
New York Becomes Only State to Offer Free Four-Year College - JumpCrisscross
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/education/new-york-becomes-first-state-offer-free-four-year-college-n744561
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eganist
Detail lost in the headline: Room & Board are not included.

What I foresee as a result: schools hiking Room & Board charges because
"people can afford it." This step would've been far more effective if the
state covered everything and price-locked it as a result; now schools will see
the balance not paid by students on tuition as room for Room & Board charges
to grow.

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tdb7893
at least for room and board you aren't required to actually atay at the
university, most people I knew lived off-campus

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eganist
That can easily change. Tons of universities require students to live _n_
years on campus.

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linkregister
Are there any public universities that require this?

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eu90h
I went to a public university that required students to live on campus until
their junior year.

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linkregister
Where?

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usea
Louisiana.

[http://www.uno.edu/housing/residency-
requirement.aspx](http://www.uno.edu/housing/residency-requirement.aspx)

Other schools in system have a similar policy.

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meri_dian
The net result of highly affordable college will not be better employment
opportunities for those who cannot afford college today. The net result will
be increased competition for a limited number of quality jobs.

The value of a degree largely lies in its exclusivity. The increase in people
going to grad school, particularly Master's programs, is a response to the
increasing number of people with bachelor's degrees in the workforce.

This is not to say affordable college is a bad thing by any means.

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InitialLastName
The net result of highly affordable college will be, at the very least, a
better educated populace. In theory, this will make a workforce that is better
at doing more valuable jobs.

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vkou
Like driving for Uber and not screwing up my double-caramel-infused iced soy
mocha.

(I still wonder as to what kind of rube can get that wrong. I clearly said
'SOY MOCHA.')

We have plenty of qualified people. What we don't have are jobs where their
qualifications are valued. See: the job market for hard sciences.

~~~
neuromantik8086
> See: the job market for hard sciences.

I've often fantasized about the possibility of a deluge of rich
philanthropists just up and deciding to establish institutes modeled after
IAS, Boyce Thompson or HHMI Janelia en masse to soak up the excess scholars
produced by universities (Boyce Thompson might be a bit of a black sheep in
that list, but I include it anyways since it's technically independent to some
degree). Unfortunately, I don't see that occurring within my lifetime.

An expansion of gov't labs would have a similar effect, but that's a real
stretch in these times.

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Meph504
People should do their homework, Louisiana has had a program to provide free
tuition to its citizen's since 1998. To be fair, its been hit hard in the last
few years, but it still around.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_F._Taylor#Taylor_Oppor...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_F._Taylor#Taylor_Opportunity_Program_for_Students)

~~~
eli_gottlieb
But for that you have to grow up in Louisiana, which most people don't.

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tabeth
This is neat, but I wish education wasn't expensive to begin with.

Or better yet, just simply make education free via making the cost be capped
at 5% of your yearly (before-tax) wage for Y years, or a total of $XXX,XXX,
whichever comes first.

This is simple to implement and effectively shields those who have "useless
degrees" as well. Everyone wins.

~~~
valuearb
So middle class people should pay more taxes to subsidize the wealthy?
Remember, college grads make several times more over their lifetime than high
school grads.

~~~
tabeth
Perhaps you misunderstand. Those attending the school would be the ones to
pay. The policy I proposed wouldn't require anyone to pay any additional
taxes.

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maverick_iceman
I doubt very much that they have the funds to pay for it. We're probably
looking at a Puerto Rico style bailout, only this time much bigger.

