I thought this article from the WSJ (here) was interesting in light of reports (here--curse that right-wing City Paper!!) that 50% of Tennessee students who were given a Hope Scholarship FAILED OUT after two years of school. What?!
Conclusion? Maybe too many people are going to college. Sadly and ironically, former state Senator Steve Cohen--the lottery's pappa, thinks (here) that eligibility requirements ought to be lowered.
And on a related point, a majority of the "cost"--not just tuition, of attending a Tennessee state school is borne by Tennessee's taxpayers, so it is inaccurate to conclude that Hope Scholars failing after two years is only a potential waste of "lottery money" or an individual's money.
Exploit the ignorant; raise the price of higher ed; pander to middle class voters . . . this is an Econ 101 case study.
Hello world!
7 years ago
1 comment:
I was in the House Education Committee hearings when they debated and set these standards. The whole focus was on trying to get as many students as possible from Memphis (of particular interest to 3 of the committee members) to qualify. It wasn't about the best and brightest now that the Constitutional amendment had passed.
I was there because homeschoolers were going to have to have a higher ACT score than public schoolers. It took another year to clear that up.
It's only going to work if we raise the score. And then we ought to fully fund their education--not skim some off for pre-K or capital improvements.
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