Easley Wants Low-income Students to Go to College Debt-Free

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/1283041/

Why doesn't Reggie pay for the extra $4K himself? Work extra ... maybe plan on getting through college in 5 years to have a lighter class load so he can work to make the need $?


Easley's plan ....

So ... two years of a college education will be fullfilled by spending only one extra year in high school??? ... which we (taxpayers) will pay for....

I could see Easley's plan encouraging parents to become "low-income" just as some are not motivated to get better jobs or training because they would lose welfare benefits.

 

Exactly. Plus, the public school system is overcrowded enough already. Where are they suppose to put these "college" students for that extra year? :?

 

But if the student goes to a state-supported university, taxpayers are paying over $9,000 a year for the student to go to college.

 

Don't even get me started here. . .if Reggie wants help paying his tuition he can enlist in the military and get benefits that will assist him so he won't burden his mommy.

The middle class is disappearing folks and these low income kids feeling entitled and the politicians who want the votes will make us in the middle go poof within a decade.

Within that decade, we'll be gone - hubby and I are retiring out of the US - can't take the politics here and just want to shut our brains off and relax when the time comes. Uncle Sam will still get tax $ out of us, but we won't be here to see whether they wish to burn it, or flush it down the toilet.

 

Or join the rest of us who got partia scholarship and had to get laons for the rest. I am still paying on them.

 

Guess its admirable that he doesn't want Mom to work a second job, but at the same time I did for years. You do what you have to do to get by.

 

That seems to be a lost practice these days

 

Where is my grant money for school. I went back to school and it is costing me 20,000. It makes me kinda mad. Most of my classmates have grants that dont have to be repaid. oh well.

 

My older son had a discussion on education with some friends and friends of friends in New Zealand. There were a couple of Danish nationals there and related the cost of education for comparison. The Danish education is free to the student, tailored to that student's interests, and from the other discussions they had very high in quality. The removal of the debt burden from the student/family seems to increase the numbers of educated citizens and improves the quality of that education. That, to me, seems like one of the best investments a government could make for the society it serves. The better the education of the entire society the better that society performs and the stronger it becomes. Of course, the Danish populaiton is a small fraction of that of the US or even North Carolina (5.4 million Denmark v 8.6 million NC) so the total costs are much lower and the education a bit easier to arrange, but the cost per citizen should be equal.

 

If we are concerned about our competitive position in the world economy, one of the best things we can do to improve that position is to improve the educational level of the population at large.

 

Just because it is free does not mean people will appreciate and utilize the resource provided leading to a more educated society. They are more likely to work hard and appreciate the value of the education if they, too, have to invest something into it.

 

Many of you make this sound as if the low-income students are less than average in academic levels? Just because you’re poor it doesn't make you dumb. I would guess to say there are more failing wealthy students than poor ones if you consider the percentages. Poverty teaches you the grand lesson of life; "Appreciate what you have, work for, and what is given." Wealthy children, as a whole, rarely carry this as a daily reminder.

If we have children out there with outstanding academic achievement and we don't support their higher education we are only shooting ourselves in the foot. These bright children are our future, rich or poor. I don't think financial ability should be the only factor in determining financial aid but it should be a big part of it.

 

Then how do you explain why we are constantly told how unfair the "achievement gap" is, and how it's not due to cultural issues that devalue education, but rather due to "poverty"?

 

My parents divorced as I graduated high school. Back then, the woman got everything - or almost everything. I had younger sisters and my dad was reduced to living in a studio apartment so he could pay my "mother" off. Because my mother held onto the house and received all the $ my dad made, less his bare living expenses, she was considered at that time to be fairly well off.

HER bank account kept ME from getting nothing more than 500.00 in the form of a grant. She refused to spend any of "her money" on her childrens education - instead, when we all left home she toured the world - literally - hitting different countries for up to a month at a time.

