I paid for school through the Pell Grant, scholarships, and working full time. I graduated back in May, and am getting my master’s now through scholarships and paying out of pocket.
I’m 25, and have never bought into the idea that kids are made to believe they have to go to college. I graduated from high school in 2018 and kids were quite honest with themselves about their plans. People who knew they were dumb or just hated school did not go to college and knew what jobs would they would be left with. People who just wanted to go to school to party were pretty clear about that and chose party schools. Some dropped out, some didn’t. Kids who wanted to be a teacher or a nurse or whatever went and got their degrees.
If you accumulate a ton of debt from college, that’s not good. But college still provides a better life for most than not going to college. The trades are being pushed now but they rarely offer healthcare, time off, retirement, etc. And you will barely make any money for the first several years, just like white collar jobs.
I chose to major in history. Kids at my school did sports marketing and business administration when they wanted an easy degree. Most of them were jocks who had no idea what to do with their life once sports were over.
Not everyone is going to be rich. We need people to do jobs that don’t pay very well. If everyone who went to college got degrees that led to well paying jobs, we wouldn’t have any teachers, social workers, nurses, etc.
However it ends up shaking out, I don’t think we’ll ever go to a point where college is not possible for people who belong in college or a situation where the country is significantly dumber about the world around them.
Grant funding, tax credits and the like for education like is certainly going to remain on the table in some shape or form.
Woke policies in all aspects of government have completely decimated our well-functioning public school system here in Lewiston. I can’t imagine how anything the Republicans can dream up could possibly do more damage to the educations of children who live in my town.
The truth is, and history gives us the evidence, what we call the humanities have been the main drivers of social, political and cultural change and advancement. They are at the heart of revolution. This is why you would rather ask Camus than Richard Dawkins what the meaning of life is.
Philosophy is not easy. Students choose those majors because they are interested in the subject matter. The real issue is a country that cries about lefties trying to destroy western culture but doesn’t do anything to promote it. Western civilization is not just capitalism.
The trades offer better benefits, retirement etc. then most jobs. Time off/vacation is the only thing that sucks.
More money than any other 18 yr old. By the time you “turn out” you are 22-23 making close to 6 figures (depending on the trade) with zero debt.
That is the majority of people. I would say most parents are not paying for college. My parents did not pay for me, I took out loans and got some shitty scholarships.
If these kids really wanted to go to college, they should have tried harder in high school and gotten scholarships. If not take out loans and/or get a job.
I do not see why being poor, underprivileged should get you free money for college.
I used pell grants and out of pocket to get an associates of applied science in weld technologies and a couple of pertinent AWS certs, then went to work with it immediately. And made the deans list since I was registered as a mechanical engineering major (previous classes/credits).
Not trying to point at an exception and call it the rule, but there are a lot of users of the pell grant that go on to bigger & better things, whilee saving about $60k in tuition at a state school.
A quick search is all it takes to turn up all of the wild stuff you’ve been completely wrong about over the years. zecarlo + trump
The most radical Maine education policy from Republicans is school choice vouchers. That’s a far cry from insisting your city has an obligation to educate the children of the world to the tune of 30 percent of your student population.
But you had a plan/goal I presume. Most of these kids are just taking the money because it is free, and they do not want to work. Which is why over 50% never graduate. No sense of responsibility/obligation when they do not have to pay back the money.
The problem is, if only the exceptional get financial help, what about everyone else? We would have an employment shortage if only the exceptional got financial help.
Why should anyone get subsidies? Bailouts? Welfare? Food stamps? Why have free education k-12? If someone is going to use that education to become a productive citizen who brings value to his community and nation, why not make the investment?
Oh yeah, I had already been part of the wonderful world of work for quite a while. But I got laid off in 2010 and had 6 mos. to pack 2 years of education into. I went at it like a full time job with classes from 9:oo am till 10:oo pm/mon-fri. And had credits from previous enrollment.
My niece’s used it at VT and both graduated with their masters of science, and one has gone on to her PhD.
Have you ever worked in the trades? My dad has been a mason for the past 25 years. That’s a skilled trade, and has had fewer and fewer people entering the field for a long time now. There’s no benefits.
No, you’re not. You start at the same wage you’d be making for a fraction of the work at Target. I know guys in their 20s who’ve been at masonry, carpentry, and plumbing companies for 5+ years and they’re maybe at $20/hour, or sometimes as low as $16.
I’m a big fan of the trades. If I don’t enjoy teaching I’m going into masonry or looking at going to a tech school to learn something else. But they are not some magical path to a six-figure job. Your pay is about the same as everyone else’s and your body will be broken by age 40, if not sooner. Every guy I know in the trades, even guys who own companies, are still encouraging their kids to go to college.
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