Obama's College Aid Plan Deserves An 'F'

[Geee]

Investors Business Daily:

Academia: President Obama says his new aid proposal will make college more affordable. It's actually an attempt to leverage a government-caused problem to root Washington even more deeply into higher education.

 

Like most Obama proposals, this one has a surface appeal. "It is time to stop subsidizing schools that are not producing good results, and reward schools that deliver for American students and our future," the president told an audience of college students in Buffalo, N.Y.

 

Well, who could oppose that? But, like most Obama proposals, things get ugly once you scratch that surface.

 

[Geee]

Obama: Law school should be two years, not three

 

President Obama suggested Friday that three years in law school is too many, and that schools should consider cutting back the length of programs to two years and getting real-world experience in the third.

Speaking at an event promoting his higher-education agenda at Binghamton University in New York, Obama said that law schools would “probably be wise to think about” transitioning to two-year programs followed by clerking or practicing, and that “that step alone would reduce the cost” to students.

Both the president and his wife, Michelle Obama, are graduates of Harvard Law School. Obama said Thursday that he only finished paying off his law school debt in his 40s. According to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet, Obama took out $42,753 in loans to pay for law school, and the first lady borrowed $40,762. They paid off the loans when Obama signed a $1.9 million deal for his autobiography “The Audacity of Hope” in 2004.

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Obama hesitated before recommending law schools reduce the required number of years for a degree, telling the town-hall style crowd that “this is probably controversial to say, but what the heck. I’m in my second term, so I can say it.”

 

 

http://washingtonexaminer.com/obama-law-school-should-be-two-years-not-three/article/2534643

[clearvision]

Geee, Geee, @Geee.... Why do I have to keep fixing your too long headlines....

 

Obama Deserves an 'F'

 

Much more too the point.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

College Costs Will Keep Rising Under Obama Plan

Richard Vedder

Aug 22, 2013

 

Colleges exploitation of young Americans through rapidly rising and increasingly exorbitant fees is a national scandal that can no longer be ignored. In his college tour this week, President Barack Obama is speaking at length about what he intends to do about it, after promising tough love on higher education for the last two years.

 

Some of what he proposes is good in principle; some is very bad.

 

(Snip)

Tying federal funding after 2018 to the new federal ratings, which in turn incorporate performance measures such as graduation rates, may be a step toward giving colleges incentives to take cost reduction seriously. But the potential for unintended and damaging consequences is high: If the key to federal funding is raising graduation rates, colleges may lower already abysmally low standards.

 

Similarly, the proposed funds for promoting educational innovation are, in principle, a good idea. But previous federal education spending in this area has had a pretty dismal result.

 

(Snip)

 

The presidents proposal has one very bad idea: a forgiveness boon for those paying off loans right now. The proposal, limiting loan payments to 10 percent of income, potentially relieves millions of students from repaying part of their obligation. So why not major in fields the economy values least -- anthropology or drama instead of engineering or math -- if you dont have to worry about earning enough to pay off your student loans over a certain period?

(Snip)

[Valin]

WSJ: Richard Vedder: The Real Reason College Costs So Much

The expert on the economics of higher education explains how subsidies fuel rising prices and why there's a 'bubble' in student loans and college enrollment.

ALLYSIA FINLEY

8/23/13

 

 

 

Another school year beckons, which means it's time for President Obama to go on another college retreat. "He loves college tours," says Ohio University's Richard Vedder, who directs the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. "Colleges are an escape from reality. Believe me, I've lived in one for half a century. It's like living in Disneyland. They're these little isolated enclaves of nonreality."

 

Mr. Vedder, age 72, has taught college economics since 1965 and published papers on the likes of Scandinavian migration, racial disparities in unemployment and tax reform. Over the last decade he's made himself America's foremost expert on the economics of higher education, which he distilled in his 2004 book "Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much." His analysis isn't the same as President Obama's.

 

(Snip)

 

College costs have continued to explode despite 50 years of ostensibly benevolent government interventions, according to Mr. Vedder, and the president's new plan could exacerbate the trend. By Mr. Vedder's lights, the cost conundrum started with the Higher Education Act of 1965, a Great Society program that created federal scholarships and low-interest loans aimed at making college more accessible.

 

In 1964, federal student aid was a * mere $231 million. By 1981, the feds were spending $7 billion on loans alone, an amount that doubled during the 1980s and nearly tripled in each of the following two decades, and is about $105 billion today. Taxpayers now stand behind nearly $1 trillion in student loans.

 

(Snip)

 

* $231 million, A Mere? Not in the real world.

[NCTexan]

Geee, Geee, @Geee.... Why do I have to keep fixing your too long headlines....

 

Obama Deserves an 'F'

 

Much more too the point.

 

@clearvision Why do I have to keep fixing your fixes?

 

Obama Deserves an 'F U'

[Valin]

 

Geee, Geee, @Geee.... Why do I have to keep fixing your too long headlines....

 

Obama Deserves an 'F'

 

Much more too the point.

@clearvision Why do I have to keep fixing your fixes?

 

Obama Deserves a 'F U'

 

Fun Unlimited? Fairly Used? Fashion Umbrella? Francis Urquhart? I'm a tad....confused....in other word same old same old.

[NCTexan]

 

Fun Unlimited? Fairly Used? Fashion Umbrella? Francis Urquhart? I'm a tad....confused....in other word same old same old.

 

I may have been thinking of "Famously Unqualified".... and then again... I may have been thinking of something else.

[Valin]

Obama State University

The President blames colleges for the result of government subsidies.

 

President Obama recently concluded a five-year campus speaking tour in which he explained to students how his financing programs were making college more affordable. Then on Thursday he kicked off a new campus speaking tour to tell students that college is unaffordable, and that the financing program he has championed faces increasing defaults.

 

(snip)

 

* Mr. Obama specifically blamed colleges and universities for charging too much. "Not enough colleges have been working to figure out how do we control costs, how do we cut back on costs," he said. His solution is for the federal government to rate colleges on their effectiveness and efficiency, and then to allocate federal subsidies to the schools that Washington believes are providing the best education at the lowest cost.

 

(Snip)

 

 

The better answer is to stop the increases in grants and subsidized loans that Mr. Obama has so greatly accelerated. Let educators, students and their parents decide which courses and campus amenities provide the most educational value. As fervently as many professors abhor the idea of free people operating in a free market, they may decide it's better than federal politicians running their universities.

 

Video

* Why should they? Blaming colleges/universities for charging too much, is like blaming an alcoholic for drinking too much when he has an unlimited bar tab.