You know a valid point has been made. Even if we paid people to go to college there aren't any seats available for them.

How about raising tuition to pay to build more colleges? Now that would actually accomplish something positive.

Fong, my kids are eligible for medicaid here in Louisiana (LaChip). Thing is, we dont need it b/c I have insurance already. Here in Louisiana alone there is 90,000 kids eligible that are not in medicaid, my kids are part of that number. This is a state of around 4million people.

We have food stamp commercials on the radio here. People know about this stuff. If the government wants to increase the limits, why not start off first sending a letter to every eligible family first before we throw more money into the black hole?

People know about it fong, they just dont need it b/c they are already covered. The actual number of people who need it are already on it. Same thing would happen with education. It all goes back to the individual circumstances which is why government programs always come up short of their intentions.

Hell Louisiana already has too many 4 year colleges, we cant spread around the money as it is...lol. Couldnt imagine more money going into it. Plus people are leaving the state as soon as they graduate so we arent replacing them here in Louisiana....lol. Our wonderful state government, what a joke!

Only about half the people who go to college earn a degree in the end, why would making someone else pay for that opportunity make more of them graduate? A good chunk if not most of those are already having their education subsidized by working stiffs. Seems to me we are giving money away to freely and we should place a higher test on who gets it.

if you have 10,000 people taking a degree, 50% of them pass, you have 5,000 people with a degree.

if you have 20,000 people taking a degree, 50% of them pass, you have 10,000 people with a degree.

Since more people go to college, more people graduate. It is simple math.

If you have 10,000 seats and 5,000 of them don't graduate then you have 5,000 people less with a degree than if those serious about college were filling those seats.

On a serious note we need to get more online colleges. The brick and mortar institutions really are a thing of the past. Instead of professors we need online course developers that are trained in competency based education. Courses, once developed, would be relatively inexpensive and a person could progress at their own speed. Virtually any lecture based couse would actually be better online than in person. Of course we would still need some brick and mortar for the Lab classes and they would still cost a lot.

The claim was 50% fail now.

Capacity is a problem, but then, IF Capacity IS a problem, then you have to admit that Aztek was right, and that if College was free then more people would be attempting to go.

If he wasn't right, then you wouldn't expect more people to turn up and you wouldn't be worried about capacity.

I am not sure denying people an education because you don't have enough schools is really justifiable, you wouldn't deny people medical care based on the same reasoning, there would simply be an outcry for more hospitals....remember you denied because there is no room, not because the person can't afford it, so you turn up with your health insurance but get told sorry no care for you, no room at the hospital.

People wouldn't be happy and it wouldn't be like that for long.

I would put forward another proposition.

Everyone that is serious about obtaining a college education today is getting a college education. Tuition is not a prohibitive factor because anyone enrolled can get a student loan to cover the costs of their college education.

By removing the requirement for tuition you are not adding more people that are serious about obtaining a degree. Instead you are simply adding those that aren't serious and all you do is increase the dropout rate. You won't change the net number of individuals graduating but you will dramatically increase the number of those that dropout of college. Instead of 5 out of 10 graduating you will merely change the number to 5 out of 20 by doubling the enrollment and would still only have 5 people graduating and increase the dropout rate to 75%.

The fact is that the cost to obtain a degree is not a prohibitive factor. A lack of personal motivation is the prohibitive factor as reflected by the current dropout rates.

I have said several times Shiva, you can't keep claiming everyone and anyone and then add clauses.

Anyone can be a police officer, so long as they are over 6 foot tall.

Well then anyone can't do it, only people over 6 foot tall can do it.

Only people who can stay at home to cut costs, only those that can get scholarships, only those willing to put themselves in debt, only people willing to go to commnity college, only those with rich parents.

Not anyone at all. How is that anyone, that is the direct opposite of anyone.

Please cite a single case of a person dedicated to obtaining a college education in the United States being unable to obtain one. You can't because anyone truly dedicated to that goal is able to go to college.

Your argument is moot unless you can present a case where the individual is prohibited from obtaining a college education if they truly desire one and are willing to make the sacrifices to obtain one. It simply isn't that hard and there are no insurmountable obstacles.

Hell, give me a hypothetical case and let's see if it is possible for them to obtain a degree. I can provide at least three different ways for anyone in any situation to obtain a degree if they are willing to follow my advice. I'm sure that you can do that as well. As long as there is a "means" then there isn't a problem.