From President Barack Obama, on a Facebook video:
I’d like to see the first two years of community college free for everyone who is willing to work for it. It’s something we can accomplish and it’s something that will train our workforce so that we can compete with anybody in the world.
The Wall Street Journal, “Obama Proposal Would Make Community College Free,” 1/9/15
Forget the idea that “willing to work for it” means a student working to pay their own way. For Obama, it means that the student maintains a 2.5 GPA and the government picks up the tab. Nobody denies that community colleges teach valuable skills, probably more valuable, in terms of what they offer to prospective employers, than a lot of what gets taught in four-year-college liberal arts programs and at a lot less cost. As such, why can’t the students pay for the value they receive, availing themselves of scholarships, grants, student loan, and work-study programs? Why must community colleges be turned into yet another entitlement? Has anyone noticed that we’re already buried under an Everest of entitlements?
Unfortunately, Obama is cleverly using a Tennessee program championed by Republican Governor Bill Haslam, just as he did with Obamacare and Mitt Romney’s health care in Massachusetts, as his template. With bipartisan galloping socialism the order of the day, what’s left of self-reliance and free markets doesn’t stand a chance. The Revolution can’t come soon enough.
Well said. I agree completely. Look at the recent graduates. The entitlement creed is far more dominant than the concept of hard work or paying one’s dues before financial success.
Thanks for paying attention, Shahrokh!