Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for August 07, 2012

Forget the rankings, go for the money!

Waldon U – We’re here for You ( and, we guess, that government largess )

Gordon Gekko character in movie “Wall Street”:π“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.”

WALDEN DOESN’T NEED TO EDUCATE. WALDEN NEEDS TO MAKE $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Remember folks, “government” can’t create jobs, except at Liberty University!!

“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” —1 Timothy 6:10 KJV

I always thought Walden WAS a for-profit school, and that’s why they took Zipper and his ilk when they couldn’t get into “real” schools.

Talking to yourself, lwp?:D

I got my MS through an online program. Never saw the campus before graduation day. But at least there was a campus, and a graduation day. Got to walk across the stage in the gym and receive my diploma from the president of the college. White beard and all. (Me not him.) And earning that degree was no cinch. Online education fills a niche, and online university programs can be a good thing. There was no program within commuting distance (none in the state, actually) and there was no other way for me to get that degree without quitting my job, and leaving my house and spouse behind. But some of these places don’t even deserve to be called diploma mills. They pitch their programs as great ways to get a degree and get a better job. The credential earned is of questionable value, and very few students earn even that. The school raises unrealistic expectations, suggests the task of finishing the program is much easier than it actually is, and encourages the student to take out loans (veterans are a prime target) to finance it. Half the time, or more, the student discovers that he just can’t do it. These are people often without the skills needed, who are holding down jobs or trying to support a family or have other difficulties. So he finally quits the program without a degree, and worse off than before. Now he has an uncompleted education (which doesn’t generally impress an employer) and a big fat student debt to repay. The “university’s” owners make a nice profit, and the instructors get paid (though not as well as if that worked in a real school), and the taxpayers and the students are left holding the bag. All perfectly legal, but it smells like scam to me. Perhaps the problem is the loans. But I don’t exactly know the solution. Making loans to veterans and others to help them get a better education seems like a good idea, nobody likes the idea of “big brother” telling which schools you can or can’t enroll in, or, worse, telling you that you can’t have the loan because you are not capable of making proper use of the opportunity. And government investments of all kinds are always made at a higher risk. Sure things never need government loans because private loans can always be had for sure things. But common sense would suggest that loans made with public money ought still to be make with a degree common prudence. Fortunately there has been some movement in the right direction. Institutions like the University of Phoenix are no long hiring recruiters and salesmen to go out there and sign up students, paying them commissions on each enrollment, acting like the realtors who talked naive people into houses and mortgages that they could not reasonably expect to pay off. And in all fairness, it should be noted that not everyone who enrolls in one of these programs intends to earn a degree. Sometimes they just want to take a few courses. So a portion of the 2/3 of students who drop out should not actually be held against the institution. Nevertheless, as usual, GBT is pointing out a real problem here, if (cartoon-wise) there is some hyperbole at work.

well, i see the comic strip is back to its’ usual themes. i was curious as to what we would see.

Failure factories get $32 billion, wow. educating the public is why i like Doonesbury. wonder what’s next?

$32 billion? The entire public school system is a conglomerate failure factory that sucks up far more than this amount.

“How come nobody has mentioned “affirmative action” yet?”bhinkle kind of alluded to it, above. Over 90% of the students at FAMU (Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University) are black, according to sources mentioned by Google.

Just another example of how the government can reallyscrew-up the free market system like they did with the housing/mortgage bubble. SNAFU

This is all from a guy whose parents could afford to send him to Yale.And has anyone connected the free flow of federal aid to the rising tuition costs?

And if they actually graduate, see Dilbert 7 Aug 2012 for job.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>And that my friend, is sadly too true. “Internship” the new buzzword for corporate slavery.

