President webcasts to all the schoolkids....

[CaptainHaplo]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

I'd much rather they spend our tax dollars on that instead of the military industrial complex.

Well Mookie, thats your right. The key is the word OUR! I would rather our tax money keep this nation free. We see if different. What I think we should be doing is you get to say what your tax dollars do, and I get to do the same. That way, if you want to help educate someone with what the government takes from you - you can. On the other hand, if I don't want my money going to some dope who decides to go to college on the government dime just to keep from getting a real job, I could do that too.

Now, you do have some good points about making college more affordable.
I agree that it should be - and also more able to take in those that truly want to make it happen for themselves. Educated citizens WILL increase the tax base, though I would rather see that so that we have lower taxes vs the government getting more to spend. Regardless, I would propose a different direction with it.

Making education "easy" is not the way to do it. Instead, how about work degrees, where you OJT part of the time. If you do, that time that is spent is creditted to you not only educationally, but you would earn a monetary CREDIT toward the cost of the education. Many college systems use this for some degrees as it is. For example, dental students locally can work at a local dental clinic for the underpriviledged and earn a small amount, as well as get on the job training and education credit. By the time they graduate, they have some real experience that is also worthwhile to them. I understand hairdressers, massage therapists and some auto mechanic "degree" programs use the same principle.

I would remind you that in many ways - the "untouchable system" of healthcare operates the same way - many times you see more internists and residents than you do full doctors. Sure there needs to be the initial groundwork of classroom effort, but doctors have realized that the best learning is done - on the job.

Lets really shake this up and take it to the true economic effect this could have. How many of you worry about an elderly parent or friend? Maybe they have car problems and cannot afford to pay for the repair? Local OJT mechanic shop through the community college could help keep that cost low. How about IT degrees? Small businesses could really keep technology costs low by working with a local OJT trade shop, since the cost would be low, it would be overseen by an experienced teacher, etc etc. The possibilities are endless. About the only field it wouldn't work in - is lawyers. And we have too many of them as it is.

Its true we will always have to have ditch diggers. People to pick apples or grapes or whatever. Nothing wrong with that. The thing to remember is that we should provide a system where they CAN - if they are willing to WORK at it - do more for themself. Therein lies the one thing people fail to remember about the American Dream. You have the right to PURSUE happiness - the right to the OPPORTUNITY to move ahead, but its not going to be given to you.

Subsidizing every person who wants to go to college isn't the answer. Who here has heard the saying - What is free you discount, what costs you, you cherish?

I am going to give a personal example. My ex-wife chooses to sit around at her house all day long. She has a total of 10 people, including herself, living there. Of those, 3 are small children. The rest are teens or adults. For 7 years she has been "going to college" by taking classes online. During that time she has collected welfare, food stamps and other state and federal benefits for herself, her husband, her other children and at times her grandchildren. Not to mention every "educational grant" she could get her hands on. This is a woman who is now around forty - and after 7 years just "graduated" and acquired her 2 year degree. During that entire time frame, she worked less than 1 year total.

What do you think she has done with that degree? Absolutely nothing, unless you count it as work filling out more paperwork to get more "grants" to "continue" her education. And all the while, she whines how its not fair because she is sooooo poor and can't even pay the child support she is supposed to for our son. God forbid anyone expect her to actually get a job though. She is an example of a person who abuses the system. And while it is a personal experience, it is by no means unique.

Ultimately - any higher education reform that uses tax dollars from those of us that work and pay taxes, needs to have some assurance that such funds are not wasted by abusers like the above. The State of North Carolina for example, will pay for you to get a teaching degree. The cost - you sign a contract to work in the State education system for four years afterwards (at an average salary) before you take your degree somewhere else. That kind of thing - an "insurance" that protects the funds it costs, is the kind of thing I could support.

Will parents be allowed in the class room during this presentation? How about folks without chidren, who pay for the education of others? Will they be allowed to see the presentation live?

[CaptainHaplo]

CB - whether parents are invited or allowed to attend is up to the individual school district. The administration or DoE have nothing to do with that decision.

As for access to the speech itself, its transcript is SUPPOSED to be put up on the white house web site today so that adults can have it before the children get it read to them by the teleprompter president.

If I see it up, I will link it.