Supporting Higher Education

[Babe_Ruth]

Got this from another message board.

Currently, the U.S. ranks 12th among 36 developed nations when it comes to college completion rates, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Sunday.

Obama touts education goals in speech at the University of Texas - CNN.com

American universities are fairly expensive. This puts American kids at a bit of a disadvantage, considering some of the other countries heavily subsidise colleges and universities, making education more affordable, more accessible. Would you consider a tax hike to facilitate a greater number of graduates, or not?

 

[CaptainObvious]

I don't know so much as a tax hike but definitely spending. Higher education should be a much bigger priority, not only for the government for the education of it's citizenry, but for the citizenry as well. While cost is definitely an obstacle to attaining education some in society need to make it their own personal priority.

 

[AnitaKnapp]

It's my theory that it will soon be the same for the US. It's getting more and more common to need a college degree to do even the easiest of jobs that should only take some common sense and hard work.

If companies are going to be requiring college degrees for easy work, then something is going to have to give on the cost of education.

 

[Gavik]

Or the US could just not buy another aircraft carrier and get the same job done with no tax hike.

 

[Ilus_Unistus]

I do not know so much of how much taxes Americans pay, but it is hard to understand with a country with so many people that the government already does not pay for higher education. With so few less in Estonia the government pays the cost for students to attend public Universities here and taxes are not so much, maybe 20-21% per worker? Is the US less?

Maybe is like Gavik said, "they should not buy another Aircraft carrier" lol.

 

[SmilinSilhouette]

Hell NO! I already pay plenty of taxes.

@ Ilus: I pay more than 25% in income tax alone. When you add in all the other taxes (property tax, sales tax 6%, gas tax, cigarette tax, licenses, fees, registrations, etc.) I'll bet it is approaching 50% of my earned income goes to government. I am not "rich" my wife and I both work full time and together make about $80,000/year. And guess what?, about 47% of Americans pay NO income tax and many of those actually receive a "refund" of taxes they DIDN'T PAY! The funny thing is that it seems many of the liberal posters here on GF pay little or no income tax, and some actually receive payments from the government. So much for "We all need to have some skin in the game".
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Next point: Higher education does not equal employment! How many people do you know that have college degrees that don't work in that field? Or if they do but don't work in the area that they got their degree in, or don't have a job at all? How many college graduates don't have the basic skills to get and keep a job? (like showing up on time every day, dressed and groomed appropriately, with the proper interpersonal skills to work with customers, contractors, and suppliers?). How many graduate then expect to start out in a high level position without any prior experience?

I am not against college education, I just don't think it is a solution to all of our difficulties.
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Next point: When you pay for something it has VALUE. It is easy to not try your best when someone else pays your way. When I went to college I had to pay for everything my self. Tuition, books, etc. plus I had to support myself as I have since I was 17 and was still in high school. I had to sacrifice other things in order to pay for classes and I would be damned if I was going to fail. Others in class whose parents were paying the bill would sleep in class, come late, or not show up at all. Many paid little attention, didn't do the assigned reading or homework and were totally unprepared to participate in class.

 

[Bananas]

I dont see why a tax hike is necessary. There are other solutions to this problem, the two most obvious would be;

The banks could be encouraged to give student loans and the institutions could be encouraged to lower their fees.

 

[Ilus_Unistus]

Reading a few post brings questions to me about the USA.

1) With seeing so much taxes being paid by Americans, how is it possible the government does not pay for everyone to attend public University?

2) Was it not a big factor that the Revolutionary war started because of such high taxation?

3) I understand the USA has much military occupying Iraq and Afghanistan but if even half of Americans pay these high taxes, say 150 million, what does it do with all this money that it needs to borrow from other countries???

(I know I am off topic, but I do not see this as a new thread of its own for questions that may be answered easily.)

 

[SmilinSilhouette]

@ Ilus: 1. Only about half of us pay income tax, many pay no income tax, some get paid by the government in the form of a "refund" of taxes they did not pay in the first place. Also, the US Constitution does not give the Federal government authority to raise taxes for education.

2. That and the dictatorial attitude of the English government that they could do whatever they wanted to the colonies. They owned the colonies. Kind of like what is happening now with the Obama administration.

3. They spend more than they take in then use the national debt as an excuse to RAISE TAXES! Funny how that works.

 

[CaptainObvious]

I'm going to piggyback on Smilin's point about paying. I worked my way through college also and paid for the large majority of it myself. I would pay my tuition in installments. I'm a big believer in earning something has much more value than having it handed to you.

I also agree with Bananas' suggestions of encouraging banks to loan and to lower their fees. That is something that is already being implemented somewhat but could be expanded on.