Debt: Liberal vs. Conservative

[Samson]

Is it the government?


If you are correct, and an astute mathematical calculation it is, what does it have to do with the premise of no-debt higher education?

Is there a problem if charity pays the difference?


Do you know how much charity is given each year in the United States...and isn't that a solution on which we can all agree?

Indeed, I applaud editec's astonishingly accurate calculations and his observation that there is an approximate $22/hr difference between the the wage for college students milking cows, and the median wage for farmworkes.

But your point is also well taken: it is not a LOAN. If the moron who wrote the article would have been sharper, they would have accounted for this difference, which is obviously a grant that is given BASED ON HOURS WORKED.

The problem becomes: How many career milkmaids have been displaced in the dairy market by this program?

Actually, there were paid the larger amount not as 'milkmaids' but for scientific research: 1. they were out to detemine if they could make the cows laugh enough to make the milk come though their noses!
2. at what point in the milk making process does a mistake result in a a 'Milk Dud'.

Research is ongoing.

Indeed.

Well, we also don't know anything about their "baking fruit breads for sale to donors."

Some might pay $100/loaf for a decent Raisin Bread......even more if it includes walnuts.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Indeed, I applaud editec's astonishingly accurate calculations and his observation that there is an approximate $22/hr difference between the the wage for college students milking cows, and the median wage for farmworkes.

But your point is also well taken: it is not a LOAN. If the moron who wrote the article would have been sharper, they would have accounted for this difference, which is obviously a grant that is given BASED ON HOURS WORKED.

The problem becomes: How many career milkmaids have been displaced in the dairy market by this program?

Actually, there were paid the larger amount not as 'milkmaids' but for scientific research: 1. they were out to detemine if they could make the cows laugh enough to make the milk come though their noses!
2. at what point in the milk making process does a mistake result in a a 'Milk Dud'.

Research is ongoing.

Indeed.

Well, we also don't know anything about their "baking fruit breads for sale to donors."

Some might pay $100/loaf for a decent Raisin Bread......even more if it includes walnuts.

John Pinette: And I tried the low-carb bread. Have you tried it? It's horrible. I tasted it. I thought the wrapper was still on. It's not like it went bad, it never went good. They have "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter," they should call it, "This Ain't Bread." 'Cause it looks like bread, but it has no other properties of bread. I said, "You know what? I'll butter it. That'll make it better." Butter won't go on it. It slides right off. The butter's like, "Where are you putting me?" Jam and jelly beads up and fall off it. Did they Scotch-guard this at the factory? You know what I'll do? It's okay, I'll toast it. I'll make a sandwich, I'll toast it. It's better when you toast it. It doesn't toast. You can't toast it. I'm out in the garage with a blow torch. It's absorbing the heat like a space shuttle tile.

 

[Dragon]

It's an interesting tactic being pursued in the title to this thread. Take a practice that is, in fact, neither liberal nor conservative, but merely highly unorthodox, label it "conservative" and insist that liberals oppose it, and see if people are stupid enough to fall for that.

So far, it doesn't look like anyone is quite that dumb.

 

[FurthurBB]

Liberal way of dealing with colleged debt...government:
1. Reporting from Washington — President Obama will make student loans easier to repay for millions of borrowers without adding to the national deficit, his administration said Tuesday. Obama to reduce student loan debt payments - Los Angeles Times


The conservative way, personal responsibility:
2. The College of the Ozarks — a four-year college since 1965, and rated No. 30 by U.S. News and World Report among Midwestern colleges offering both liberal arts and professional degrees — is one of seven so-called work colleges. Six describe themselves as Christian institutions and often, like Ozarks, are socially and politically conservative.

3. Like many undergraduates, students at the College of the Ozarks here work their way through school, though they often do such unconventional campus jobs as milking cows at dawn in the college’s barns and baking fruit breads for sale to donors.


4. But what is truly different about Hard Work U. — as the college styles itself — is that all 1,345 students must work 15 hours per week to pay off the entire cost of tuition — $15,900 per year. If they work summers, as one-third are doing this summer, they pay off their $4,400 room and board as well. Work study is not an option as it is at most campuses; it is the college’s raison d’être.

5. This is a college that is philosophically opposed to students starting careers with an Ozark mountain of debt — 95 percent graduate debt free — and it believes that students who put sweat equity into their education value it more.

6. “I find I take more pride in doing well in class when I know I’ve washed dishes to be able to take that class,” said Sarah Ledoux, a sophomore from Deridder, La. Other students make similar remarks on this campus, spread across a thousand acres of the hardscrabble hills and hollows of southwestern Missouri. Those students and the college’s longtime president, Jerry C. Davis, think the up-by-the-bootstraps credo is one that more campuses should adopt. Too many parents, they say, think children should focus only on the “full college experience” of classes, clubs and sports, and be spared the economic realities or have those realities postponed through loans. Fight Song at Ozarks: Work Hard and Avoid Debt - New York Times


7. “In the world of higher education, CO– as we shall call it in this blog anyway – is a true anomaly. The students graduate with virtually no student loan debt, which is pretty much unheard of these days….Now, it’s very clear that the College of the Ozarks isn’t for everyone (I’ll be honest and say that it isn’t for me). But there could be some variations on this model and some lessons to be learned.

8. CO is a worthwhile case study on how to depart from the traditional university model. And to the people out there that claim that academic prestige, faculty quality, etc. all suffer when you go down this path…..think about this. The University of the Ozarks just became a four-year college in 1965. But it already ranks no. 30 by U.S. News and World Report among Midwestern colleges offering both liberal arts and professional degrees. They must be doing something right.” College of the Ozarks: A New Model?


So...perhaps government isn't always the answer.

Wow, this is exactly like the technical school that my husband (very liberal) and his partner (very liberal) started 15 years ago. I guess the idea is catching on.