State board proposes no-frills colleges

State board proposes no-frills colleges As college students face mounting debt, state education officials yesterday proposed a new kind of higher-education institution that would offer a 'low-cost, no frills' bachelor's degree.

The schools would have no sports teams, no extracurriculars, no glittering fitness center and no plum dorm rooms."

This is so wrong.

For starters, they made a three page white paper. I've had blog postings longer than that. Might as well have a three page diploma too. Why not do a degree by postal mail as well. There are plenty of people in India and China. I bet some of them would be happy to get a diploma from a university in the United States. Sell it abroad because I'm not happy to see it come here.

We have ITT. We have trade schools. We have Community Colleges. Get each of those the ability to expand, if they see fit.

It is just an idea. Well, think again. We do not need the state to float a new college / university. I'm looking for the white paper now and can't find it.

I am in favor of a 'prep school' component to be a part of the new I.B. High so that kids can get, at their option, a 13th year in advance a real college experience.

Notice the double talk in this one part of the newspaper article:

The board also said it will work on removing costly and unnecessary state mandates from colleges and look to regulate on-campus marketing by credit card companies.

The removal of costly and unnecessary state mandates makes the college more like a charter school. Fine. That move is to less government regulation and less state authority. However, in the next breath, the push is in the other direction. They want to regulate on-campus marketing by companies. That delivers more regulation and more government authority. Buyer beware.

Isn't Clarion a no-frills option. Back in the day, a no-frills option was delivered at the Carnegie Library of Homestead. A college was there. It went out of business too.

Isn't Clarion like a Ford-brand for colleges and universities, if not a Yugo, when taken with a grand view? I have no doubts that it is expensive. Its value is to be questioned.

Pennsylvania's underprepared workforce that can't afford a college education that is only an underprepared experience.

This is the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

The idea I'd love to see them champion is the concept of raising the bar. This only lowers it.

Close the weakest state owned college / university. Close the weakest public schools too, not the one's that are doing the difficult job of educating our students.

If one of the 14 state-system schools was axed, that would save money and make more money available to the others that remain. Make it competitive. Make the kids competitive.

PA Site, http://www.pde.state.pa.us/stateboard_ed/site/default.asp