The Great Debate - Free College For All

[Life Long Learning]

Colleges have conditioned and trained Americans its all about them (how much money the student will throw at them) and not about outcomes.  Its a scam the Gov't lets them get away with.

It's PEOPLE who let them get away with it.  As soon as enough people start to say thanks but no thanks to college debt, the landscape will change in a hurry.  If millions decide to only go where they can afford to pay out of pocket, or with financial aid that doesn't include loans, schools will be forced to change their ways.

The government doesn't have to do everything.  Sometimes, market forces can do as much or more than the government can, in less time, and with less disruption.  Counting on the government to fix your problems is a painful way to live.  Especially considering that they helped cause the problems in the first place. The law of unintended consequences...

You make excellent points and I agree with them, but the Gov't-Edu Complex (controlled by Dems/Reps) has caused this as you pointed out and the sheep are too stupid to do their own research.  Folks on this forum do, but 99% of American's have never heard of the Big 3 and they have been around since 1971.  One day the folks here will be bailing out the greedy by paying down THEIR student loans of getting an ivy league level degree in basket weaving and the other half who never completed a degree but have debt.  I have faith in the two corrupt parties to want to get cheap votes.  Your version of individual responsibility is not what they want to stay in power.  I have less faith that the PEOPLE will say no.

I do understand the law of unintended consequences and if they do ever pass FREE public univeristy degrees for all I think all those 1,000 useless small liberal arts colleges who are already starting to die will go away.

I'm not talking about the Big 3 at all, just the cost of college as a whole.

As for small colleges going away, why would that happen if the government paid for people to go to school there?  There's no such thing as free college, or even government-paid college, it's just taxpayer-paid college.  Colleges will be way overcrowded, and students who are serious about schooling will still opt for non-free versions of school (after all, 4-yr state schools are cheaper than private universities, yet many opt for the more expensive version now, why wouldn't they then?).

Here in CA, our CSU-system schools are decently priced, but so full they're busting at the seams.  It is almost impossible to graduate in 4 years - you just can't get the courses you need to graduate.  People are choosing private, out-of-state, UC's, whatever else to get their degrees, because they just CANNOT do anything else.

My daughter's roommates are all from Cali as they can't get the credits from a CSU college to graduate in 4 years.  I am quite aware of the Cali problem.  Think if they become FREE?  

Small colleges are almost non-profit Private colleges and will NOT get the Gov't taxpayer $$$ from like FREE public colleges.  They will dry up and go away.  It's not a bad thing.