Free College for All Worked in the US for 100 Years Until Elite Took It Away

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/news/2016/04/21/free-college-worked-us-100-years-elite-took-away/

n 1837, a remarkable politician, Horace Mann, became Massachusetts’ Secretary of Education. He argued successfully that universal, public, nonsectarian education in culturally diverse common schools was imperative for our new nation. Mann’s idea spread like wildfire. The free common school concept was adopted in every state in the union.

After the Civil War, the free tuition principle was expanded to include higher education. It worked brilliantly for a century for millions of Americans, including me.

In 1966 I finished college. I joined my sister as the first generation of our family to cross the divide. My father was an immigrant; my mother was the daughter of immigrants. The family had little wealth to show despite their life of hard work.

How could low-paid immigrant families and ordinary dirt-poor working-class families send their kids to college? It was simple. I graduated from the City College of New York. My sister graduated from Brooklyn College. Both schools were tuition-free. It’s easy to forget in today’s America where the “free market” is the national religion that it’s the way things still were a just half a century ago.

CCNY was founded as the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847. Its mission was to provide the sons of immigrants and the poor with access to college education. In 1870, Hunter College was founded for New York’s young women. In 1930, Brooklyn College became New York’s third tuition-free college

[LiberalElite]

5. Hunter College grad here -

CCNY started charging in the '70s.

[bvar22]

2. NO. We. Can't!!!!

Americans can't have what every other developed country takes for granted
because it is just too hard

[n2doc]

3. The only Takers allowed are the rich

Everyone else must pay.

[Mbrow]

4. K&R

[Snarkoleptic]

6. Those against free college are supporting Ronnie Raygun's agenda.

http://www.nytimes.com/1982/12/28/science/california-weighs-end-of-free-college-education.html

CALIFORNIA WEIGHS END OF FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION
By ROBERT LINDSEY, Special to the New York Times
Published: December 28, 1982

Here's where he got the camels nose under the tent....

The new recommendation, by an advisory body to the Legislature and Governor, to a large extent addresses a semantic paradox left over from Mr. Reagan's eight years as Governor, ending in 1975.

Mr. Reagan fought hard in the Legislature to impose tuition at four-year colleges. He lost the battle to lobbyists for the university, who have long been among the most powerful in Sacramento.

However, the Legislature agreed to increase student registration fees, which had been nominal. Under state law, the fees can be spent only for noninstructional functions, such as certain administrative costs, counseling and health services.

Since Mr. Reagan left Sacramento, the fees have grown substantially. For residents attending the University of California system this year, the annual fees total $1,194; at the larger state university system, $441. This year some community colleges started charging for instructional materials. Free Education Is No More

[Nay]

7. Yes, and even those colleges that weren't free were so low-cost that a

summer job paid for it. In 1969-1975, I paid for my schooling at Florida State University with low-wage jobs such as retail clerk. I worked part-time during the school year and full-time in the summer. I paid for my crummy little apartment and an old car, too. Try doing that today -- it's a cruel joke.

In the old days, a college education was not considered to be a consumer product, so capitalism was not the standard by which colleges were run or funded, and students were not considered "consumers." This led to a true education, mostly, with the only distortions being caused by 1) rich kids' parents paying for new buildings so their worthless kids wouldn't be failed out, and 2) lingering discrimination against women and minorities. A college education was NOT something everyone was expected to acquire -- that would be impossible by the standards back then. You actually had to be college material (at least somewhat intelligent and hardworking).

Now, as a capitalistic enterprise, colleges use ill-paid adjuncts to teach; admit anyone who can pony up cash or loan money; water down the material so nearly anyone can pass; subject adjuncts to 'student evaluations' so the adjuncts are afraid to challenge/fail/discipline students; well, I could go on forever. The education system (I'm including all the charter school shit here, too) is being mined by the elites. They turned it into just another way to siphon off money from the public and the taxpayer while providing a bunch of college graduates who can't write two correct sentences in a row. And have you noticed that now EVERYONE has to have a college degree? That's capitalism's doing, too.

When capitalism is applied to such things as education, health care, prison systems, infrastructure -- it ruins everything it touches.