[lbo-talk] A Modest Proposal (Re: America No. 1?)

[jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net]

> > Sometimes, though, I think that education might actually improve if
> > it was sold on the model of tropical cruises.  Students or parents or
> > the government pays for degrees (paid in a lump sum or installments),
> > depending on students' financial statuses.  The payment guarantees a
> > degree, regardless of how many or how few courses a student takes
> > (it's like a tourist paying for the entire cruise package regardless
> > of how many meals she actually consumes).  And absolutely no grading.
> > The only requirement for students is that they are NOT allowed to
> > work for wages while in college (the government pays modest but
> > adequate living stipends to all students who need them), for a
> > minimum of four years, the main point being to take young people out
> > of the labor market (which, like old age pensions that allow workers
> > to retire, should have a happy effect of forcing real wages up) and
> > give them completely free time to do what they want.  Naturally, only
> > students who are truly motivated to study, for their burning love of
> > knowledge, show up in your class.  Students are happy -- some just
> > carouse, many date and mate, a select few study hard (because they
> > love to!), and yet others do politics full-time.  Teachers are
> > ecstatic -- no deadwood in a classroom!  :->
> > --
> > Yoshie
> 
> OMG.  Disaster AND total implausibility.
> Michael Dawson

I've always thought higher education should be free and have no grading requirements but for 
some professions like engineering there would need to be a proficiency test. There could be 
one for all fields if we prefer but we need to assure society that there aren't people designing 
bridges who don't understand what they are doing. This would be less of an issue in a field like 
accounting where if you get hired by a firm and mess up some bookkeeping 100 people won't 
plummet to their deaths in an icy river below.

I also think that which school you attend should be chosen by lottery between the schools that 
offer the course of study the student wishes to pursue. This eliminates the possibility that 
something like Ivy League schools would come into being. Incidentially I think that in addition 
to university education being free the private universities should be closed or brought into a 
public university system as outlined above.

This only seems possible if there is a guaranteed minimum income however or many people 
would chose to attend university when they couldn't find a job thus filling the schools with the 
unemployed as well as those interested in an education. A modest monthly stipend would be 
preferable to no income at all if you can't find a job. This would be especially problematic with 
no grades since you couldn't fail classes and be removed from the university. If the 
unemployed did this it would diminish the resources available for those who wanted the 
education. Without a guaranteed minimum income I don't see a solution to this problem.

All this is certainly implausible in the short term I agree but why it would be a disaster escapes 
me. What would be disasterous about this or would the proficiency tests and minimum income 
I suggested resolve the problems you foresee in such a system?

John Thornton