Belly35;1695476 wrote:How about adding additional year to high school. Those wanting to be serious about getting advanced education can take freshman college classes, those wanting to take less geared classes community college can get their first year and those who choose to skill type education truck drive, cook, mechanist, beauty school drop out as example can get a little training, and those who choose to not attend .....any additional high school extra year shot on sight.
This is available to Canadians. If they need to increase their scores, pick up a few more classes, redo any testing, they are able to take a 5th year of high school. It's a popular thing. Sometimes, they can even just take an extra semester instead of the whole year. Not a bad option.
In regards to the PSEO, it is
somewhat available. This "free" community college is not going to benefit the same types of people that the "somewhat" available PSEO option is benefiting. The poor, needy, no-home kids aren't doing PSEO (for the most part). The same would not take advantage of the "free" community college option. Those that do PSEO are the ones that are able to do it, encouraged to do it, academically can do it, etc. It's the ones that want to get ahead in their academic endeavors. There are loads of areas all across the country that have ZERO access to any higher education locally (what is locally -- well, maybe +/-10 minutes away). In the 4 states I've lived in, in the past 8 years, only one town or city (that I resided) had a community college within 20 minutes. That's including here in Kansas where community colleges are littered across the state.
"Free" community college doesn't benefit anyone if they can't drive themselves, use public transportation, or easily access the institutions. The people that need the "free" can't use it like it could be used. There are numerous options out there already for higher education opportunities and they still don't seek them.
If it were up to me, instead of funding community colleges (which are a burden to tax-payers and really frustrate the student when it comes to transferring), all of higher education needs to be affordable. More 4-year AND 2-year schools are accessible than just 2-year schools. Allow students to go to those 4-year schools too. Why limit this? Look at what Germany just did with their higher education system...if it's affordable, more will partake. Doesn't have to be free.