Do you have any estimate on the yearly cost of such a program?

I would add a few caveats:
Put a time limit on the number of years someone can get the aid.
Exclude schools that do not meet requirements for reasonable graduation rates.
Exclude schools that don't meet reasonable standards. ITT Tech comes to mind.

Last edited by Goose (8/31/2016 8:22 am)

In theory I support the idea. But the tricky question is always: How do you pay for it?

Public basic education takes a big bite out of people's wallets. I know this because I just dropped off a check at the township tax office last week for over $5,000.

I'm not complaining. I like my daughter's school, and the district, and her teachers, and the facilities. It's a worthy investment. But if my tax bill is going to increase because I need to fund colleges, well, that's tough to be honest.

Here's another thing... in K-12, there's a standard set of curriculum that every kid needs to go through. It makes it easy then to say that all things are equal in the cost of education and that by assessing property values, the "richer" pay a higher share of total costs to run a district. 

When it comes to college, there is no mandate that an adult go to college. And if they do go to college, the costs will vary greatly by the program. You could pay under $100,000 for a 4 year History degree at Shippensburg or $300,000 for a medical degree from Temple University. How can we proportionally allocate funding for all of the various studies one can participate in?

Another problem -- we all know of the story about university orientation where the professor will tell the student to look at the person on the left and the right of them and to know that two of the three people will drop out before obtaining a degree.

How do we account for those students who just can't handle college, either academically, socially, or otherwise?

It's my belief that the students need to have some skin in the game. They are young adults. They need to know that nothing is given for free.

I do think we should fund college education, at a state level, as  much as possible and I think Pennsylvania does a pretty good job of funding the state university system (although Corbett took a big chunk of funding away). It is substantially cheaper to send a student to a public university or community college than it is a private school in Pennsylvania, but I just don't know if you can go all the way to making it 100% free. 

I wouldn't describe myself as coming at this from a negative perspective.
But, I am a realist. And I've seen some awful things happen to money from the federal student loan program.

Some shady enterprises, with abysmal graduation rates (Often "technical schools", or online enterprises) got approved for those programs. They got their money,,,,, the students did not get degrees, or the promised good jobs to follow,,, and were saddled with debt.
Let's be careful not to create a boondoggle.
Just rigorously vet the institutions who will get the federal money, assure me that it won't be a ripoff, and I'm all in. 

Last edited by Goose (8/31/2016 10:07 am)

Just rigorously vet the institutions who will get the federal money, assure me that it won't be a ripoff, and I'm all in.   -  Goose

So I guess that leaves Trump University out of the picture? 
 

Ok, I get the heavy lift it would be, but what about this:

Of particular concern should be the 1.2 trillion dollar debt graduates are saddled with, too.  Imagine that 1.2 trillion circulating around our economy instead of being tied up in student loan payments.  Maybe the revenue used to support a tuition-free program would have a positive ripple effect throughout the economy.

Secondly, I think we should consider the massive amounts of dough we sink into our military-industrial complex whereas Finland, Norway, etc. spend alot less.  Maybe they see a greater value in the education of their people.
 

Last edited by Just Fred (8/31/2016 12:06 pm)