As opinion polls have well documented, Americans have increasingly lost faith in institutions, especially government and higher education. And this backlash has been the most severe among white working class Americans.
In a post-election poll by PRRI/The Atlantic, 54 percent of white working class Americans said getting a college education is “a risky gamble,” while just 44 percent said it’s “a smart investment.” Similarly, another survey by House Majority PAC this summer found that 57 percent of white working class voters said that “a college degree would result in more debt and little likelihood of landing a good paying job.”
Making college free would not erase these concerns. In fact, white working class voters specifically distrust the idea of “free college,” said Daniel Cox of PRRI, who was the lead researcher on the PPRI/Atlantic survey. “There was significant skepticism that those policies would actually work,” he said. “They didn’t trust that it would be truly free.”
Any argument against actually doing anything for people. The white working class is skeptical that you will do anything for them because the government doesn't do shit for them (or anybody not rich) now, so probably best not to do anything for them. The true point here is the secret welfare system - WWC probably think that free college will be free for blah people, and not them. One way to make them trust that it is truly free is to, you know, MAKE IT TRULY FREE.
Admittedly "free college" is, of course, a slogan to some degree. What it means in practice is moving us towards the world that existed when I went college, or even before, when in a lot of places you could just about (maybe not quite!) pay for full time college (all of it) with a summer job and working a bit during the school years. "Free tuition at state schools (or even some state schools)" is more like it, and that still doesn't make college free (room, board, books, etc.). But it's a start, and it would do a lot for the blahs and the WWC, and as long as it was simple, straightforward, and generous, even the WWC might realize they benefit.
Funny to see the Washington Monthly revert to form.
...ah, I see this writer had previously solved our costly education problem.
Web browser maker Mozilla launched openbadges.org in 2011 to promote what they call “digital badges” to anyone who can demonstrate that they’ve mastered a specific skill. Much like Boy Scout merit badges, participants can earn their way up the badge ladder. Aspiring Web designers, for example, can earn a badge as a “Code Whisperer,” an “Editor,” a “Div Master,” or a “Super Styler,” depending on their ability to demonstrate their coding skills and to build their own Web projects. At the top are the “HTML Basic” and “I am a Webmaker” badges, stepping stones for becoming the Eagle Scout of the Mozilla digital badge world: a “Mozilla Webmaker Master.”
Each badge earned gets you an icon to display on your digital resume or as part of your online profile, which you can show to prospective employers. More than 1,000 groups and employers, including NASA, Disney-Pixar, the Smithsonian Institution, the New York City Department of Education, and Microsoft, are now offering or honoring badges recognizing a wide variety of skills. At the annual summit of the Clinton Global Initiative this summer, former President Bill Clinton endorsed the idea of badging and urged more employers to participate.
What a great endorsement from Anne Kim, recipient of a badge icon "J.D. from the Duke University School of Law."