Obama's plans for College Tuition

[Farmerboy]

I’m sure I’ll get plenty of disagreement, but I believe the overarching theme of Obama’s education plan is not to give things away for free, but to make higher education more appealing to the masses. One need only turn to some of this “reality tv”, for one shining example, to see that currently, the appeal is not there. People in the academic field whose job it is to prepare young people for higher education realize this. So, coupled with a severely damaged public school system in many places (which “the masses” attend) is a perceived (if not necessarily real) notion that college will be too expensive with each passing year. So the attitude becomes “what’s the point?”, and the manifestation of that is found on the Maury Povich show and elsewhere. Every student is not a super duper Farmerboy. And every parent is not one of these wonderful home-schooling parents on this board. You all get your kudos and such for being motivated, assertive and educated enough to achieve these accomplishments.

My roommate is a teacher in a public school system - yeah, down in the trenches -- and from what he tells me it’s unbelievably bad. These teachers are having a hard enough time actually teaching around discipline issues that they really can’t stop. (It's gone waayyy beyond just talking in class.) And on top of it all they pretty much have to sell the idea of proper education to these kids and their parents. (Oh the parents ! ) It might not be right, but it is the reality. Houston, we definitely have a problem. When I was in (public) high school – a little more than a decade ago, I didn’t have to be sold on education – it was an expectation set before me. But things are very different now.

When I hear about what goes on in high schools now, I am truly amazed. I want to be a ____ when I grow up. HA! That’s an ancient sentiment nowadays in many public school systems. A lot of kids don't have any motivation; they don't know what to be motivated about. Said all that to say umm… there’s got to be a solution or we’re all going to heck if uneducated people keep getting “processed” into the real world and the solution needs to be from all angles – forward (from the school systems) and backward. So don’t hate on Obama’s plan because there needs to be a plan to make education appealing again.

I understand that I am not the norm and that very few people are blessed with the opportunities that I have had. I am also not "hating" on Obama's plan, until I see exactly what he implements I will keep an open mind. I also agree that education is not appealing anymore to most kids. But why is that and how do we fix it? Certainly not by making it free. Think about, the kids don't have to pay a dime out of their own pocket until they graduate high school so making college free is becoming expected and therefore will not make them appriciate education more than thy already do.