananda]

24. College can and should be free.

No question.

[aikoaiko]

25. It could be free, but I have no hope that it will be.

No hope.

[JCMach1]

26. How about the nation setup a free, Federal online University...

Free for all citizens... It would put a lot of pressure on the price of universities around the country...

Make it a model for the world...

[hunter]

29. That's an interesting idea. I've also had this idea:

I think Detroit would be the perfect place for a National University.

Tuition would be free, food and housing would be free, and it would accept students from every state and U.S. territory. It would also accept children of undocumented workers who graduate from U.S. public high schools and plan to become U.S. citizens.

Majors and certifications would be somewhat limited to subjects where there is a public need, for example primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, teachers, other professions now often open to H1-B visa workers, etc., etc.

It would be a place where students from wealthy to impoverished backgrounds, students of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, could interact with one another and learn how to work together. Since this would be one of the goals of the university, I think it should be a single campus, to prevent geographical segregation.

Upon graduation there would be no obligation but to go out and make the world a better place.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023795345#post1

[JCMach1]

30. I am for any and all ideas...

I only mention online because it is so much cheaper than bricks and mortar...

[daleanime]

27. K&R....

[btrflykng9]

31. KnR

I don't like the pay it forward idea; too close to indentured servitude. I like the use of lottery proceeds to cover community college tuition for state high school graduates; that's a great starting idea.

Cooper Union found a way to offer free tuition up until just recently; if it can be done there, it can be done at other institutions.

Of course, if we could manage to just cut the ludicrous salaries of the college presidents and administrators, this would all become affordable again. These students are just working to pay for some CEO's fancy vacations and cushy lifestyle. And in return for a shockingly negligent education to boot.

Back in 2010, The Chronicle of Higher Education noted the figures below:

Just one public-university leader, E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, earned more than $1-million in total compensation last year, according to The Chronicle's survey. By comparison, 23 private-college presidents topped the $1-million mark in 2007-8, the most recent comparable period, according to a Chronicle report last November.

This is unacceptable.

[DirkGently]

33. It'd be a better investment than micromanaging the Middle East.

Cheaper and less violent, too.

[McCamy Taylor]

34. The real answer? Because an education is the key to rising out of poverty.

Meaning that it is wealth. And the banks think that they should own every bit of money in this country--our homes, our retirement, and now our labor. We are all f-ing serfs.

In 1985 I got out of medical school debt free. You can't do that now. I went into Family Practice. I have spent the last five years making half of what most FP's do working in a "free" clinic. Most docs can't do that anymore either. America is in a bad place right now.

[End Of The Road]

35. States don't fund public universities like they used to

Some states have cut funding by nearly 70% since 1980:

http://www.acenet.edu/the-presidency/columns-and-features/Pages/state-funding-a-race-to-the-bottom.aspx

ALEC seems to want public universities to be privatized (corporatized) which doesn't help the cause.