"Making the perfect the enemy of the good."

[JHan]

88. I never argued that anyone on the left is against fixing k-12.....

I'm making a nuanced argument. Yeah..nuance, that thing which has become lost in political discourse.

....in policy discussions it's always about allocation of resources, and what you choose to emphasize. Free college is not a fix all.

I will requote myself from another thread..

Generally, the neediest of society, those who are functionally illiterate and didn't finish high school, will not be eligible to receive "free college" . The beneficiaries will be young people who hope to make more than median wage on their first day at the job.

The catch is most degrees will not net you more than the median wage on the first day. How many degrees are worth taking yourself out of the workforce for 4 years when you could have gained experience had you started work right out of high school? Take Germany for example: grossly simplistic comparisons are made between the the U.S. and Germany - but there's a difference, in germany there are jobs you can get without a university degree - jobs that require a degree in the U.S - and there's a focus on vocational training. Treating free college as a fixall puts pressure on administrative university costs, especially if you're taking a degree which isn't terribly productive - ergo a degree society isn't lining up for and demanding. (I'd also suggest you read the Federal Reserve Study that came out in 2015 which looked at rising tuition costs and what has caused it , you'll find it with a simple google search. )

And let's say someone takes up a degree that society IS lining up for, why can't that person cover the costs of their tuition? There are already state taxes aimed at keeping state colleges affordable, federal research grants, land grants, scholarship aid etc,so it's not that society doesn't pay anything at the moment.

And as for "unproductive" degrees, "free college" encourages students to pursue these degrees when they might be better off pursuing something more lucrative if their aim is to get a degree to make themselves competitive in the market......... I'll be clear here: I am not arguing that Students shouldn't pursue degrees that aren't high in demand, personal education is valuable regardless. I also believe the humanities shouldn't be dismissed or ignored, and I won't mind a change in the way we value and assess certain degrees, but the obsession with degrees has actually resulted in an approach to higher education as simply a means to get a job rather than the pursuit of higher knowledge for sake of it.

What free college does is give funds to literate high school graduates who only have to choose a sensible major and they're set for life.

Which is why I favor greater emphasis on k-12. Greater emphasis on infancy health and nutrition plans for vulnerable mothers, particularly if those mothers are homeless, barely literate and live in communities with decrepit infrastructure. I want less talk about "free college" and more talk about literacy and numeracy rates in the United States and how to address the effects of poverty on access to education.

I am also not arguing that students shouldn't receive some form of student debt relief, but I'd also rather look at reasons why costs are high instead of assuming free college would be some magical fix.