I entered the military - with NO GI bill at that time - simply to have a roof over my head and learn a trade. Unfortunately, what I learned was 'classified' and had NO CIVILIAN equivalent. When I got out, I worked my way through school - I went to classes during the day and worked nights and weekends. It took me 6 years to get through 4 years of school. I JUST finished paying my student loans. Hubby finished paying for his about 12 years ago, however, he had to go back to school before it was paid off and get another degree because the job market up north dried up - we have another 5 years left to pay on his last loan - he'll be 57 when it's paid off.

We appreciate everything we have and we've worked our butts off for all of it. I see no harm in others doing the same - it builds character, but at the same time ticks you off when you see people crying poverty expecting to be handed what you struggled to achieve and they want you to pay for it.

If these underprivileged kids are so BRIGHT, they can find themselves a full scholarship, or at least a partial and work their way through if they want it bad enough. If they don't they don't have the drive to succeed and will likely become 'professional students' for the next 15 years and out tax dollars will pay for that too.

 

Agree!!! The "free" public K-12 education system is working out so well, don't ya think? Its free and everyone stays in school, graduates....oh wait a minute, never mind.

 

Isn't that what scholarships and grants are for? If they are bright and ambitious, they will succeed.

 

You have to just love the term "crying poverty". You’re lumping every kid looking for help in the same boat. Your comment makes it sound as if all asking for help are crying poverty. Your comment also makes your hard luck story sound false. Because, you of all people should know the struggle is not easy.

You’re assuming that these 17 year old kids have someone to guide them in the process of acquiring a scholarship or financing. As I have found, it's a detailed and complicated process. Prior knowledge of the task is a must if you're going to succeed in obtaining scholarships, full or partial. But then again, I guess your assuming these children seeking funds have parents that hold masters degrees too. Use a little logic before spouting the greed speech.

You pose this facade of ease in obtaining funds for college when in fact it's an educational requirement in itself. You also make it sound like there's this huge sum of money coming out of "your" pocket if we did finance higher education. I think it's a wiser decision to finance education than the pork barrel that dominates our national spending now. Or, do you like paying for a monorail in a West Virginia mall paking lot? If you want to take aim at dumb spending don't be dumb in your choice.

 

The effect of poverty on the educational process is not limited to the individual but the area. The schools in Wake county provide a much greatert eduactional opportunity than that of say Madison. The poverty level of the county dictates the educational opportunities and thus the level of education. When I went to college the students from the capital city's county had better high school chemistry labs than the college had. The lab in my high school was almost as good as the one I had built at home. I also had to get an advaced admission to college the summer of my Junior year in order to get enough math background to stand a chance getting into the engineering school there when I graduated. There were three of my friends who were also planning on going to college and were very intelligent but could not swing the finances along with the need to catch up educationally to the rest of the Freshman class in college. I do not know what these folks might have contributed to society if they had the chance, but I suspect it would have been much more than they have now.

 

If it is free for State sponges it should also be available for working families who have kids and can't find baby sitters so they can go to school. I am tired of the people always seeking aid. They have had the same opportunities in public schools like we have yet, they get special attention and assistance. I did not get assistance. It took me 12 freaking years to pay off my student loans. I think they should have to pay it all back. I am sick of it. Needy needy needy. Sorry for losing my cool. But since you can't see emotion in words take my word for it. Sore subject with me. I mean a single mother wanting an education or single father wanting an education should have the same opportunity. I could care less about some dude who doesn't have an additional 4K to cover the class. He should get a student loan like every single other student .

 

Wayne what you are forgetting though is how much better the technology is in the poorer counties. Every single time you pay your phone bill there is a schools and libraries tax on it. That money goes to schools systems with a high endigent rate. In North Carolina we have alot of schools who use eRate. Every single year they qualify for a 90% discount or more for new Infrastructure, Servers, NOS, and email. They have absolutely better technology. They are also getting Cisco certification courses as an elective that very few schools get to do now. The servers they get are not cheap either. They get brand new 5th Generation DL380's, they get Cisco enterprise core and edge switches all gigabit to the desktop. Etc. I can go on. They also get free lunches.