Thursday, October 27, 2011

Whatever Happened To When College Was Free?

I'd like to see us abolish tuition for state colleges. I think education is really important for a country, for a people. It's something I'd love to see my taxes support. We could go back to a time when students didn't have to go into debt, or forego college altogether:

Whatever Happened to When College Was Free?, Anya Kamenetz in GOOD, April, 2010



If Finland, Norway, Germany, and Sweden can do it, why can't we?
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From Melinda's Facebook, where she linked this article:
GOP Opposes Obama’s Decision To Lower Student Loan Payments by 5%
which made me long for the days of free tuition.

5 comments:

  1. How about we divert tax dollars we spend on war to education. And if we wanted to go to war, each of us could write a check to the government; we could take a loan out if needed. That way we wouldn't have to raise taxes to eliminate college tuition.

    I'm bad.

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  2. That's the way it used to be in California, but no more, obviously. All those great state schools were free.
    You're good. It's everyone else who's bad.

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  3. There is a portion of the population that, for whatever reason, don't believe that an education and health care should not be provided by the state.

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  4. Well, what a short, well-stated bulls-eye, Hurikane.

    There does seem to be a waning of compassion and generosity in America. Maybe these things move in cycles.

    The other day I was thinking about song lyrics I grew up with ...

    He ain't heavy he's my brother
    His welfare is my concern
    No burden is he, to bear, why not share
    You've got a friend
    Lean on me
    Teach your children
    Reach out and touch somebody's hand, make this world a better place if you can
    Remember his shoes could fit your feet
    We can change things if we start giving
    And on...

    I was literally inundated with songs of community support and brotherhood/sisterhood. It's left a mark on me.

    I'm not the most altruistic person in the world, but the feeling that we're all in this together, as Melinda said: "smoothing out life's humps and bumps," is deep seated. I'm really fortunate I was given these words to live by at such an impressionable age.

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  5. This is kind of hard for me to understand, as a foreigner. Im a Spaniard and we have public and private access to superior education and health care. The quality of public services provided by the gov. is not half as good as i would want them to be, but is much better to have it this way than to opt for almost nothing if you aint got much money.

    Im in a public college and pay around €800 for one year, i also can apply for a few scholarships that can make it cheaper, college is free for those that are members of families with four or more brothers/sisters, private college can go up until €6000 a year, and i think this is way less than college over there. Still, colleges in the states can provide much and more better services, and is perfectly logic with all that money, although less people get access to them. I dont know if thats really beneficial for society as a whole.

    The economy of my country is also in the toilet due to people that have access to private universities anywhere. Honestly, I dont know what kind of good education is that, that excludes a good sense of ethic and basic moral principles, and that is a global phenomenon.

    Its pretty sad that govs. fail to provide basic needs, like proper education and nutrition. These are things that are keeping us down as humans. Shame on us...

    Great blog anyway Bix, youre a bad motherfucker to a lot of those fake nutritional experts that are misleading the population. Keep providing good info and kicking their asses, good job!

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