2014-01-17, 09:53 PM
The problem with public colleges being free is that in the end, it wouldn't really do much. If it was free for everyone, then everyone would go, and in the end how would having a college diploma be any different than having a high school diploma right now, in a job setting?
As it is it's hard to get that starting job with a Bachelor's Degree in your field. If it's free to obtain, then even more people would have it, making job competition even worse, making those extra years even more wasted time than they already potentially are. There would be even less to distinguish a good starting applicant from a bad starting applicant, and it would be even worse for you if you were unable to complete college for whatever reason, as it would be beyond the norm it already is to have a degree.
If obtaining up to a Bachelor's Degree became free, then the next level of education is a Master's, then a Doctorate. Everything would just move up a level, and would waste more of your time before you could actually begin doing something with your life. Imagine if you had to have a Doctorate before you were able to be effective competition in a job hunt (Just like you have to have a Bachelor's now) If it became the norm for everyone to have a Bachelor's, the only way to divide up candidates on paper would be a Master's/Doctorate. You'd be 30+ before you started your first job, unless you were lucky. What a colossal waste of time.
I certainly understand some of the things that the petition brings up - Like Financial Aid plans from the Government already cost way too much and would be cheaper to essentially make it free. They make sense, but I think the bigger issue is the flat out requirement to have a degree. Why is experience in the field useless? I could 5 years ago provide tons of examples of my experience in my field of choice, but because I did not have a fancy piece of paper I did not get a job offer - I lost several because of it in the past. Why is this the norm? I think the bigger issue isn't that college costs too much, but that college is a requirement, not a plus. This is especially so when 85% of the time I spent in college was a colossal waste of my time, I learned almost nothing, and most of the things I did learn do not apply to my life or my field and I have forgotten. I learned far more taking things up on my own time than I ever did sitting in a classroom reading a book and answering multiple choice questions.
As it is it's hard to get that starting job with a Bachelor's Degree in your field. If it's free to obtain, then even more people would have it, making job competition even worse, making those extra years even more wasted time than they already potentially are. There would be even less to distinguish a good starting applicant from a bad starting applicant, and it would be even worse for you if you were unable to complete college for whatever reason, as it would be beyond the norm it already is to have a degree.
If obtaining up to a Bachelor's Degree became free, then the next level of education is a Master's, then a Doctorate. Everything would just move up a level, and would waste more of your time before you could actually begin doing something with your life. Imagine if you had to have a Doctorate before you were able to be effective competition in a job hunt (Just like you have to have a Bachelor's now) If it became the norm for everyone to have a Bachelor's, the only way to divide up candidates on paper would be a Master's/Doctorate. You'd be 30+ before you started your first job, unless you were lucky. What a colossal waste of time.
I certainly understand some of the things that the petition brings up - Like Financial Aid plans from the Government already cost way too much and would be cheaper to essentially make it free. They make sense, but I think the bigger issue is the flat out requirement to have a degree. Why is experience in the field useless? I could 5 years ago provide tons of examples of my experience in my field of choice, but because I did not have a fancy piece of paper I did not get a job offer - I lost several because of it in the past. Why is this the norm? I think the bigger issue isn't that college costs too much, but that college is a requirement, not a plus. This is especially so when 85% of the time I spent in college was a colossal waste of my time, I learned almost nothing, and most of the things I did learn do not apply to my life or my field and I have forgotten. I learned far more taking things up on my own time than I ever did sitting in a classroom reading a book and answering multiple choice questions.