Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
CNN Video Article on a Student that can't afford college anymore.
- Thread starter bbotte
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Public school system is abysmal? Yea, so why isn't anybody doing anything about the public school system? We have no problem paying $500 billion dollars on our defense but yet we can't increase the budget for our education. Have you seen the average pay for a public school teacher? There are reasons for the inefficiency and disregard for economic principles, it is not because of socialization, it is purely because our government is not paying attention to this problem and nobody is doing anything about it. If we provide the funding, those schools would do just fine.
The same problems you see in the public school systems is what you would see in college systems if you allow the government to run them and cap expenditures for students so that everyone can go. You will have professors getting crap pay and classes that are overfilled which will mean you won't get the best professors, in fact the professors will probably be working in the private sector instead because they can make more money. The government isn't the answer to every question.
I love how everyone thinks education is so important until it comes time to pony up some cash, personally I would rather not trust the government with the education of my child, if I do have one I will send them to private school no matter what the cost is.
Whoa wait, I see what you're talking about and let me clear something up.
Letting the government run the universities are not what i meant. That will never work. I meant that the students should not pay for the schools. Let the government pick up the tab and the students should be allowed to go anywhere they choose. (to certain limits of course, the rich students over certain family income should pony up, poorest students should not pay a cent)
The universities right now are competitive just like the market and are trying to get the best students they could but many of their choice won't work because some but not most can't afford the tuition even AFTER the federal grants, scholarships and so on because the rates are going up so fast that the government support is not catching up. The universities themselves are starting to run out of the funds for all the scholarships for the neediest students.
The federal pell grants have not kept up with the tuition rates over the past decade.
My point was that the government should be increasing pell grant support for those students to the point that most of the poorest students can afford to go to the best schools they can go to.
As for the public school, the funding should be increased for those schools. Look at all the budget cuts that are happening all over the country. They are cutting out Music, Art, Computers and so on because they can't afford those supplies.
In the case of a private university until completion?, well, there is SUNY and that's what she may need to do. But I do wish the grant/loan situation were not so bad that all 12 rejected her. What's going on there? She seems to fulfill some aspects of having a need. She's not working 3 jobs just for kicks.
You can say that about nearly every common expense for a student. So when do you start cutting costs in a way to live comfortably, but not extravagantly?
If she can't make the money to pay for all of this, then she should start "making money" by not spending it unwisely. 'A penny saved is a penny earned', and I believe this is an American saying. To me, an iPhone is extravagant for someone who knows how much their education costs, and know how much her debt will be. I'd say the same thing if she bought $4 dessert coffees at Starbucks semi-regularly at lunch.
If you really believe that a person who's going to accumulate a large debt shouldn't bother saving on (relatively) small costs just because they're small, then perhaps this is the type of thinking that's wrong with our culture of living on credit cards and debt.
These "small" individual expenses add up.
Agreed.
My parents made enough money that I wasn't eligible for a pell grant, guess how much money I received from my parents.... 0. I don't know why there is a determination by your parents income on whether you are eligible, they most likely pay MORE taxes than the poor families and receive less benefit. In my case I was a poor mofo for 5 years with no parental or government assistance (Sallie Mae basically took an arm and an eye for my tuition instead).
The pell grant system is screwed in my mind. The problem with wanting to increase the grants is that universities will inflate their tuition to meet the new government handouts. It happens everytime the government raises the amounts.
Overall I agree with you in principle, if it would actually work and universities weren't going to be greedy. I just don't think it will end up working the way we want in the end if the government just hands out more money. As long as kids are willing to pay 50k a year to go to school universities will continue to raise their rates.
Should check into the programs offered around her, in KY UPS and the State have teamed up to offer a program to get people degrees if they agree to work the UPS graveyard shift part-time.
Just takes some looking around and maybe sucking up to the reality of settling for a lesser school in the area if that is where the local assistance is targeted.
I'm not even there and heard about that, where I'm currently at the community college has a narrower program (for underemployed people that can't quite make it) ... but it does help people and the community out by delivering skilled people into the local talent pool.
Just takes some looking around and maybe sucking up to the reality of settling for a lesser school in the area if that is where the local assistance is targeted.
You can say that about nearly every common expense for a student. So when do you start cutting costs in a way to live comfortably, but not extravagantly?
If she can't make the money to pay for all of this, then she should start "making money" by not spending it unwisely. 'A penny saved is a penny earned', and I believe this is an American saying. To me, an iPhone is extravagant for someone who knows how much their education costs, and know how much her debt will be. I'd say the same thing if she bought $4 dessert coffees at Starbucks semi-regularly at lunch.
If you really believe that a person who's going to accumulate a large debt shouldn't bother saving on (relatively) small costs just because they're small, then perhaps this is the type of thinking that's wrong with our culture of living on credit cards and debt.
It is extravagant, but the normal college kid isn't going to make up 50k worth of expenses in a year even if they live like a hobo. She needs to be in a different less costly school if she can't afford it was all that i was saying.
Would have done it myself if was offered when I went to school.
I know quite a few people that worked that sorting table, and also played with the containers there at UPS on snowy days -- bet they would have also loved it.
Sadly the program isn't extremely old.