Quote:That's the crux of a lot bipartisan politics though isn't it? You focus on the downsides of the government doing it and I focus on the downsides of the free market. 

 

I see many possible problems with the free market doing this without regulation, which I assume is what we are discussing here. 

1. without tax breaks or some benefit I don't see them actually taking a risk and any reasonable number of students as to really dent the problem with college for kids as whole for the country.

 

2. Eventually like with all investment firms they will want more money. That means either charging more on the back end to ensure they get more than they invested to the point of breaking kids out of school (basically the current loan system for a lot of grads) or, becoming creative in how they write up their contracts, adding in default clauses or other such things. I see them just becoming another version of a loan system.

 

3. At worst they would require contract term employment at a firm they are invested in on top of the other things. Not even allowing a person to leave or the loan becomes due. 

 

As for your second part, Sanders program would effect community college. He, like myself is a huge proponent of community college. Most trade schools are private are they not? Those, I would think, would be the most likely to benefit from a free market solution as proposed by Rubio. 

 

Marco Rubio has in fact addressed that, but it kind of goes back to his idea regarding K-12 education.  A large part of his idea is the fact that we graduate kids out of high school that are not prepared to either go on to higher education, or enter the job market or a trade school.  His point here is that we should not focus solely on preparing kids for college, but also prepare them for careers as an electrician, a plumber or a welder, all of those being good paying jobs.

 

One other point that he talks about is turning certain skills and experiences into "real" qualifications for positions.  As an example (much like my personal story) what if a person got educated though non-traditional means?  What if they have experience through military service, took a few of the many free online courses and learned skills on their own?  Is it not reasonable to package that experience and knowledge up into something meaningful to assist them in getting good employment?

 

As I said, my own personal story is an example of that, and I'll share part of it here.  As a teenager and young adult I did many jobs ranging from working in a restaurant, to working as a deputy sheriff, to working in radio broadcasting.  None of that was really what I wanted to do, so at 23 years old I entered the military.  I learned a lot about electronics and computers (hardware), and I also learned a lot about leadership, responsibility and accountability.  After my years in the Navy I worked at a couple of jobs briefly that used very little of my knowledge, and I ended up going to work for a company that deals with aircraft simulation and trainers.  Now backing up a bit, during my years in the Navy, I was also introduced to Unix and Linux (this is when the internet as we know it was very young).  Part of using an Operating System like Linux back then involved learning how to write scripts, and how to modify source code for programs, so I did a lot of reading and taught myself how to program in many different programming languages.  Since then I have been fortunate enough that some companies have hired me based on my actual skill, even though requirements for the job listing required a degree in either electronics or computer science.  I don't hold either, but have worked and still do with a lot of people that actually do posses a degree.

 

With all of that being said and the reason that I share something like that is it should be easier for someone to "package" skills up and be able to call it something.  I am fortunate in that it was relatively easy for me to get hired on at all but one job only because of "who I knew".  Those people have known me or "knew of me" based on prior experience and work.  It should be easier for someone educated the way that I was to have something to show for it, and have that something make an employer want to hire such a person.

 

Bernie Sanders on the other hand just wants to tax people that achieve, and promise that education will be "free".

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