Free community college for everyone? We can all be Aric Hall!

[bluebooger]

Is cost a barrier to community college attendance? Has Obama asked that question? He should ask here.

It would take members of this forum about 17 minutes to create an associate degree plan that any random person can complete for under $2000. That's without a Pell Grant. Pell Grant makes that deal a money maker.

The cost barrier isn't in earning an associate's degree, it's earning upper level and graduate credit. Anyone who doesn't START with that premise doesn't know enough about education to garner my enthusiasm.

I don't believe that for a second

I highly doubt most random people have the discipline to study on their own

the people on this forum are not random
the very fact that we're here shows we're different

pick a person at random,
tell them to watch Khan Academy videos on biology and study the REA Biology CLEP books
now watch the results

studying on your own is not easy
being disciplined is not easy
many people need a structured environment
they need to go to class 2 or 3 times a week
they need a syllabus
they need a teacher to tell them what to do and when to do it

the average person picked at random is not going to pass the dsst or ece statistics exam

we will, but we are not average