Hearing the Falconer #30 ~ 7-April-2019 ~ Should College Be Free?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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7-April-2019: Should College Be Free?
How Democrats Want to Make College Affordable
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As a political moderate I believe that if college education is so expensive that many people cannot afford it, or if it leaves many people under many years of high debt, that is a problem for our society that hurts all of us. On the other hand, I think that making college tuition-free, or even debt-free, is going too far in the other direction.

The first problem with free college for everyone is that we probably can't afford it. As Democratic candidate Amy Klobuchar said "If I was a magic genie and could give that to everyone and afford it, I would." But she can't.

I guess I even disagree with Amy on WISHING we could do that. Even if I was a magic genie I wouldn't make college free. There is enough conservative blood in my veins to make me think everyone should WORK for the good things in life. Everyone should PAY for the good things in life. And for something as good and as important as college education, I think everyone should be willing to take on some debt. I don't want people thinking they can get stuff for free and I don't want people thinking they should never take on debt to go after a great opportunity of future benefit.

On the the other hand, I have enough liberal blood in my veins to think that we should help people who need help and try to get everyone who WANTS a college education into school.

I think the moderate position on this issue is: You have to work some reasonable number hours per week to pay for your college. You have to contribute some reasonable amount of money to pay for your college. You even have to take on some reasonable amount of debt to pay for your college. You have to do all those things because that is what SUCCESSFUL people do and you need to learn how to be successful. BUT, when you have done all those things, and you still can't afford college, THEN society will step in and give you the help you need to make it through. We won't leave anyone behind.

I don't think the government should give handouts to citizens - except for those who are truly unable to work. What I want is for government to PARTNER with citizens and to lend a hand.

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

Truman