Ridiculous: All DC Students Would Have To Apply To College
Dumb. Fewer students should be applying. Smart Joanne Jacobs blog post. She links to a WaPo story by Tim Craig quoting the dim and pandering D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown who "sponsoring a bill that requires all students to take a standardized college admission test and then apply to attend at least one college or post-secondary institution."
Craig quotes Brown later in the piece:
"I'm not saying everyone should go to college, but my goodness, we have to get more young folks prepared to go to college if they want to go to college," Brown said in an interview. "A lot of them don't even know how to prepare and apply to college."
I didn't know how. If you're having a problem, that's what high school guidance counselors are for. I got an application to the University of Michigan and another to Michigan State, filled them out, and mailed them both in. My mother gave me a check for the application fees, but if you can't afford the fee, you can apply for a fee waiver.
I see that kids at the school where I speak (though I haven't this year due to some reorganization there) are going to college, and these are kids from the inner city.
Not all of the kids I talk to will go. Ms. F's English class -- they're all going. They're reading at a normal level for their age.
Mr. L's 11th grade homeroom -- reading at the first, second, and third grade level -- well, wouldn't it be ridiculous for these kids to be told that they have to pay to take college entrance exams (or apply for fee waivers) when they probably can't read half the questions on the exam, let alone the fee waiver application?
Let's get real here.
Linking to Jonathan Robe, Jacobs notes that "it's a win for the college-industrial complex."
I find the justaposition interesting. This post and the preceding post are both about whether or not 18 year old are actually adults. On one hand, they can be drafted and can vote and the 26th amendment past quite quickly. On the other hand, they cannot decide for themselves whether or not they should borrow money via credit card or do college-prep activities.
Seems the government wants to have it both ways. They are both fully accountable adults and irresponsible kids at the exact some moment from issue to issue.
I say that requiring them to take college prep activities and banning entering into borrower/lender agreements is a band-aid, the real problem is parents and schools failing to teach them about debt and college and prepare them for entering adulthood, and a government that will extend them rights to buy votes and then want to give them a pass on accountability when they do not exercise their rights wisely.
Trust at January 15, 2012 7:37 AM
that will extend them rights to buy votes and then want to give them a pass on accountability when they do not exercise their rights wisely.
Posted by: Trust
Unless your 'mistake' is murder, in that case the age of adult hood can plumet as low as the age of 12
lujlp at January 15, 2012 10:43 AM
@lujlp: "Unless your 'mistake' is murder, in that case the age of adult hood can plumet as low as the age of 12"
___________
True. And if your mistake is patting a fellow kindergartner on the butt, you can be sentenced to a life as a registered sex offender for a mistake at 5.
Trust at January 15, 2012 11:03 AM
Another typical reaction from a politician. Councilman Brown sees a problem and decrees that something must be done. It doesn't matter if this "something" will actually have any positive impact (which it won't). He also doesn't consider the potential negative impact (overloading college admissions offices with BS applications, costing kids money to file the applications, etc). I predict he'll be reelected many times by the sheeple, who will say, "at least he's trying to do something."
Al at January 15, 2012 12:33 PM
And then the next question: What happens when everyone is a doctor, and lawyer and such? Who's going to be the plumber, painter, or plasterer? What about the HVAC guy to fix your furnace?
Then we'll have the government saying going to college is wrong?
Jim P. at January 15, 2012 1:07 PM
They won't be doctors or lawyers Jim. They'll be graduates in media or gender studies. Or to put it another way, "would you like fries with that?"
I'm not sure who will be the plumbers.
Ltw at January 15, 2012 5:06 PM
They lack the competency to be plumbers. Do you think the proper pitch for drain pipes happens without math?
The real problem is that these kids are cheated out of any meaningful education by the establishment, because it's all for the teacher's unions and the Democrats.
No need to look for the party to which Councilman Brown belongs.
MarkD at January 16, 2012 4:11 AM
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