Tuition-free Colleges

[Acim]

Conservatives only for this thread. Anyone reading this that wishes to take it to open debate for everyone is welcome. Just not something I'm interested at this time.

Anyway, Hillary today made it even more clear that she backs Bernie's proposal for tuition-free public colleges and universities.

I think from conservative perspective, this is fairly well understood as problematic and a burden that will be placed upon tax payers, while it is probably initially sold as only the top rich people will be responsible for covering the cost.

Anyway, I found this Feb. 2016 article that deals with the topic as if only Bernie wants to go in this direction:

Bernie Sanders's Free College Tuition Problem

Before reading this, I had (numerous times) felt as if I were being brainwashed during my times in college. Like in an over the top way where very liberal professors were greatly challenging (essentially every class) the then conservative narrative (around time of Reagan) and bashing it. On top of that, presenting (or indoctrinating) the alternative as if it has no legitimate criticisms. I definitely wasn't on top of my game enough at that point (my early 20's) to realize what I was being pushed into. And I say pushed, because I truly believe grades / class achievements came down to either I can regurgitate that viewpoint (hopefully expand on it, creatively) or I can't. If I can't, then grade of average or lower is warranted. And as grades and finishing up were far more important to me, it took me a good 5 to 10 years later to realize how much I was being brainwashed. For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure I averaged a B+/A- in my final year of college.

I could elaborate on that, my personal stuff, but the points I take away from this article regarding free tuition are (in no particular order):

• today in Illinois, half of the public college and university tuition goes not toward education, but toward pensions for college professors who no longer work.
• Sanders is in an awkward situation. He has to gain the support of young voters by criticizing the high cost of college but can't acknowledge that his party not only depends on this money, but established this quid pro quo setup.
• And of course, Illinois is not the only state that pays its public college and university professors one-percenter salaries. California's education system actually pays higher salaries to professors. Khalil Tadsch earns $2.3 million a year at the UCLA Medical center, and 40 others earn salaries of between one million and this $2.3 million.
• It is interesting to consider what Bernie Sanders and his party gain from allowing these high professor salaries and pensions. The major public include the SEIU, AFCSME, the National Education Association, and the American Federal of Teachers. These unions are four of the six biggest national campaign donors of the past 20 years, and they give 99% of their money only to Democrats.
• So by using their influence over the distribution of federal support of higher education, Democrats have purchased a monopoly on the political and campaign donation support of the public-sector unions. Studies show that the great majority of university professors support the progressive/Democrat liberal ideology. Or, in Bernie Sanders's terms, they have rigged the system. Democrats created a rigged system of higher education so they can force students to give money to their campaigns. Bernie Sanders causes high college tuition costs by being part of this rigged system.

Curious what other conservatives think about this, and whether you felt indoctrinated from any college classes you may have taken, and how aware you were already of the items brought up in this article?

I will just note that I'm not sure if its even possible to have the left think critically on this issue, or see any problems with the set up. I truly believe progressive / liberals (of the professor/teaching aide/admin variety) are that beholden to the set up and do fully understand that their livelihood is at stake for speaking critically (in any way) about this set up, other than to bash what someone like myself might bring to the table or insinuate. Which is reason why I can't see this doing well in other parts of the forum.

 

[lovesong]

(Mod note: I have some very conservative ideas and some very liberal ideas. Because of this I will only post in the Conservative/Liberal Only sections when the OP aligns with my view.)

Sad to say but I do feel that I am, at times, being brainwashed at college. I unknowingly (it was listed as a history, not women's studies, course) took a class in feminism last semester. I found myself getting bad grades because I argued against the professor's view in papers. Soon into the semester I realized this and started filling papers up with a bunch of bullsh*t just to get good grades. The worst part was towards the end I was finding myself starting to believe it, and I had to take a step back to remind myself what I actually believed about some issues. This was the most obvious one, but I do believe there are other issues that I'm being pushed to fall on the left side of when on my own I never would. My current ethics professor spends a nice chunk of class time talking about the evils of Trump (I half agree, but she glorifies Hillary while she's at it, and besides, the classroom is by no means the place to preach your agenda) and has literally said that the American democracy is the only form of government that intelligent people in the west find legitimate. I've gone to "open discussions" about hot button issues, "trigger warnings," for example, only to find that they're a powerpoint lecture followed by a table-centered talk about the issue. This sounds fine, right? Well I made the case against trigger warnings, which of course made the table I was with visibly angry at me, and when one of the people that were called on to share their opinion with the whole room expressed my view, they were politely dismissed as not fully understanding the issue.

This is all in a more or less conservative school in the middle of a conservative area filled with largely very rich preppy white Catholics. The only more conservative schools get are freakin' religious-based ones. And this is what we get. Maybe I'm just finding myself in the wrong places? Who knows.

Anyway I agree that free public college is a silly fantasy at best that, if put into reality, will just suck money out of the average Joe's paycheck. Yes college fees are way too high, yes it's getting really freaking ridiculous, no free college isn't the way to go, at least with the way things are right now. Maybe sometime in the distant future it would work here? And I don't buy that "well it works in country x!" argument, so many other factors are at play in these things, the culture and the system are just too different to support that kind of thing here.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Free college won't work. It'll oversaturate fields of work and substantially drive down salaries to a point "educated" people will become a dime a dozen. Disastrous.