It would be weird if I only criticized other people’s plans without wondering what an alternative could look like. So of course I have a really good plan that leaves the harmful plans by Bernie and Hillary in the dust.
My plan’s don’ts:
– don’t rely upon the goodwill of state administrations;
– don’t micromanage professors.
My plan’s dos:
– “give people free money.” Bypass the state government altogether and simply give the money you were going to give to the state in the form of grants to students.
A student gets a tuition bill from a public university, sends it to a federal agency, the bill gets paid in full. This will improve enrollments at public universities because people will choose to go here if tuition is paid. Money will go straight to colleges and won’t be hijacked by Rauner and Co on the way there.
If the middleman often acts in bad faith, simply bypass him. Why is that so hard to figure out? Drop the infuriating phrase “provided that the state government cooperates”, and establish direct contact with the people you want to help. And don’t micromanage professors.
Now tell me if this plan isn’t better than the other two.
Clarissa's Blog 
It’s like a college voucher.
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Yes, exactly. It would easily solve the problem. Yet nobody is even trying to do this.
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What will prevent public universities from significantly rising tuition, if your plan is implemented?
Or, if students will get at most $X from government, request $current_tuition+$X ?
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Definitely an issue. Curious to here clarissa’s reponse, but an obvious solution would be some sort of cap ($12,000 a year), and no excess charges over that. Honestly don’t support the plan but govt. could get rough and firm and almost be like medicare where you have to accept payment in full for services (in most states) or not take medicare patients at all. Something like 97-99% of doctors take medicare and have to agree to their prices. So basically all non-flagship state schools would take federal money.
Would your elite public institutions agree to the cap? That woud be interesting, and ironically could lead to even greater segregation based on income. Unintended consequences can be very rough..
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Yes, let’s moan about the horrible consequences of helping people pay for college and avoid discussing the consequences of the destruction of public education that is going on right now.
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Yeah, the cabal of evil professors is on the ready to rob poor government.
Our board of trustees has policies in place that make it easier to travel to the moon than raise tuition. Our former president had to resign after he hinted that it might make sense to raise tuition a bit.
I wonder why nobody is asking what will prevent state governors from hijacking the money that the federal government will send to the states. Are the proverbial evil professors so much more scary that the real evildoers like Rauner?
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Sort of off topic, but good place to put it. We always argue if professors are liberal.. pretty convincing chart.. http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/07/universities-without-ideological-diversity.htmlhttp://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2016/07/universities-without-ideological-diversity.html
TLDR: country 1:1 lib to conservative (average people): Non-east coast professors 5:1 liberals; east coast professors 25:1 liberals.
Data to back up my and most people’s personal anecdotes.
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Let’s try to concentrate for a second. Administrators are overwhelmingly Republican. Administrators. People with real power. The majority of “professors” (75%) are part-timers who are paid a pittance and who have zero influence on anything including the French 101 courses they teach. The ideology of these people never comes into play because they are never asked to express ideas. Get a clue already.
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I provided evidence to a long running debate. concrete evidence.
Where is your evidence of most being republican?
Secondly, students interact with professors not administrators in terms of being influence / brainwashed. Get a clue 🙂 We can both search for one itappears
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As an anarchist and a math and economics teacher (and former TA), I have never tried to express political ideas in class, simply because this is not part of our job. I repeat: EXPRESSING POLITICAL IDEAS IS NOT PART OF OUR JOB AS A TEACHER!
(When I taught Microeconomics 101, I explained what anarchy is, and what labor and subjective theories of value are, but I have never expressed any kind of political ideas.)
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Yes, I can just imagine one of my classes. “Creo que does not require subjunctive but no creo que normally does. Abortion rights! Abortion rights!”
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This long running debate exists only in your head. I don’t debate anything with people who think students are brainwashed by professors. Such people have my deepest compassion but that’s it.
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