Should College Be a Constitutional Right?

I see the kat is on the prowl. Hey kitty if you wish to argue with me than remove the block instead of doing it by proxy. Pam does not need your help to argue her point eloquently enough so even I a hardline "conservatroll" as you call me can see the validity of her arguments.

Sure...........now I want to pay for your education. NO!!

I buy you food, give you medical care, housing, a cell phone, birth control, spending money, help pay your heating bills, give you tax breaks on your property tax, pay you tax credits........and now education. Oh yes, and now disability claims have risen!

All I want to know is, "Do you want me to wash your clothes too?"

Not everyone is college material and so they would have to dumb down the product to accomidate those who aren't up to the challenge. In fact, they've been doing that for years!

Yes: College should be easier to access. As far as the question about government paying for college: I think the government should be encouraging private companies to create scholarships (preferably, academic and essay ones for my own sake.(: ) To make college easier to access, though: I think the government should focus on preparing high school students for hi-washout classes like math, science, technology and engineering. That will raise the likelihood that they'll get into college and help them stay there. I think that community colleges should be 4 years. Anyone can get into a community college and those 2 years are very helpful in preparing you for state or university.

You are making good points about private scholarships. I disagree with the idea of extra help for high washout classes. The classes should be tough enough that anyone who gets good grades will have no problem in college. Those that can't handle high school level of math and any difficult subjects has no business going to college. My daughter just graduated from community college with 4.0 grade and was accepted by the local university without any problems. While at the community college she worked as a student assistant helping out with math, physics and computer science. She told me that some students worked hard and just could not get it and some could get it but expected she does their homework. A good number of students however applied themselves and eventually started performing on the higher level.
That tells me that some assistance like that is warranted. What the colleges must avoid doing is lowering their standards so that underperforming students for whatever reason, can pass.
Anyone who graduates from community college with low standards or grade below 3.0 is not likely to graduate from University.

I wasn't really thinking about tutoring, more giving us the basics that colleges expect us to know before entrance. I mean, I'm going to college and I've got the grades, but my teachers haven't prepared me for upper level math. They haven't taught me what the colleges expect of me even in honors and Pre-IB classes. I'm teaching myself upper level math concepts through Khan Academy. It's just that we're a little far behind and I don't think we should be. As far as lowering college standards: I think the standard is fine as is. I just think that the rising percent of student dropping out of hi-washout courses is sad. The world needs more scientists and engineers.

The hi wash-out in math and engineering is a good thing. We need scientists and engineers that are capable of doing their jobs so those who can't handle the classes need to be weeded out. Perhaps the college standards in your college is fine but the problems you experience are low standards in high school where, according to your own admission they did not prepare you for college. Not really your fault but you suffer for it now. It is students with that kind of problems my daughter was helping out. She was actually paid for it by the college. You would benefit from such asistance and I hope you are getting it in that Khan Academy.

Not so much a right, but a goal. A highly educated population is the only way the United States is going to remain competitive in the 21st century.

I agree, college education should be a goal. Just one thing must taken into account, not all people are college material. There should be other traing available for them and less sophisticated jobs available that still pay enough so that they can make a living. This training should, prefearably be offered by private companies by themselves or in cooperation with local government and political leadership.

As we are currently seeing with private for profit "universities", learning institutions with a profit only motives are not workable.

Everyone does currently have a right to it, so the question being asked is whether everyone should have a right to receive it for free and the answer is "no".

Many people are not college material for one thing. The country needs skilled labor every bit as much as college educated labor. Also, if everyone gets one, it then becomes a meaningless measure when looking through job applicants.

Finally, a "right" should never involved taking away rights of another individual. If you give an education for "free", someone has to provide it whether through their funding and/or their labor.

We handle the deliverance of knowledge in a bad manner. Higher education should be pursued for the sake of learning new things, not to get a job. It shouldn't be a stamp of approval. They should have training schools for that.

Of course not!!!! How low do we have to set the bar? How much more run down can we make our education by admitting every dumbass that can't spell their name because they scream "it's my right!"?

And there would be much easier access if it weren't so costly, and it would be less costly if the damned govt. would stop pumping money into it and causing tuitions to rise exponentially!

