I don’t know if anyone else knows but Georgia has had a program since the early 90’s where their residents are allowed to go to any state college for FREE. As long as a student maintains a B or better average they are automatically given a scholarship to any school in Georgia that they get accepted into. How do they pay for it you ask? The entire program is payed by the Georgia state lottery system. I guess the Virginia Lottery “Helping Virginia Schools” isn’t really reaching it’s full potential.
I bring about this link because when I was sitting in class the other day I did the math and found out that every class costs about $75 at VCU. If students were actually paying for their school they may actually put that into perspective and find themselves not sleeping through a class. This isn’t some nice dream, it just seems that it should be a RIGHT for people to have access to a higher education. As tuition gets higher, the only people who will be able to afford college will be the kids who’s parents went to college. This will in turn create a bigger divide between the wealthy and the poor.
There are so many positive externalities for people going to school and I wonder if there could be research done about the cost savings of free college education for A and B students. Better educated people will commit less crimes and will be able to get better jobs. The first saves money for the government and the latter will allow the government to have a healthy community along with more revenue due to higher salaries. If college was free people who lose their jobs due to factory closings or outsourcing will be able to go and “retrain” for a new job like the Republicans say they are able to. Even though right now once someone loses their job it is nearly impossible to retrain for a better job due to the high tuition colleges.
Most importantly free college will bring the poor up to the rich and provide an equal opportunity for every student. Students will try harder in high school knowing they need a B or better to go to college for free and students won’t skip class and will try hard in college knowing they need a B or better to continue to go to college for free. All of this will in turn create a healthy, community engaging, safe city.
