ObamaCollege: The Next Great Governmental Blunder
ObamaCollege, brought to you by Barack Obama, reported on by the Inquisitr. The man who gifted us with such products as cash for clunkers, the stimuli, and ObamaCare. At this point, it is kind of like a teenager who just got out of jail for his second DUI related homicide and you, the parent, buys junior a brand new Mercedes with a case of Corona in the trunk. The child will eventually find itself back in the same situation, taking down several more people.
The American people are the irresponsible parents, and junior represents President Obama. For those still following my analogy, the victims represent the economy.
Just like any job, you should always vet the person you are hiring. How do you do that? Well, by looking at his or her resume. In 2008, we could not do that with then-candidate Obama. He had no resume. In 2015, President Obama has a full resume to look over. We would have a higher probability of success if we did, so let’s take a look.
Education, like healthcare and the economy, are broken. There are things that need to be fixed. However, President Obama and the Left seemed to believe that more government meddling is the answer. President Obama “stimulated” the economy, made healthcare “free,” and now wants to make community college “free.” According to PBS, President Obama thinks college should be “as free as high school,” because public high schools are certainly the bastion of higher learning.
The problem with education is the inane obsession with educators and society writ large to push, force, and coerce High school seniors into college. It is not unlike the fabled female “biological clock.”
The “I-need-to-marry-and-have-kids before a preset and predetermined time”, set by unnamed members of society, or one’s family. So, many rush into two of the biggest commitments of their lives with both arms tied behind their back, blindfolded, deaf, with one broken leg.
The societal view of “college” is no different.
As an example I, like many doe-eyed confused adolescents in their senior year, had no clue what I want I wanted to go to college for. I sat in a guidance counselor office being showed a list of ideas, and was looked at cross-eyed when I said “I didn’t know.” As most things in public high school went, paperwork was shoved at you, and you were sent on your way.
Trying the famous “year off,” failed. Going to college for an internship went better, but I am not even in that field anymore. I would love to get a degree that is more towards my current chosen career, but I am in debt over my eyeballs.
Did it have to be this way? No. If I had just worked like most of us did anyways, and waited until now to go to college, I would probably have an associates or be halfway through a bachelor’s. Fortune Magazine reported that Mr. Obama said “40%“of college students choose community college.
It tends to help to have a clue what you’re speaking about, but I suppose it is hard for President Obama to see inside a local college from all the way up there in that ivory tower, or Harvard. Those “40 percent” are like the most of us on the bottom rung, who have trouble getting into the big leagues. Even so, those same “40 percent” are less likely to get picked up at the Microsofts or Apple Incs. Unless you truly believe that the guy from Joe Shmoe Community College will get the job over the kid who went to CalTech or MIT.
President Obama, like many others before him of Big D and Big R stars and stripes, fundamentally miss the point. They keep using this false narrative of “investing.” Government, unlike private industry, can not “invest” what it does not own. The “investing” has been the quintessential failure of government in education. Whenever government intervenes, the actual meaning of the prior “I” word, it guarantees something.
With that guarantee, it stifles competition. Without competition, it is a free-for-all amongst all who stand to profit. Student loans and colleges can fix prices and keep them high and lofty, crushing the “middle to low income” bracket folks that Obama claims to want to help.Of course the redistribution from up to 39.5 percent tax on 529 plans does not help either. It is the same with Healthcare, and every other area that government uses its reverse-Midas touch. It turns to bronze, and sinks like the Titanic.
The problem is not that too few kids are choosing to go to going to college, but too many are being forced into college. We rarely encourage technical schools, or any type of trade apprenticeship. We need to abandon the notion that every kid must attend college. If we don’t, it will not be more diplomas we will see handed out, but crushing debt in the form of 1-800 numbers that call you four times a day. The left swoons over this new tax and debt strategy that leads to bullying bill collectors.
I thought President Obama and the left were anti-bullying?
[Image via Aleutie/Zimmytws/Getty Images]