So the government pumps money into something and that alone makes the prices go up?

Couldn't be that the government pumps money into, the greedy colleges see free money coming there and still want all the prospective students money as well? I'm sure prices wouldn't be going AS high without the government pumping money in, but it would still be a big increase.... they want dollars, the more the better. They aren't there to educate, they're there to make big money. That's fine, but they've also sold business on the idea that everyone needs it.... it's a vicious circle.

you got it!

I agree that it's expensive because of gov grants/loans but don't think it should be in the constitution as a right...You already have the right to go to college if you work hard for it, no one's keeping anyone from going to college. I don't think that a foreignor should be able to go to school here on the tax payer dime either..States should be responsible for funding of student loans and their schools..But you're right, if the fed would get out of it, then the price would be lowered significantly, making it easier for the working class family to send their kid to college or for scholarships to pay for the complete education, not just a semester here or there. I don't think that anything that someone else must pay for, should be considered a right...You have the RIGHT to do the right thing in life and make your own way, anything else is not much more than an "entitlement".

couldn't agree with you more.

You already have an opportunity to apply for college, it's up to you how you deal with it. Of course through wasteful government programs some people get more than a fair shot, but that's another story.

The Right to an education is a human right and only a Fascist 1%er would disagree.

A RIGHT to an education is the individual's RESPONSIBILITY not the burden of everyone else. Do you know what fascism is?

Yes, I do are you asking for a definition? Education is a right that should be shared with everyone and it should be free even if we have to increase the taxes 100% to support it.

You're right, it is a right. A right which this country recognizes and protects. It is, however, also the individual's responsibility to educate themselvelves. You can throw all the money you want at it but there's not going to be any left over for people to patronize the career a free education will implement.

And yes. I don't need webster's definition but I would like you to clarify how a person is a fascist for not wanting their society to crumble just so people don't have to work for their own education anymore.

Fascism has many principles it requires a sense of Social Darwinism or the belief that we should deprive the weak and allow them to be exploited by those that are strong and a belief that your country is the best in all categories and has a right to dominate all others. In short it is a country founded on a superiority complex, the reason why you would be a fascist for not wanting a free college education is because you are inherently keeping those bellow you in their place by depriving them the equal opportunity to a college education simply because they aren't lucky enough to afford it out of pocket. Your individual rights end where the good of the majority outweighs the minority and it is only just that every individual no matter how much money they have has a right to a college education.

I can see your young education isn't really paying off so far. But keep studying. Maybe you'll come across something that isn't just a mastery of judging others.

You're implying I'm a fascist when in fact I am, along with probably 90% of my peers, the very individuals that couldn't or can't immediately afford college. That's what a job is for. That's what student loans are for. That's what internships and pale grants are for. These educations aren't free. SOMEBODY is paying for it. I paid for mine. Others can pay for theirs. I'm assuming your parents are paying for yours as you fit the model for an over privileged kid that thinks just because its easier for you it should be for everyone else. Thank your parents. Don't demagogue them because they worked hard to make your life easier.

Well we should all pay our fair share so everyone can go to college no matter your income. I am not against hard work but most of the jobs out there are beneath what a human is worth. As for how much is a fair share well a fair share is whatever it would cost for everyone to go to college and also for all the other thing being human demands from society.

And your initial accusation is the same rhetoric pretty much every authoritarian dictator used to gain power in a fascist regime. "if you can't do it, it's somebody else's fault. So let's take everything they have, give it to me, and I'll distribute it among all of you equally." Let's see, how'd that pan out?

it works is the majority of people are satisfied with the government's service.

Which is why we need to tame the free market with regulation.

Some ppl just arent smart enough and some ppl just dont want to.

There are plenty of kids that are able to get in, they just can't afford it.

Way too many people are trivializing The Constitution with they stupid ideas. but not realising they are endangering our very liberty that the Constitution is supposed protect!

Then it sounds like we need a new constitution doesn't it?

No we DON'T!

no, sounds like you need to move to a country with a different law of the land.

And then we can have chocolate as a constitutional right and then the right to have a pet and then the right to have a gucci bag and then...........
Do what everyone else does.....pay for it if you want it!