Does anybody think there are half a million college students out there willing to get a free college education in exchange for community service?
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (search) says he would pay for his plan to give a free college education to young students who agree to public service by ending a $13 billion "windfall" that banks earn for making government-backed student loans.
Kerry contends that as many as 500,000 young men and women would be lured into public service by his plan, which he said would reinvigorate the nation's commitment to such service. His plan, to be announced Wednesday at a roundtable in New York City, is aimed at answering questions about how he would pay for his proposals.
I'm as suspicious about this as I am about Kerry's claim that 220,000 students have been "priced out" of a college education over the last three years. For starters, as of 1999, there were almost 15 million Americans enrolled in college, with enrollment expected to increase by another 1.5 million by 2009. This means that Kerry wants to restructure the student loan system so that another, oh, 1 or 2% of college hopefuls can attend.
And what exactly does it mean to be "priced out" of a college education? Does it mean that there are no scholarships, students loans, or financial assistance available for those 220,000? Are students who could go to college later if they worked for a few years now being counted? It's hard to believe that if someone wanted to get through a community college, that feat would be utterly financially impossible for their entire life.
As for this "community service," what are we talking about? Picking up trash on the side of the road? Working with kids? Working as unpaid political interns? Just how much community service does it take to justify getting a free college education?
I also find it interesting that this type of exchange of labor for education is being proposed by the same camp who believes that members of today's Armed Forces, though volunteers, were "forced" by "society" to enlist because of financial pressures. Couldn't Kerry's plan be viewed as "forcing" the unfortunate poor to work for free in order to get their college educations?
Posted by kswygert at April 14, 2004 12:14 PM