jumbo shrimp wrote:
Flagpole wrote:
Agreeing with me is always the correct thing to do.
We have too many people going to college today as it is (I don't consider anything less than a Bachelor's Degree to be "college"). We already have cheap ways of going to college -- live at home, go part time while you work, start off at a Community College, get scholarships based on need or achievement. All of us rely on people who did not go to college. Many of them work hard, and have great skill and pride in what they do. Society should value them more.
QQ: It’s easy to say that we should value them more. What does this look like in a meaningful way?
THAT is a very good question, and I do not have perfect answers. How about looking into these though:
If we go down the route of free college (which I don't agree with) so that a 4-year college person not only gets $200,000 in aid but a higher salary afterwards, then a trade school person who gets $30,000 in aid and a lower salary afterwards should get some other kind of benefit too...to the tune of the difference of $170,000. Now, the numbers are just for example...free college MIGHT mean JUST tuition at a state school, so we could be talking closer to $50,000 total for a 4-year degree, but the idea is the same...there needs to be equivalency here...not just another way for smart people to further distance themselves from people who can't or don't want to go to college. IF we do the free college thing, I think a trade school person should get a check for the difference upon completion of their trade school education. Perhaps this gets extended to apprenticeships also. This leaves out may people at the bottom still. I would recommend that the tax code be changed so that even more at the bottom do not pay federal or state income tax.
As a society, instead of constantly holding up teachers and nurses as our glowing examples of virtue and sacrifice (I mean, we really need to stop that...there are teachers in my school district who make over $100,000 a year, and nurses do very well for themselves), it should be skilled labor, service industry people, etc.