(08-30-2015 04:05 PM)10thMountain Wrote: Ignoring the political side of this question (All I'll say is that if Bernie wins, I don't want to live on this planet anymore)
IF college suddenly became tuition *Free then the number one thing that would happen is most Americans would no longer go to college.
What I mean is that we Americans take our open admissions system for granted and think that's how the rest of the world must work too except they get it for FREE!
Not so fast my friend.
In those other countries with the *Free Tuition your left leaning friends all swoon over, the big detail they leave out is that you don't just get to apply to college and go to the best one you can.
Nope. Instead, the State has been testing you since grade school to decide if they consider you worthy enough to be SELECTED to go onto *Free State college (and in some countries, even high school itself)
It would be fiscally impossible to have our current open admissions college system be 100% government paid for. Instead you'd see about 90% of the public schools in this country (and their AD) shut down.
This would have a major effect on the remaining survivors.
Since its doubtful many states would keep more than one (or two if they are a large and or rich state) big public schools open and will save the biggest and best ones, lots of current FBS public schools would simply cease to exist and the survivors would have to redraw their maps based on lost membership.
The only ones this might be a boon for are private schools like Rice Tulsa, Tulane and SMU who would suddenly find themselves in high demand after say a decimated Big 12 is left with only Texas, TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma, Kansas as members (WVU having reassigned itself eastward to fill in gaps in the ACC)
Although the premise is unsound, it makes for an interesting thought experiment to think of who would and would not survive The Cull and how that would force a redrawing of the conference lines
Sorry folks. I don't always agree with 10th Mountain, but I think he has it fairly correct on this one. Right now, economics are the gate keeper for higher education. If you can find a way to pay, some form of higher education is always open to you. If its free, the government will become the new gate keeper. Also, keep in mind, "free tuition" is just "free tuition". I doubt books, dorms, and food plans are going to be part of the deal.
Which brings me to a point of higher education costs that every politician seem to be blissfully unaware of--book costs. The cost of college texts are absolutely ridiculous. Let the privates do was they wish, but there is zero reason for the books to cost as much as they do for public institutions.
Paper backs books can be routinely manufactured at a cost under $10. They are routinely edited and re-issued with edits and new forwards---yet they still cost less than $10. So the idea that these texts are expensive because they need to be constantly updated is simply false. Plus, its not like basic accounting theory is changing much year to year.
There is no reason for teaching texts---who's authors make virtually nothing, to cost $200-300 (especially at a state public university or community college). Books cost more today than they did 30 years ago when they had to be manually type set or slugged. They are reissued every year with minor edits to prevent students from using used books. By the way, if the books are obsolete in a year---then there is no reason to print them in hard back (since they are worthless and out of date in a year----hard back production just needlessly increases costs). In fact, do we need physical books at all---given the fact books can be downloaded electronically to ipads, smart phones, computers---as well as cheap tablets and tablet-readers (available for $100 or less)? That would eliminate shipping costs, most production costs, and the requirement to keep large inventories of books on hand (which would also eliminate book unavailability for students when books stores run short of a certain text).
This is an area where common sense, standardization with systems, and a little political effort could save students nationwide literally billions in wasted dollars (most of which are borrowed dollars). This is an easy place to do a little reform and help young students afford higher education with little cost to the government or tax payers. The $800 toilet seat in education is the $300 history book (and there are books that cost more than that).
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What ripple effects on athletic budgets will happen if public college go tuition free
