Hmm Interesting found this article about Excelsior College

[emichele20]

I paid for my undergrad out of my own pocket. I worked 35 hours per week at $6.50 an hour, shared an apartment with my girlfriend and paid my tuition and books. My parents didn't have enough money to help out with school but they made too much money for me to receive any grants and I am not in a protected class. When my girlfriend took off at my third year of college, I was forced to go into the job market without a degree and was paid not based on my degree or what school I attended but on my ability.

sanatone - I totally understand your interpretation of necessary and proper and the commerce clause and the idea that states are oppressive and the feds are not. This is a very common viewpoint among those who believe in a very powerful federal government and a very powerful world government like a UN on steroids.

I believe that the nucleus of power should be within the individual, the family, the community, the state and finally very limited power should be in the federal government. The founders believed this as well. That is why the term enumerated powers was used in the constitution. They specifically only gave the feds a few powers.

You know there was no federal income tax for many years and despite that, we had schools and transportation and all of those things. It wasn't until the 16th amendment in 1909 that we had a real income tax and it was very low.

This country is not a socialist country so don't be surprised when people balk at the thought of widespread wealth redistribution, high taxes and social programs such as safety nets.

okay ryoder no offense but what year was this that you went to school and paid for everything yourself? After I graduated high school in 6/2000, I was working full-time at the airport and attended my local community college around 9/2000. I made about $6.50 as well at the time and my bring home was around $500 or so every two weeks I think. My salary at that time was only enough to pay for my books. There was no way even back then I could afford to pay the 2k tuition on my own per semester for full-time. I used grants that i won the first semester. The next my mom paid out of pocket but I had to reimburse her once she found out I could get veterans benefits from my dad being 100% service connected. Even though with the benefits it was still not enough to cover 1 whole semester. I wish I could have lived on my own or shared an apartment but with me paying my car insurance at $250 per month as a new driver there was no way.

Your situation was very rare. I do not know if you lived in an area where the cost of living was not so expensive but where I grew up and lived it was.