Should Taxpayers Pay For Community College?

President Barack Obama is proposing the federal government (we) initially pay 3/4's the cost for a two year community college education.

He plans to outline the details and how he proposes paying for it in his upcoming "state of the union" address on Tuesday, January 20th.


I Have Several Issues With This
(1) Well over half of the associate degree courses offered amount to little more then service industry training. Not the kind of degrees that lead to actual well paying fulltime jobs. This is fine if some of those credits are accepted from students who then go on to regular four year colleges. So it's important to define exactly what courses should be recognized and whether colleges will accept these credits. We already have enough four year degrees running around who can't find a job. I doubt whether an associate degree in of itself is going to benefit either the economy or a student.

(2) Everyone knows when federal money is involved it requires more administrative costs to be borne by educational institutions at the local level. How much of this money will actually go towards students and not the administrative overhead needed to process applications, forms and oversee educational requirements are met in order to receive dollars from Washington? How many more bureaucrats at the federal level will have to be added to police the requirements and oversee these grants? Who then controls what qualifies as an associates degree?

(3) Why only community colleges?
Why not vocational schools?

While a bunch of BA & PHD degreed folks are running around unemployed their counterparts who only studied two years to become electricians, auto repairmen, machinist, HVAC technicians, etc. have readily found employment. Many which pay more then most of those degree courses colleges offer. The last thing this country needs is more scholars then skilled workers.


Here's What I'd Much Rather Instead
We take this same money, determine what skills are most needed this country lacks and fully pay the brightest amongst us for their entire education. Select a dozen or so occupations and produce those that will give us the most bang for the buck (ROI Tax Dollars).

I'll give a few examples...
In the highly competitive and intellectual fields-- Bioengineering. Alternative Energies. Genetic Research. Robotics Design. Electronics

Other jobs that will increase the middle class (who pay most of the taxes)-- Service & Repair Technicians. Machinists. Plumbers. Fabricators

The last thing we need is more people running around with yet another piece of meaningless paper. All those I've mentioned are skilled occupations. Some more complex then others.

One need look no further then in here in Lehigh County where community college offers courses in cooking, bartending and hotel services directed towards the NIZ. Or in Northampton County where they offer courses to become hotel/casino workers. Both in which the pay and hours are lousy.

Should these be the kind of courses we as federal taxpayers foot the bill for?
     ABSOLUTELY NOT!

What do you think.. agree or not?