35 Years Ago, College Was Free! (almost)

[grahamhgreen]

Well, almost.

It would be easy for us to win millenials with by promising 'free' education again.

A student sit-in protesting tuition hikes at the University of California continued at UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall for the third day Saturday, while others planned to make a peaceful presence felt at the football game between Cal and Stanford.

Students planned to wear green ribbons at the annual Big Game at California Memorial Stadium, a symbol of the financial burden of the fee hikes. On Thursday, UC regents voted 14-7 to permit fees hikes of as much as 28% over the next five years, depending on state funding; Gov. Jerry Brown and Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), both regents, voted against the measure.

“The aim is not to disrupt the game or the proceedings around it, but to spread awareness of the regents’ vote and its effect on students,” the group occupying Wheeler Hall, known as the Open UC,” said on its blog. Students have been posting updates on Twitter using hashtags #OccupyWheeler and #fightthehike.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-protesting-tuition-hikes-cal-students-to-wear-green-ribbons-at-big-game-20141122-story.html

[hollysmom]

1. yes, thank you Reagan.

In NJ it was not free, but it was easy to get a state scholarship. States felt that they should invest in the young. the old had not turned against the young yet. I have no idea how grandparents don't want the best for their own yet - They didn't used to be selfish.

[rocktivity]

2. 35 years ago, America NEEDED a large and educated workforce -- it doesn't anymore.

So between making a college degree more expensive to buy and harder to qualify for via privatization schemes and "dumbing down" curricula, you eliminate a LOT of competition.


rocktivity

[BumRushDaShow]

3. I started college 35 years ago

during Carter's final year, after which Raygun all but torpedoed the BEOG (later called Pell grants), freezing them until Clinton came in and finally increased it. And the state school that I went to was certainly not free (or even close), although that was probably due to being an out of state student.

[grahamhgreen]

10. I think I paid $1,600/year

[FBaggins]

4. It sure would be nice to solve that problem

Of course... I'm speaking as a father of four that will start college in the next few years.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. I started college in 1961, and it wasn't free, not even almost

Yes, the costs have shot up absurdly since then. I went to a state university, which got far more funding from the state back then than state universities do now. Nonetheless, my parents couldn't afford to help, so I ended up with loans that took me ten years to pay off.

That's far better than the situation now, when students face a lifetime of paying off their college loans and may end up dying with the loans still not repaid. But making those payments was very difficult for us when we were young and depending entirely on my paycheck. It's quite an exaggeration to say that college was almost free back then.

[liberal N proud]

6. At least borrowing the money was

Now they kill you with the tuition and the interest on the loans.

[hunter]

7. I got grants to cover tuition, not loans. I even got a few grants for books.

In 1979, for example, my share of the rent, ordinary off-campus crappy student housing, was $85 a month.

My parents and I, and my grandmother, who were not wealthy but not living in poverty either, did not have to take out loans to get me through school. My dad had good union medical insurance that covered us through college.

Here I am today and student loans for our kids and medical debts for me and my wife have destroyed our credit rating. It's a completely different world, and yes I do blame the Reagan Republicans, the mass media that ignored the criminal behavior of that and subsequent Republican administrations, and the 40% of U.S. Americans who are ignorant racist propaganda driven sheep and damned proud of it.

“Comrades!' he cried. 'You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Science, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink the milk and eat those apples.”

― George Orwell, Animal Farm

Our oligarchs are pigs.

[edhopper]

8. We can track all the things we don't have money for

college tuitions, infrastructure, scientific research, food and aid programs etc... to the tax cuts for the wealthy.
starving the beast is working.
Make them wealthier and pass the burden onto the lower classes. It has always been the plan.

[grahamhgreen]

9. this is exactly correct.