“Nothing in life is truly free,” is the slogan of at least one ‘libertarian’ I know when it comes to this issue. They are terrified by the thought that their money may be diverted, that they may be robbed, that they may be ‘enslaved’ to help someone else, someone that they do not personally know and chose. Good and evil are clear and distinct entities to this person and everyone who is not ‘saved/ the elect/ the chosen’ are evil and cannot rise above that evil by their own devices. There is no redemption, except by the divine will, which will be done, no matter the circumstance. So it is OK to spend money on short term security, because there is no other way to deal with these people, there is nothing that we can do to lift people out of their baser natures, that is left to God alone. Thus evangelical schools which instill the faith are preferable to the Godless bastions of evolution and critical thinking, in spite of the fact that nothing people can do will affect the outcome.
A more cynical look at the situation is that not everyone can win in the current system. For some to win big, others must lose; of course in the end, everyone loses.
Well, not FREE free…just that WE don’t pay for them. That’s Mexico or China’s job. WE get the great things and THEY pay. Then we trickle down on them or something. Simple. The best plan. He has all the best plans.
Sure we have to start on the wall with our own money, but mexico will pay us back, he promises. Seems Legit.
I passionately believe that academically rigorous but cheap community colleges are an essential element in providing a ladder of opportunity for ordinary Americans. I suspect that over time community colleges/ state system colleges will become increasingly prestigious.
In some cases, state colleges already are. Most of the land grant schools are public (MIT, Cornell, U Mich, UGA, etc and so on):
So public schools can indeed be prestigious. Most academics work at smaller or less prestigious schools, often with less time or money to pursue their individual research agendas. Even then, people manage to produce great research. Not everyone has to go to an exclusive, liberal arts school to get a top rate education. But schools that zero in on a well rounded liberal arts still have value that they bring to the table.
Agreed, but I’m betting told by nieces/ nephews, that UMASS is becoming increasingly tough to get into. Probably cos it’s so much cheaper. I suspect trend will continue.
MIT is private, and Cornell is semiprivate. However, that doesn’t negate your point, which is that there are many quite prestigious public universities. There are also many which are not really prestigious but where undergraduates can get a fine education.
I don’t know what a prestigious community college would be, unless we are talking about one-offs like Deep Springs.
Doh! Entirely correct! U Mich, though. Totally public and totally land grant. UGA, as well.
From what I’m seeing, many community colleges are expanding their offerings and working with universities to become defacto feeder schools.
Over all, there is no one way that a university/college should be, rather I think we can continue to support a variety of secondary educational institutions that serve a variety of needs for their communities.
That’s what I almost said, but I couldn’t think of a case locally that I knew of off the top of my head. Maybe Georgia Gwinnett College is offering BAs now, but I’m not sure?
A local community college in town was just absorbed by GSU (making us the largest university in the state) and Kennesaw State University (which used to be a college) just merged with a technical school (it’s just north of ATL). And colleges like Kennesaw, North GA College, and West GA college have all recently rebranded into universities.
Well they are just Seattle College now instead of Community College so I guess just the one school… that is how it works right? If there are multiple schools it is a university? Crap I am so out of that world. I only keep up a bit cause the class/some guys excuse to show copyrighted schlock films is part of their continuing ed program.
Yes, it is true in many places, coupled with a move to seamless articulation. I’m not sure it is ultimately a good idea: it doesn’t work well for many majors that start in the freshman year, students often lose a year or two even with the articulation agreements, and they lose the stability you get with 4 years in one institution. It also fragments the CC’s mission, and sometimes relegates to second class those students who are not ultimately looking for a 4-year degree. It is mainly a patchwork solution to a college availability and affordability problem that should ideally be solved some other way.
Community colleges have been doing this for decades. When I went to my four year university, I came in as Junior after getting a two years degree at a local community college. I came in on an explicit program that existed for a decade or so that if you graduated from the community college with a specific GPA or higher, the four year school was required to accept your application.
I did this because I didn’t do a senior year of high school and went to community college instead. It is a lot easier to get into a community college (and historically cheaper and more flexible) than a four year school.
