Slashdot Mirror
Geeks On a Plane Proposed To Solve Global Tech Skills Crisis
judgecorp writes "British Airways' Ungrounded project proposes to shut 100 Silicon Valley 'gamechangers' in a trans-Atlantic plane and ask them to solve the world's tech skills crisis during a 12-hour flight to London. On arrival, the passengers will head into a conference where they will present their ideas to, among others, the UN. From the article: 'Ungrounded, as the project is called, will bring 100 “innovators” (Silicon Valley CEOs, thinkers and venture capitalists) on a private BA flight from San Francisco to London. During the flight, they will take part in a “global hack” run by Ideo, a design firm which has made mice for Microsoft and Apple.'"
And actually offer free college education.
There's no reason to. College students are capable of paying for it themselves and as you note, there is a "severe notion" of people paying their own way, which I think is a good notion to have. College education is a privilege. Who's going to pay for "free" college education?
Instead, we've seen the forces of anti-intellectualism and greed enjoy too much success at dismantling public spending on college, out of some moral notion that people should pay their way on this matter, and for the sake of balancing budgets that are not in crisis.
Colleges are breeding grounds for a variety of anti-intellectual beliefs too (for example, multi-culturalism and anti-business types). And a lot of that particular anti-intellectualism was funded pulbicly.
We don't ask high school students to pay their way, why is college so different?
College students are adults and hence, responsible for their own actions.
I hear tuition has taken quite a jump in recent years.
Easily explained by all the public money dumped uncritically into education and student loan subsidies. It's pumped up demand and the prices that students are willing to pay for the chance to pick up a degree.
who can't be reasonably expected to have yet held a job that pays enough to afford college
That's a different problem. The minimum wage laws perversely have led to a population of young adults in their 20s who haven't held a job in their life.
For example, by the time I hit college, I had worked part time for three years and managed to save enough to cover my first two years of public college. Summer jobs got me the rest of the way. If government policy hadn't driven up the cost of college since and minimum wage driven up the cost of employing risky students, modern students would be able to do the same.
and for the sake of balancing budgets that are not in crisis
Don't be an idiot. You don't wait till your finances are in crisis before you do something. Even for a budget that is well in the black, there is plenty of work that one can do to improve it.
The US federal budget is pretty close to crisis. It's got a lot of pure shit in it, such as the educational subsidies we've been talking about, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, or defense contracting. I would at least halve it first (including so-called mandatory spending), before considering any sort of tax revenue increase. Else any increase in tax revenue will just result in a corresponding increase in poor spending decisions.