Quote:
Originally Posted by Throndor
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
From what i understand in speaking with people in countries where "free college" is a thing, students need to show of ability to benefit from collegiate studies (qualifying test and GPA requirements) plus if you dont continuously prove ability to benefit by maintaining a specific GPA throughout your degree, you can have your ability to continue revoked. Also, if you drop out, or are revoked there is no second chance. Im not particularly sure about details beyond that, but there may be some controls on WHAT you can study, based upon what the state currently deems as in demand.
When i was playing on the kael server, back in the day, the germans also mentioned taxes being around 45% and that was when the plethora of socialized programs were still relatively new (2002, or 2003)
|
Here's the thing that really helps free college:
Making higher education a feeder for corporate jobs. Small businesses too -- but ideally its the corporate sector which can afford higher paid more specialized workers.
That's kind of what's missing in Americas education -- even more so than the free college part. Education is theoretical in first couple of years -- but then people need to actually learn some skills for a actual job they will have when they graduate.
In the past -- we got away with not doing this. Leave it to people -- they will figure it out. It's works great in the days of horse and buggy when 4% of the population is college educated.
But shit has changed. Corporations are now global, the internet does what a liberal arts education used to do for a lot of people. Everything has 50+ years of intense scholarship with endless academic journal articles written in thick jargon.
We have this big population that wants a decent life -- but very few jobs for them because we got very efficient at minimizing labor costs.
Germany and Sweden by contrast -- understood that if they wanted high paid workers they needed to train them for high skill jobs right in highschool, college, and entry level. They also got efficient at minimizing labor costs -- they didn't do it by making everyone a fucking hopeless wage-slave in their country. Or in Harvard Business School Language: "We keep a highly disciplined labor market in the United States to maintain our competitive advantage in the global economy."
So yea they give people access to college virtually free. But besides some the above stuff throndor put under limitations. They also have a general set-up that makes these young college graduates worth the national investment -- even if they aren't from Germany!
If you treat your slaves better they work for you harder and don't try to chop your head off when there's a riot.
Edit: This is a big part of the problem with America in general. The competitive ethos. Turns out that performs a lot worse on a macro level than a cooperative one. If your main concern about education is to secure your kid a prestigious job...are you going to make the education system work really well at finding people jobs? Fuck no. That's not important. What is important is that your kid gets a job. So you to make that shit as obscure as possible for as many people as you can right? Otherwise your just making it harder on your kid and your friend's kids.
The university has a long track record of preserving upper middle class privilege in this country.