The Story Line
Rutgers is the State University of New Jersey, the one with the consistently problematic athletic program and the football program constantly trying to break into the big time. Although they have joined the Big 10 in name they are far from the Big 10 in talent. Rutgers is however known to be a Big 10 on the party circuit.
Well it seems as if the Rutgers mucky mucks have finally come to realize that they need warm bodies to continue with their own lavish perquisites . So they have latched onto a plan to give tuition incentives to graduates of two year community colleges, whose family income is less than 60K per annum. The incentive FREE TUITION. Apparently the school of Economics is not too strong at Rutgers.
They simply do not understand that there is no such thing as FREE TUITION.
Somehow, someway someone pays for that . If you are the recipient of Tuition forgiveness, you should be made aware that someone is being told that they must pay more so that you are allowed to go without paying. The description of FREE TUITION is misleading and has seemingly become part of out modern life. Sounds great, so altruistic , no one could surely find fault with it, but the reality it is a disguised self interest program. College is expensive because college instructors and administrators make obscene amounts of money and they charge appropriately. In order to keep the gravy train on the main line they need to stoke the locomotive with the coal of new bodies. No bodies and no sabbaticals. (How many people get sabbaticals in the real world, I mean other than the ones involuntary and involving unemployment insurance )
We have people who think that their Public Housing is Free, their child's day care is Free, their medical treatment, their heating bills, their phones are all FREE. There is no economic system that relies upon goods and services that can provide anything Free. There is a cost involved in each and every step. Each and every benefit or provision comes at cost and we need to make sure that every member of society knows it. Transit is subsidized, housing is subsidized, health, but none is FREE.
Here in NJ there is a debate over Free LIFTETIME MEDICAL BENEFITS, for public employees.
Sorry, no such thing, every taxpayer in NJ is being asked to fund that for the beneficiaries even in the face of the fact that almost no PRIVATE sector employee anywhere has any such benefit.
The reason why this FREE TUITION plan is being floated is because there is a sudden realization that the college pool has dried up. There are simply not enough students coming into colleges to continue the high life. College became bi business and provided handsome living for many college professors and administrators, obscenely handsome. No the writing is on the wall and the mad scramble for dollars begins nd if we have to we are willing to fuel the furnace with FREE TUITION, just so we do not have to lay off instructional staff. We will try this experiment and will try to have the broad taxpayer base pick up the subsidy tab and have that grouping that pays tuition pay more.
But under any circumstance someone is being caused to spend money over which they have exercised no choice. That is about as far from FREE as we can get. Beyond the standard and appropriate Public Education, K through 12 there is no societal obligation for anymore. That college and university employed personnel should think to shift their meal ticket wholesale to some other segment of society is nonsense.
Of interest to me is the idea that they want to fish the pond of the Community College, it is a small pond for graduation rates of Community Colleges are abysmally low. Community Colleges are where you find the real go getters of the world, they work they work they work and they go to school on top of it. They are not the children of the privileged for the most part, but they are the ones with a dream. The community colleges are where the emphasis should be placed to see what can be done to foster learning and graduation. These are not the kids binge drinking in the dorms all weekend long, these are the ones waiting tables in local restaurants, working as drivers and clerks and warehouse personnel so that they can go to school.
So it about time to review this entire notion of what FREE, really means and to stop it in its tracks.
Free does not mean that every college professor teaching 12 hours per week should be paid 130K per year, just because they feel entititled. No student should be given FREE TUITION, it devalues the education, there is a price to be paid for it. But no University should ever dangle the idea of
FREE TUITION , when the reality is that they are
Working hard to secure an education pays dividends not readily seen in the form of independence and discipline and goal orientation. It has never been the goal of society to breed a homogenized version of proper citizenry. We need the tough , the independent, the diligent and productive . Within the same article they talk of leveling the playing field, at what expense is not stated. The playing field has never been level, it has always been tilted in favor of those who have been favored, but it is just as often leveled by those who chose to make the climb. I know a few of the latter types and the former types don't hold a candle to them. Do not try and make me privileged , that is up to me. But please don't presume to take from anyone to make someone else privileged.
FREE MY ASS