Can't Win - Tuition Cuts

[Chu Gai]

I did a little more digging around on this topic. It seems that the reduced tuition was only one aspect. The proposal also included a provision that tuition for students would be frozen provided they completed their degree within four years. Now, I can see where the college administrators would balk at decreased revenue which some have said would amount to 28 million if the legislature never passed the requisite funding to make up for it. After all, this funding has yet to make its way through the state legislature. And I can see why some would have been supportive had the NC gov't been Democratic because my own personal take on this is Democrats love spending money and catering to particular special interests. That doesn't mean that I think Republicans have their own special interests. If I were a serious student though I'd welcome $500 tuition. I could devote more of my time to focus on studies and less on maybe working a second job.

Maybe this can be looked at as a small test pilot program. Try it on a limited scale and evaluate whether it works or doesn't.

 

[highfigh]

I did a little more digging around on this topic. It seems that the reduced tuition was only one aspect. The proposal also included a provision that tuition for students would be frozen provided they completed their degree within four years. Now, I can see where the college administrators would balk at decreased revenue which some have said would amount to 28 million if the legislature never passed the requisite funding to make up for it. After all, this funding has yet to make its way through the state legislature. And I can see why some would have been supportive had the NC gov't been Democratic because my own personal take on this is Democrats love spending money and catering to particular special interests. That doesn't mean that I think Republicans have their own special interests. If I were a serious student though I'd welcome $500 tuition. I could devote more of my time to focus on studies and less on maybe working a second job.

Maybe this can be looked at as a small test pilot program. Try it on a limited scale and evaluate whether it works or doesn't.

I started college in 1975 and even then, I would have welcomed $500/semester tuition. The school charged $775/quarter (a full year was three quarters, 17 credits, or more) plus books and other expenses. I would see my HS friends during semester breaks or sometimes, during the year (still with my HS girlfriend at the time and she went to a state college in town) and the others would complain about the cost of school at in-state colleges. I would tell them to shut up and stop complaining- they paid $600 PER YEAR.

If college tuition had followed inflation, my tuition would be about $3445/quarter and they would be paying about $2670/year. We need to look into WHY college tuition has been allowed to rise so much and who has benefited from those increases. They received gifts and endowments in the past and they still do. They didn't receive as much federal or State money back then, but I think this whole mess is a matter of someone deciding to give money to schools that convinced the legislators that what they received wasn't enough.

I had a customer who came into the stereo store just before the end of the year to buy something. He ended up with a cheap compact system, which cost about $300 and was a piece of crap. This was the head of the Institute of Chamber Music, at UW-Milwaukee and I even asked why he was buying it if it was as bad as he thought, as he had commented. His reply- "If I don't spend it this year, I won't get it next year".

And they trained business & accounting majors. The irony. I understand "It's in the budget", but this is abuse of accounting methods that are fundamentally flawed.

 

[lsiberian]

OK... so why not:
> Have zero federal income tax for everyone, not just low income?
> Give food stamps to everyone?
> Give housing assistance to everyone?
etc, etc, etc...

An argument that says govt subsidies should include everyone equally is... well... not well considered.

You are attempting to oversimplify a complex issue. Put yourself in the shoes of a 60 year old black man that saw Jim Crow and it's lingering programs like the Drug War destroy your community first hand.
Now a white man wants to make your university a lower tier school in the state. Maybe even setup the school for closure later down the line.

Politics is not as cut and dry as the guy selling the bill wants you to believe. This move really doesn't help the poor or minorities either. Lowering the tuition across the board would be a better move because it would benefit all students and give poor student greater access to all schools instead of a special group of schools the politician in question wants to weaken and put at the political mercy of the state.

Income tax, Food stamps and housing assistance is based on income not race. This move clearly isn't. A white rich deep south Republican is probably the last person I'd trust to be making this proposal for noble reasons.

 

[Chu Gai]

The person who proposed it is Hispanic and those particular schools are already at the lower tier with respect to NC that we all know. Again it's only a proposal and it remains to be seen if it'll get voted on. BTW, the original proposal also looked to freeze tuition if a person graduated in 4 years. You'd barely see the change in tuition if the amount in question was spread over all the schools that make up NC.

 

[herbu]

You are attempting to oversimplify a complex issue. Put yourself in the shoes of a 60 year old black man that saw Jim Crow and it's lingering programs like the Drug War destroy your community first hand.

I agree it's a complex issue.
Put yourself in the shoes of a 60 year old white man that grew up in integrated schools and has never seen an opportunity denied anyone because of race. Yet he constantly hears that every problem in low income and minority neighborhoods is his fault. Then he sees a representative criticized for proposing cheaper education for those same neighborhoods. I guess it's too complex for me to understand.