There used to be a time in America where graduating from high school and not going to college was perfectly reasonable. A high school diploma used to mean something because you could learn a trade and get a well-paying job and support a family without your wife having to work.

Now, I'm not sure that is possible. But it used to be.

for all those who want to attend is snobbish?

calling him a snob for wanting everybody to go to college...

But ideally, I don't think it should be necessary for everybody to go to college. We used to live in a country where college was not needed to live a good life.

I'd rather restore that than to have everybody going to college and washing out the importance of a high school and college degree.

Now we're competing with right-wing attacks on workers rights and greedy un-patriotic corporations outsourcing jobs to countries that pay their workers 40 cents an hour.

I think he was including technical school in a broader context of what we call higher education, which is actually post high school education. I just think he said for those who aspire to college, there should be that possibility, not that everyone HAD to.

I don't think Obama said that everyone should go to college, but that everyone who wants more education should be able to get it.

Some of the people I graduated from high school with got technical training while in high school, some got training from the largest employers in the county after graduation. Some apprenticed with their fathers to learn trades (plumbing and carpentry, among others). A few went to secretarial school, a couple went to beauticians' college, some simply started at the bottom where they got jobs and got trained as they worked. Less than 10% of my high school class went on to college. Nearly all of my class got decent jobs, were able to buy houses and at least could have aspirations of being middle class.

I graduated in 1970.

Now businesses do not want to provide the initial or additional training - they want people to miraculously acquire the skills needed, even though businesses do not want to pay taxes to provide an educational system to do the training for them.

How are we going to have people who can do the jobs that businesses need - and that will give them a decent standard of living - if we do not make sure that everyone who wants can get the education they need?

Sad but true.

Starting with his sleazy arm twisting to get TARP passed during the campaign, right up to his recent support for new free trade bills, interfering to push Greece off the cliff into the teeth of the fascists, his support for school privatization, the destruction of the postal system, his willingness to sell out SS, his extreme corporatism, every major appointment he's made... he's a ruthless neoliberal to his core.

In this instance, Obama is taking the neoliberal position while Santorum takes the populist stance.

On the one hand, the "real" reasons it lists are in fact the correct reasons that have been damaging the US labor market. Globalization, largely driven by technology, drove the process; it was accelerated by neoliberalism beginning around 1980.

However, education IS key to economic mobility nowadays. I don't believe, in a perfect world, that it should be the ONLY way, but there is abundant proof to defend the position that more education = better standard of living.

Does not translate to forcing everyone to go.

when he talks about higher education. Santorum is lying by saying Obama is only talking about college.

or institutes. I don't Obama was suggesting post high school training.

But, I do think that with this goal there is a risk of devaluing people who do not do well in classrooms but do need a career path.

to learn more about auto repair, computers, CNA/LPN, etc., which would be considered as additional training.

Even as adults, they can pick up more training/education at night school.

My point is that kind of training needs to be valued more.

Or have a career path that doesn't require college. It sucks how arrogant many people are to those of us that they think do not have a degree. I have a degree in electrical engineering, but because of my job many people assume I don't have one so they're obnoxious and rude about it. Just last week I had some rich old white guy call me a high school dropout. College snobs, like Obama that loyalsister refers to, just make life worse for those of us that work hard.

No one has ever accused me of being one. No "rich old white guy" nor any "rich old black guy" has ever made me feel less of a person because of my lack of formal education. I'm also an almost 50 year old woman that had a child out of wedlock when she was barely 18. You'd think those "college educated snobs" would be all over me, by now. Maybe I'm just not trying hard enough.

I work plenty hard and have been since I was 16 years old. I would never consider calling someone a snob just because they earned a college degree. Also, too, and, my friend...if you have a degree in electrical engineering, with your reasoning, I should think of you as a "snob" since you've attained a higher level of education than myself.

I would also like to suggest that we should value the GED more.

I've talked to young high school drop outs that don't think a GED is "worth it". It almost has more of a stigma attached than being a drop out. There are many young people that drop out for legitimate reasons and a GED is often their only option if they want high school credit. Unfortunately, that GED is rarely enough.

We need to encourage our youth to 1) stay in school 2) attend college or trade school 3) continue their education throughout life.

No one is ever too old to learn something new.

Graduate EQUIVALENCY Degree

edited for spelling

for being the biggest asshole in politics today!


rocktivity

He just wants everyone to have the opportunity to go to college, and for America to lead the world in the percentage of college graduates.

1) Obama doesn't want to force everyone to go to college. It's about empowering people to pursue educational goals that will benefit them the most.

2) This is yet another example of how this nation -- at least half of its voting populace -- prides itself on its ignorance.

3) The days when one didn't have to go to college to acquire a middle class lifestyle are long gone. They aren't coming back, unfortunately. Education is one of the most reliable routes to a middle class life. Granted, it is by no means guaranteed but there is ample evidence to show that education STILL, on the whole, reaps rewards and is directly correlated with higher earnings.

.. and the standards have been so bastardized anyways that at this point it is a check the block.

Do you think they shouldn't have the opportunity to go to college, or just other people's kids?

Maybe he is realizing that he can't afford to pay tuition for all of them.

Did any of Sarah Palin's children go to college?

You have *got* to be kidding about Palin's kids, grifters learn the trade by it being passed down through the family.

how incredibly stupid he is.

Like everything, he is twisting what Obama actually said. I don't recall once Obama stating that everyone should go to college. I have however heard him say that every child should have the OPPORTUNITY to go to college if he or she is willing to work hard, regardless of how much money they have.

Besides, Santorum is a dumb fuck and knows nothing about what it takes to get any kind of job nowadays (except as a lobbyist). Every semi-technical or skilled trade field requires SOME education beyond high school, whether it's junior college or vocational training.

Every bit of shit frothy spews is just to further his loony religious agenda and maintaining the status of the top 1%. I don't think I've ever seen a politician I viscerally hate more than this man. What a dangerous bigoted ass hole.

Santorum wants everyone to be uneducated and easy to indoctrinate. He is trying to breed some more cattle to manipulate.

A diploma is just another means of establishing the pecking order.

One can't, however, condemn such instinctual behavior. Poultry are just as guilty.

That is why it's called a "pecking" order.

What is important is that basic needs are obtainable for all.

Needs on the order of FDR's vision for a "Worker's Bill of Rights" would be a good starting point.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2848856

Everyone should get a high school diploma. Not everyone needs to get a college diploma. However, a college diploma should be affordable for those that choose the academic path. A journeyman/apprenticeship working relationship should be sufficient for aquiring skills good enough to provide a middle class standard of living to include basic needs met.

And we can't have that can we?

to a privileged, moneyed elite. Its not snobby at all either, to suggest, as Newt Gingrich did, that black, inner city kids should get jobs cleaning toilets because none of them have any positive roll models that teach them the value of hard work since they're all obviously lazy, good for nothing gang bangers and welfare queens.

to all American students.

Why pay for private colleges when good ol' State U can do it the same for free.

It's the public school/private school debate all over again.

If I am a resident of a state where there is a public university, I will pay my taxes to help support that school.