Good Value on a Virginia Education
Tuesday's Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star notes the increasing number of guaranteed admission agreements being secured by the Commonwealth's community colleges for her impressive four year institutions.
Transferring from community colleges has long been a back door into Virginia's traditional institutions of higher education for the best and brightest of students, generally those who have some other problem holding them back, like recent immigrants (including my uncle, who got into William and Mary from NVCC after not being accepted to any four year based upon his scores and credits from his mothercountry) and home schoolers.
I think this is a great thing. Of Rahm Emanuel's rip-off Contract with America agenda, my favorite concept is making post-secondary education as universal in this century as the high school diploma was in the last. I also think that drawing more qualified students into the community colleges of Virginia will have positive influences on the students there who are just pursuing their associate's.
posted by Anonymous at 12:19 PM
3 Comments:
How about we just start by teaching kids in K-12 the things they need to know (like how to read their diplomas)? I'd like to see more high school graduates who are fluent in the differences between "there," "their," and "they're." But I recognize that's a huge leap from where we are now, when many high schoolers I come into contact with can't type out the words "your" or "you're" without using the two-letter phonetic.
Moreover, as tertiary education (which is, after all, what post-secondary education is) becomes increasingly widespread, the political expectation will grow to make it an entitlement--fully taxpayer subsidized, regardless of student initiative or ability. I don't think Republicans should stand for the proposition of two or four more years of free education for all. I would rather Republicans stand for the proposition that secondary education accomplish more educating.
1:42 PM
I think community colleges are a great deal. After I graduated I took a few courses at J. Sargeant Reynolds and really enjoyed them. In general I think the students are more serious, in part because some are older and many have to work while also going to school.
1:48 PM
Jaded JD spoke before I could respond - and probably better.
I don't see the point of pushing more kids into college when 1 out of 4 in our 4 year colleges need remedial work.
In other words 25% of the kids in college are not ready for college on day one. Let's fix the quality of K-12 first.
2:32 PM
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