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All-You-Can-Eat College For $99-a-Month
theodp writes "Writing in Washington Monthly, Kevin Carey has seen the future of college education. It costs $99-a-month, and there's no limit on the number of courses you can take. Tiny online education firm StraighterLine is out to challenge the seeming permanency of traditional colleges and universities. How? Like Craigslist, StraighterLine threatens the most profitable piece of its competitors' business: freshman lectures, higher education's equivalent of the classified section. It's no surprise, then, that as StraighterLine tried to buck the system, the system began to push back, challenging deals the company struck with accredited traditional and for-profit institutions to allow StraighterLine courses to be transferred for credit. But even if StraighterLine doesn't succeed in bringing extremely cheap college courses to the masses, it's likely that another player eventually will."
To be perfectly honest, most people don't really need a college eduction. The thing is, our society seems to make more and more people take college classes. When people have no real use for the classes, the natural outcome is degree mills and cheaper education. A 2 month on the job training would do better than college for 65% of most jobs.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
isohunt.com and a search for "The Teaching Company" - free
knowledge gained from hearing the world's best professors - priceless
Now true this won't get you that coveted degree which the Human Cattle..... er, Resources office demands to enter their exclusive clubs called corporations, but it will make the actual degree easier to earn. You can skate through with 25 or even 30 credits a semester, plus summer, and finish your college experience in just 1.5 years.
Of course I think most of us who HAVE gone to college realize that's not really the point. College is a chance to be a kid for 4 more years, scoring with women, and hopefully meet your future wife or husband. The reason people remember their alma maters so fondly is because it was the last time they lived without any responsibility. The piece-of-paper is just a nice bonus along the way to being a white-collar serf..... oops, employee.
(Do I sound bitter? Nah. Just less idealistic and more pragmatic.)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Doctors in England and France do quite well, and their entire health care system is run not-for-profit. In Europe doctors don't have to deal with insurance reimbursement troubles, can focus entirely on treating patients and making them well, get paid more for improving the health of their patients, and still make enough money to be considered upper class. There is a good way and a bad way to run health care and education, a free market/capitalistic approach is a bad way. It's non-optimal. Solutions that are good for organizing the general economy aren't always great for solving social problems.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
Yeah... That may be true... But I'm living on educational support... So I don't pay much taxes... :)
Besides I'm glad my changes of a proper education doesn't depend on my parents ability to support me...
It's not that my parents are irresponsible or unable to help me... But I'm 21... I'm a grown man and have been for a few years... I'm proud that the system we have here, ensures that your changes for an education doesn't depend on your parents ability to support you, it depends on you and your brain, and nobody else (well, yeah, that average tax-payer maybe)...