Mr. Obama proposes affordable higher education for anyone that wishes to attended a college or university. For that reason, he proposes a fully refundable tax credit against the first $4000 of any yearly tuition for a college education. Anyone receiving such a credit only has to commit to 100 hours of community service. Assuming a 40-hour work week, that could be as little as 2-1/2 weeks of service.
Certainly, his plan sounds good to all those who wish to go onto higher education. But, if you start looking between the sheets on this one, you might be left with a lot of questions. I sure am.
First, let's simply look at the "title" that Mr. Obama has assigned to his plan. He calls it the "American Opportunity Tax Credit." Right off the bat, the title implies that whoever receives it is paying taxes. After all, it is called a tax credit. Further, it says the recipient of this credit gets it with the condition of completing community service. Taking these two things together, am I to assume that only students who are working and paying their "own" way through college would be eligible for this credit? Certainly, if Dad or Mom is paying the bills, that parent couldn't get the credit, because to do so, would mean him or her putting in 100 hours of community service time instead of the student.
My real guess is that this "tax credit" is a lot like another "tax credit", the Make Work Pay Tax Credit, where you don't even have to pay income taxes to get the credit. You know...his famous "spread the wealth" tax credit plan. This one, too, smells a lot like that one. Like the other tax program, both should really be called the "Work a Little and Get a Lot" tax plan. If I am right, any student who puts enough work in to generate a "reported income" statement to the IRS will be eligible for the credit. The only burden on the part of the student is that they have to file a 1040, and then put in their community service time.
Further, I'll bet that there will be a complete disconnect on the part of the IRS as to who is really paying the tuition bill. My guess is that if the Mom or Dad is wealthy and is paying the bill, the student will still get the credit. What's worse, if there truly is an IRS disconnect, the parents will be able to grab their own deduction under the current tax laws. In a way, this could be the epitome of double dipping. Further, any students getting completely un-bonded or non-refundable grants or scholarships will be the best off because this will be pure profit for them since students in this category aren't really paying any tuition.
Additionally, who's going to verify and administer those 100 hours of community service? The IRS? And, what kind of community services qualifies? I'll bet ACORN is part of that calculation! This part of Mr. Obama's plan just seems like another bureaucracy builder. A bureaucracy to verify and a bureaucracy to run all these qualified "community service" programs. Either way, it will be a bigger form of government.
Certainly, I'm doing a lot of "worst case" speculations about Mr. Obama's plan. However, quite often, our government manages to implement programs that seem to fulfill all the "worst case" nightmares. My guess is that this won't be any different! Just my humble opinion.
Showing posts with label college tuition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college tuition. Show all posts
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
College is a "Birthright"?
In the "declaration" that he is the Democrat's nominee for President (See Full Text and Video of his Speech), Barack Obama made this comment within the context of his speech: "...in this global economy, the chance to get a college education should not be a privilege for the few, but a birthright of every American."
A birthright? Talk about a totally misplaced comment and a false sense of the education problems in this country!
If you listen to Barack Obama, the only thing he thinks that stands between a student's ability to graduate from college is the lack of any college tuition assistance. Like every Democrat, Mr. Obama seems to think that its always all about money. However, somebody should tell Mr. Obama that the problem lies in the "crap" (and getting crappier) pre-college educational system in this country. In Detroit, only 26% of the high school students actually graduate. In Obama's hometown of Chicago, the school system is only able to produce a 52% graduation rate. When students do go on to college from these and other "city" school systems, the failure rate, in the first two years of college, is extremely high. That's because those who graduate from those school systems don't have the skills needed to survive in a college environment. They haven't got the reading skills; the research and study skills; and, they don't have the discipline to meet the demands of a college curriculum. What's worse, if they are receiving some kind of tuition assistance, it is being wasted. Further, the college "slot" that they are taking is being wasted and being taken away from some student who might have better skills.
The focus for education in this country is to take a seriously hard look at our city schools systems. I guarantee you that even if you doubled the pay for every teacher in America, you would get the same graduation rates that we have today. It isn't all pay. Just paying a poor performing teacher or teachers isn't going to solve the problem. We need a system of measuring a teacher's performance and paying them accordingly. Those who are poor performing, should be eliminated. Students will need math and science skills to compete in a global economy. In order to attract educators who are versed in those disciplines, we need give them higher pay scales than the average "Bachelor of Arts" school teacher. But, all this goes against the grain of a unionized system of education in this country.
To the teacher's union, no one teacher is better or more important than another. Everyone is equal. The pay for one should be the same as the pay for another. The quality of teaching is of no concern. There are no better or worse teachers among the group. It also doesn't matter if one teacher has a Bachelor of Arts in "literature" (like so many) and another has a Bachelor of Science degree (which is sorely needed). And, try to "fire" any poor performing teacher!
Beyond the education system and our teacher's, there are serious and deep social issues. Year's ago, our society wouldn't accept a 90% graduation rate. The parents would be in an uproar. Today, we accept 1/2 or less of the class being graduated. This malaise is systemic to our entire society. We have become lazy. We, too often, are spoiled into believing that hard work is for the fools. We aren't hungry. But, the rest of the world is just the opposite. Like in sports....when an athlete has the "hunger", he or she will generally win.
A birthright? Talk about a totally misplaced comment and a false sense of the education problems in this country!
If you listen to Barack Obama, the only thing he thinks that stands between a student's ability to graduate from college is the lack of any college tuition assistance. Like every Democrat, Mr. Obama seems to think that its always all about money. However, somebody should tell Mr. Obama that the problem lies in the "crap" (and getting crappier) pre-college educational system in this country. In Detroit, only 26% of the high school students actually graduate. In Obama's hometown of Chicago, the school system is only able to produce a 52% graduation rate. When students do go on to college from these and other "city" school systems, the failure rate, in the first two years of college, is extremely high. That's because those who graduate from those school systems don't have the skills needed to survive in a college environment. They haven't got the reading skills; the research and study skills; and, they don't have the discipline to meet the demands of a college curriculum. What's worse, if they are receiving some kind of tuition assistance, it is being wasted. Further, the college "slot" that they are taking is being wasted and being taken away from some student who might have better skills.
The focus for education in this country is to take a seriously hard look at our city schools systems. I guarantee you that even if you doubled the pay for every teacher in America, you would get the same graduation rates that we have today. It isn't all pay. Just paying a poor performing teacher or teachers isn't going to solve the problem. We need a system of measuring a teacher's performance and paying them accordingly. Those who are poor performing, should be eliminated. Students will need math and science skills to compete in a global economy. In order to attract educators who are versed in those disciplines, we need give them higher pay scales than the average "Bachelor of Arts" school teacher. But, all this goes against the grain of a unionized system of education in this country.
To the teacher's union, no one teacher is better or more important than another. Everyone is equal. The pay for one should be the same as the pay for another. The quality of teaching is of no concern. There are no better or worse teachers among the group. It also doesn't matter if one teacher has a Bachelor of Arts in "literature" (like so many) and another has a Bachelor of Science degree (which is sorely needed). And, try to "fire" any poor performing teacher!
Beyond the education system and our teacher's, there are serious and deep social issues. Year's ago, our society wouldn't accept a 90% graduation rate. The parents would be in an uproar. Today, we accept 1/2 or less of the class being graduated. This malaise is systemic to our entire society. We have become lazy. We, too often, are spoiled into believing that hard work is for the fools. We aren't hungry. But, the rest of the world is just the opposite. Like in sports....when an athlete has the "hunger", he or she will generally win.
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