QVC goes international? Asians want junk for their money, too?

off shored

Caveat emptor. Start with community college courses and build from there. You don’t have to buy the whole schtick just because it’s for sale. Bruce Williams used to have a radio talk show with excellent college advice. I think he has pod casts. I don’t make a big salary, but I "cherry-picked " my way to a Masters (brick and board, major state U) degree. It took a long time, but it was worth the journey and the education was the prize. “Ya gotta wanna.”

The worst thing is when small colleges hire for profit grads for faculty. They believe their Ph.D.’s degrees are the same as those granted by real universities. Their students get easy grades and migrate to the poorly trained easy grade professors.

My son is back in college after 13 years military. While he has had a couple “on line” classes, he has seen instructors this past year. Interesting that when he was looking into schools, and majors, to pursue before leaving the service, he looked at four “on line only” schools, and found three of the four to be total frauds, and the other “questionable”, and they WERE targeting vets. It is of concern.

“. . . the USA can both have such poor completion rates yet still . . . go to Mars.”πThe USA was not alone with the Curiosity project. It is a joint effort with about seven other countries.

….which only goes to show that you can do anything if you can throw enough money at the problem – provided you are allowed to keep using non-existent funny money, of course.

Sometimes it can be hard to tell if someone is being sarcastic when it is in writing. There is no sarcastic filter around here. That is why some prefer phone calls over note writing, not that we can do that here.

I hope your leg is healing quickly. Lousy way to spend the summer.

I cannot speak about online schools but I can tell you that brick and mortar schools (like ITT Tech) must maintain a 75 to 80 % placement rate for their graduates of their programs to continue receiving federal student grants and loans. That means 75 to 80 % of their graduates must be placed in jobs in their field of study or the government does not allow students to use loans and grants to go to the school.Community colleges and universities do not have to place anyone. They promise graduates the moon but never deliver.

We used to have running jokes about arts degrees when I was at Uni – tear on the dotted line was the common one :)

Perhaps there needs to be a new degree – Common Sense – but you would struggle to find a university lecturer qualified to teach it.

College degrees lead to people who want to make “living wages” with benefits and retirements.

That’s bad for the economy. Or so some think.

Ok this is off topic, but GT just covered the topic not long ago— voter suppression. My 90 year old mother in St. Louis, Mo. was initially denied being able to vote this morning, since her non-driver photo ID had expired! This had never happened before. She had to go back home to get verification, thank God she was able to do this. Not so easy for someone who doesn’t drive anymore. This is the kind of thing that will happen again and again and it is completely unfair! Just because the Republicans are sore losers they have decided to cheat since they realized in 2008 and that they couldn’t win in the future without screwing around with people. If people like her give up, and many will because it is going to be harder for them, they will be fulfilling someone else’s agenda, namely that of the Republican party.

My 90 year old mother was a kindergarten teacher for over 40 years. She still is very capable of knowing who she wishes to vote for and has every right to do so. Most 90 year olds do not and should not, drive, the usual means of ID that most rely upon.

If we are lucky, we will all get old someday. I wish you all the luck in the world when you become someone who supports no one but yourself but you get supports.

Re “those who support no one but themselves even while they do get supports.”πThe word “support” here is in present tense, ignoring people like montessoriteacher’s 90-year-old mother who “was a kindergarten teacher for over 40 years”. πIn my opinion 40 years of teaching kindergarteners, in terms of meaningful contribution to society, is worth 400 or even 4000 years of some “greed is good”, “me firster”, Ayn-Rand-worshipping Wall Streeter!πVote grandma vote!

Exactly! We have to make sure and stand up to this bullying situation by voting and by standing against those who have decided to suppress voters.

I know that it is too bad that people are discriminated against on the basis of being a non driver, but it seems stunning that this has gone as far as it has with voting. Obviously, non drivers should not be discriminated against. There are many folks who should not drive.

It can be tough enough to get many people to give up the keys as it is…

A lot of older folks have trouble seeing or having automatic reflexes they need to be safe drivers.

…and your point is?

“Butts in seats” — that’s what used to count when I taught at the U.