The most obvious thing that college degrees would greatly drop in value. If everyone has, what is special about having one? It will become like a HS Diploma is now. Thus, something will develop. Perhaps Local U isn't worth much but Elitest U is. Or there will be Super College which you attend after college -- I guess that would be Grad School -- but you get the idea.

"Not only is higher education seen as a key to economic advancement, but if all 18-24 year olds were in college, we would reduce the unemployment rate by 2 million people, and fewer people would be in need of governmental assistance."

And he believes in Unicorns, as well.

Subsidized or not, there's no way that the simple act of young people being in college will somehow magically reduce unemployment.

What degree programs would he champion?

Is he going to guarantee jobs for graduates, as opposed to non-graduates?

Sounds an awful lot like someone who is closely examining the interior wall of his large intestine.

Well, at least, that's probably a part of his core competence.

I'm all for free college, but in all the countries where they have it, it is very selective, and only the best go, and half of those drop out. You do end up with higher caliber students according to my friends who've taught in multiple countries, with the added bonus that since they're not paying 40k a year, students don't have the "I'm paying you a lot of money, so spoon feed me the info and hand me my diploma" attitude that American kids often have.

However, it results in LESS people with University degrees, so there better be another option for everyone else.

Countries that do this often have a strong apprenticeship culture, which doesn't exist in the US.

You can have free college OR colleges open to everyone, even the dumb kids, you can't have both.

No amount of money, practice, training and coaching could ever make me an NBA point guard. There are some things some people can't do well, or at all. Some people spend lifetimes denying the obvious.

Plastic surgery can't make me George Clooney. Education can't make me Steven Hawking, and I am far to the right of the curve. College isn't going to make someone with a low IQ into a brain surgeon.

If you want to stop the madness, let employers start testing for aptitude instead of asking for degrees. Good luck, you have a whole industry built up around the status quo - making you spend a lot of money for a chance at a good job.

I'll echo the Former Banker. A college degree is already pretty much worthless in most fields - why make it more so? Before we know it, people won't be getting out of school until they're 50, because what everyone else has will never be enough.

NicholK said: You can have free college OR colleges open to everyone, even the dumb kids, you can't have both.

Actually, we do pretty much have that here. Any kid who works hard and well in high school can get a full ride to a state university (I did - covered my housing and books, too, without a dime from my parents or loans. Of course, then I realized that my B.S. was really BS, and law school was a different story.) A lot of kids choose not to go that route - they want something fancier then a state U, or they want to be in another state, but the opportunities for a basically free education are there for high performers.

Sigh.

There's a difference between free college and free college for all.

I'm not sure where the mindset that college is a God-given right came from, but it's crap. I don't think everyone should go to college because it's not for everyone. There's this pervading mindset that there are hordes of deserving kids out there being cruelly kept out of the higher educational system in America, and I think that's a shibboleth. The people I have known who dropped out of college or didn't go at all wouldn't have had any better chance of success if the government were paying for it all. They would have failed at it no matter what, because it wasn't the right fit for them, whether it was because of intelligence, drive, or just that they don't learn that way.

Taking an incompetent person and giving them a college degree won't make them a better hire later - it will make them an incompetent person with a college degree.

If you make college free I forsee several things happen:
1. A great rise in perpetual students and a rise in the avg number of years it takes to graduate.
It would probably be claimed that free school would lower the nuimber of years before graduation. (currently, 6 years to get a 4 yr degree) because wouldn't need to work and schoool part time. However, from personal experience, incentivising staying in school would dramatically increase the average students # years to graduate. Knew one perpetual student. His Dad was a VP of a company and part of the benifits package was, would pay his kids tuition plus stipend till graduation, as long as full time and doesn't flunk out. 9 yrs later jr was still full time in school. 6 credits away from a degree. Well actually 6 credits away from 8-9 dregrees (including Masters). I've heard he eventually was forced to graduate.

2. Extreme drops in military recruitment. GI bill would be redundant.

3. Extreme drop in number of students enrolled in Stem degrees (Science, Tech, Engineering and Math)
4. Enrollment in Art, tripples.

5. We have more dancers who think they should be on tv, than Drs.

The problem with mainstream education (and government) is that it is measured by inputs, not outputs.

No one asks what practical difference the input of four years of classes (at $100-$200,000 cost) makes to the student's ability to produce something. Even if the output is supposed to be "satisfaction with your understanding of life", that output is not measured.

Like an expensive wristwatch, the quality of the education is supposed to be its cost. Mainstream education vigorously opposes cheaper methods of learning and any detailed measure of improved output.

Mainstream schools know that they must promise an output. They spread the myth that a college degree increases average lifetime earnings by a million dollars, at first glance a 5-10 times return on the investment. This is intellectual and material fraud, averaging results for the most succesful lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and billionaires into the results for liberal arts majors.

College tuition is high and climbing because students believe that $1 million fraud. If it were true, then high college costs would be justified. Of course, they are not justified for the vast majority of college students.

// Barack Obama repeated the common statistic, "On average during your lifetime you will earn a million dollars more if you get a bachelor's degree." //

College is an expensive IQ test - Earnings

Not only is higher education seen as a key to economic advancement, but if all 18-24 year olds were in college, we would reduce the unemployment rate by 2 million people, and fewer people would be in need of governmental assistance.

Because government-funded free college isn't governmental assistance?

And by "government-funded" I mean "taxpayer-funded." That's you and me, folks.

Good point Lyssa, that should have read "You can have free college for all students or you can have college for everyone, not both"

Countries that do this often have a strong apprenticeship culture, which doesn't exist in the US.

Their is an apprenticeship programs in the U.S. -- it's called the unions. But unfortunately the unions have lost their way and now just want to be bargainers between the members and the business. The original idea of a union was that they would accept apprentices and part of the job was to train them to be journeyman, masters and craftsmen. The union was also responsible to discipline and remove their deadwood.

Between labor laws and societal changes -- that no longer happens. So the incompetent, the drunkards, the jerks, the failures get to keep their job know matter how bad the member does their job.

College is an expensive IQ test - Earnings

I think college is more like an expensive vacation. The IQ of those who supposedly are testing the IQ of the students is really nothing much to write home about(think duke 88 or any other bunch of bums masquerading as profs)