SocraticGadfly: Free college education ... well, maybe ...

March 25, 2016

Free college education ... well, maybe ...

But only if we do some college reform first.

Bernie Sanders has proposed free college education — at public universities — for all high school graduates who are interested.

Now, beyond the alleged liberalism of a Harvard, which won't count here anyway, there's the actual pseudo-liberalism, or more accurately, special interest/tribalist liberalism, that runs through academia in general. It's the social justice warrior world, and it is probably best exemplified at public universities by the case of recently fired Mizzou prof Melissa Click. Add in that many conservative state legislatures are over-politicized back against higher ed, and further add in that higher ed in the public as well as private sectors has increasingly been turned into Big Biz, and Sanders' idea, without revisions, is kind of problematic.

Per other blogging of mine, it's about as problematic in the U.S. as national health care without a British-style National Health System.

Frankly, I don't want free four-year higher ed unless we:
1. Address the college as Big Biz issue
2. Address the SJW issue
3. Address other politicizations, and ...
4. Address the issue of academic inflation by employers in general.

Much better, IMO, would be a mix of free community college plus free lifetime education credits, like more powerful unions used to provide their rank and file.

Community colleges are cheaper. They're in general not part of academia as Big Biz. They're generally not sucked into the SJW world.

Otherwise, I fear that Sanders' idea could turn into pounding sand down a rathole.

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