“Every American, whether they are young or just young at heart, should be able to learn the skills necessary to compete and win in the 21st century economy.” – President Barack Obama, January 9, 2015
President Obama thinks a valuable commodity like college education should be free to all students, rich or poor. The poor are already covered by federal Pell grants, but now the middle class and apparently even the rich can go to a two-year community college and pay no tuition.
The federal and state governments would foot the bill, which would cost $6 billion a year or more.
The biggest problem with this harebrained socialist scheme is that when consumers don’t pay the true cost of education, they don’t value it, and it becomes wasteful. They don’t do their homework, they miss class, and they don’t really learn the skills necessary because someone else is footing the bill.
President Obama needs to take a course in basic economics and learn the “accountability” or “user pay” principle. Benefits should be paid by the user, not a third party.
Studies show that students who pay for their education choose their major earlier, earn their degree faster and get better grades.
Obama needs to learn the welfare principle. You help those who need help, but you should never help those who don’t need help (the wealthy). It destroys initiative.
You can see how “universal free” education has done for public high school students – there has been virtually no progress for years.
Tragically, if this legislation gets passed, it will begin the destructive course of American education. It will probably mean the end of for-profit higher education and maybe even hurt our top colleges and universities.
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In case you missed it, I encourage you to read my e-letter column from last week on about the world’s most dangerous tax.