He May As Well Fuck With Their Heads

[Minimalist]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/2015011...9698b.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will call for increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans by raising the capital gains rate and eliminating a tax break on inheritances, then using the revenue to fund new tax credits and other cost-saving measures for the middle class.

Coming after his idea for free Associates Degrees at community colleges maybe he'll get a few republicunts to die of strokes?

[Creed of Heresy]

I hope he throatfucks them with it.

[The Grand Nudger]

Coming after his idea for free Associates Degrees at community colleges maybe he'll get a few republicunts to die of strokes?

Hell, they may as well be free, they're worth precisely zero dollars anyway - bought time we payed for precisely what we get.

[Alex K]

Associate, is that what you get when you spend 2 years at a community college?

[The Grand Nudger]

Yeah. Basically a high school refresher.

I'm guessing you're not from the US, so, to sum it up. An associates is generally the program that poor people take at their local cc (or sometimes at a cc a bit further afield) that has some affiliate agreement with a larger college. Do your time in CC, get decent enough grades to qualify for solid financial, shoot for a bach/masters at a "real" college.

[Nope]

Yeah. Basically a high school refresher.

I'm guessing you're not from the US, so, to sum it up. An associates is generally the program that poor people take at their local cc (or sometimes at a cc a bit further afield) that has some affiliate agreement with a larger college. Do your time in CC, get decent enough grades to qualify for solid financial, shoot for a bach/masters at a "real" college.

It is what my son did before he entered a four year college and what my daughter is doing now. For poor and lower middle class kids, community college can be the first step to a better future. Community colleges also teach things like welding for kids that don't want to go onto a four year college

[popeyespappy]

I don't agree with your assessment, Rhythm. Around here the CCs have three different types of programs. Transfer programs, which you mentioned. These are good because they cost half what a four year school does. That's what I did when I got out out of the army, and it sure helped stretch my military benefits long enough to get a four year degree. Continuing education for those that need to pick up a new skill like project management. And finally two year programs that train technicians, welders, machinists and mechanics. The last part is where we disagree. Yes, you can pick up most of those types of job skills in other places such as the military or even in high school if you start technical school early enough, but the military and high school technical programs don't train nearly enough people with those types of skills.

[The Grand Nudger]

I'm an unapologetic cynic...what can I say? I did my time for a transfer and I would never tell a person not to go....I just like to help people set realistic expectations for the investment. If you're committed enough to spend two years, do the extra two. I offer this advice as someone who didn't follow it, btw, I'm an engineering washout. Hindsight, lol.

(where I'm from, all of those positions listed for tech programs are crewed by highschool dropouts, btw - as I understand it, other places have higher standards...in which case..gotta get that cert, eh - but those certs can be and often are cheaper elsewhere-? Neither CC nor the tech programs have any value beyond the goal that they are required to achieve, and it is a bit of a dicking, to pay for that in this...-the best country in the world, period-. A 4 yr is marketable no matter what -and might be worth paying for even with no specific goal in mind. Then again...soooo many BA's, and isn't that what makes an AA worth less and less?)

Let me put this a different way. When wages stagnate but tuition continues it's inexorable march upward - that's a racket. It might be an unavoidable racket, it might be the best option available.......it's still a racket. I'm not detracting from what anyone's son has done, or what anyone has done themselves - we make the best of our situations and that's awesome.......but that doesn't change whether or not it's turned into a racket. We're paying more and more for something that is worth progressively less and less. At some point, you have to weigh your investment against other options (and even for the poorest of us, if you have tuition money you have options..even if it's loaned money). I get a better return on strawberries than my peers who finished their programs (accounting for our relative level of debt, the majority of which is shared between us - I went out of pocket too) - just for flavor, and now...when I'm not doing that...I'm -managing- engineering grads. I think our ed system is failing us, personally. I don't lay that on the people who seek the degrees or the certs - they are, to some extent, being sold a bill of goods in this current economy. If a person knows what they want and they know what they're getting into, a dry appraisal, awesome. It simply hasn't been my experience that this is a good description of an 18yr old degree seeker. Those life sized posters at the CC depicting AA's as guys in stiff shirts doing easy work for "good life money" - that shit is ad copy.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah. Basically a high school refresher.

I'm guessing you're not from the US, so, to sum it up. An associates is generally the program that poor people take at their local cc (or sometimes at a cc a bit further afield) that has some affiliate agreement with a larger college. Do your time in CC, get decent enough grades to qualify for solid financial, shoot for a bach/masters at a "real" college.

The one real benefit of a community college -- at least when I went to one a few centuries ago -- is that the smaller class sizes give you more facetime with the professor.

The CCs in California offer a range of classes that go well beyond HS stuff. Where do you live, Florida or something?

[KevinM1]

All I know is that the tech schools in NH are actually superior than UNH if you want to do anything aside from research. They use modern tools and teach modern approaches. When I was a CS student at UNH, we were using some mutant, non-standard version of C++, and it sucked. We were taught OOP syntax, but used objects procedurally. If I had known that Stratham (which would later be called SNHU) would make me more likely to actually get a job upon graduation, I would've gone there instead.

Same thing happened with my sister-in-law's brother, who's about 10 years younger than me. He started at UNH, found that they were way behind the times and sucked, went to SNHU, and graduated writing programs more advanced than what most UNH students had to do. He then got his BS from UNH simply because it's better for his resume.

So, yeah... not all CC's are the same. Some are actually very good at what they do, and pump out people ready and able to join the workforce.