Rick Santorum: Obama "A Snob" For Wanting Everyone To Go To College (merged)

[whodatdabeaux]

Originally Posted by El Caliente

to be fair, the world doesn't need a bunch of college educated people. The world still needs plumbers, painters, carpenters, gas station attendants, etc. So I agree that not everyone needs to go to college.

Maybe having a bunch of college educated people would lead to there being lest plumbing problems, new painting and carpentering innovation, and self server gas stations (wait we already have that).

[El Caliente]

Maybe there would be fewer plumbing problems, new innovations in art and carpentry but somebody still needs to go out and do the job. There is no problem with people not going to college, or not wanting to go to college. The world needs to keep on spinning, and it did that for thousands of years prior to higher education.

You make everyone go through college, and your looking at the law school problem but on a larger scale. All these law schools are spitting out lawyers, but the lawyers have no jobs to work in, and tons of debt. Pass.


Also if you are going to go and make college more open to all, maybe the schools could drop their tuition a bit. People are going to be getting funneled through anyway, so why not go easy on the bill.

[Sardonios]

Roman Hruska did it better:

"'[T]here are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos." (attempting to defend Supreme Court nominee Harrold Carswell against criticisms of mediocrity).

[TechDawg09]

Rick Santorum wanted all Pennsylvanians to have access to higher education when he wanted to be a senator in 2006. He also defended his support for No Child Left Behind.

It's all right here:

Santorum U.S. Senate

[meezy0236]

Originally Posted by El Caliente

College isn't a necessity though. Would people benefit from it? Depends. You can get just as good an education in a library as you can in a college, and you save yourself a dollar in the process.

College provides you with a certificate that says "Yes, I know what I am doing." But (in some cases) if you can get a good elevator pitch, you can bypass that whole bit.

Well, by the same rationale you can learn to be a mechanic, plumber, etc in a library, but it would probably be more beneficial to learn it from someone with enough skills and knowledge to pass that on to someone.

[El Caliente]

Due to apprenticeships in plumbing and with electricians you are right, working under a union member is your best bet of getting work.

College is great, heck I have a BA and an MBA. I am thankful for the chance to go to further my education and opportunities. But it isn't for everyone. Sure people should want to better their situations, but you can get just as much of an education via books in a library than you can going to a class.

Have you never had that teacher, where you wondered if you knew more than they did?

[drob8785]

Back when I was working in the RSD we took my class to visit Delgado.

I'll be honest: I had never been to Delgado before, or even a community college. I went to a highly ranked college, and there was never a doubt that I was going to a 4-year school. I didn't know what to expect.

Delgado's message: College is for everyone.

It was awesome. They explained how even if you wanted to be a barber, car mechanic, or plumber, it benefits you to spend time in their technical school, learning not only your trade, but basic business skills needed for the 21st century.

You can probably extrapolate what I think about Santorum's comments and him as a person, politician, and candidate.

[El Caliente]

I am saying you don't have to send everyone to a traditional 4 year because they need it, because not everyone does. Some people wouldn't be served at all by going to a 4 year school if they didn't want to be there. Vo Tech schools are a great option, and spending time in a librar to learn more about something is a different route. College Educated doesn't always equal knowing what your doing or talking about.

What did you do with the recovery school district?

[lades]

The thing is college, for these right wing Christian extremists, equates to worldiness and sinfulness. That's why Santorum home schooled his children so that they wouldn't get exposed to crazy, evil, liberal ideas like science.

[El Caliente]

I have family that is home schooled and they are as well rounded as they come. Home schooling is a healthy alternative if you live in a bad area, or an area where you live far away from the school. I know just as many weird people that went to public and catholic schools as I know who were home schooled.

I could care less if Obama said it, Santorum made it up, or if a cow jumped over the moon. That is my personal belief. Not everyone needs to go to college. College isn't for everyone, and some people are smart enough to save their money, rather than go into debt. Some people here don't agree with that, that is fine, but it isn't class warfare on my part.

If President Obama wants everyone to go to college i think its foolhardy, as not everyone needs a higher education in the sense of a traditional 4 year education, or even a votech school. It doesn't make him snobbish.

Do you believe going to college would make people better off?

[Ken-Bob]

A country is only as strong as its resources. In the modern global economy, our greatest resource is an educated populace. In fact, innovation is one of the things that has helped separate itself from the rest of the world. But the rest of the world is catching up in different ways. Japan got it a long time ago. China and India are getting it. At the same time, the US populace is continually failing to understand that it is losing its edge. Sure, we need plumbers, etc., but we need college educated deep thinking intellectuals too. More than ever.

[TulsaSaint]

I think the discussion on this thread has missed the point. The problem isn't that Santorum doesn't think everyone need to go to college. I don't think any of us would disagree that depending on how well a kid did in high school, what he or she wants to major in, what the career prospects look like in that field, how much college will cost, and plenty of other factors, college may or may not be a great fit for every high school graduate. If you were a kid who had so-so high school grades and wants to study art history at an expensive private college, then you might be better served to get some technical training and be a welder or plumber or whatever. There's no shame in not going to college, if you decide you'd rather do something else.

Rather, the problem with what Santorum said is that it betrays his own dismissive attitude toward higher education. There's a huge difference between saying, "Not every kid needs to go to college," and ranting about "liberal college professors who try to indoctrinate" people. Santorum and a large segment of the GOP have realized that a lot of really smart people who study history, political science, anthropology, economics, etc. are very liberal. Rather than ask themselves why so many brilliant people disagree so profoundly with Republican ideology, they mock higher education and dismiss professors and researchers whose findings disagree with their own ideology as liberal hacks.

[Brandon13]

God, this is really what the party has devolved into? Republicans, please nominate this mother****er; if Romney is nominated and proceeds to lose to Obama in the general we're just going to see this circus continue on through 2016. It may anyway, but at least a Santorum nomination (and trouncing) in 2012 will give the establishment a strong basis to retake the party leading into the next election cycle.

The downside to a Santorum nomination is a possible Santorum victory in the general, but it seems so unlikely that I would be willing to roll the dice in order to reset the Republican party.

[El Caliente]

I could care less if when you got to school and the prof. starts rattling off their political views. Thats on you to decipher whats of importance and whats not. I remember taking a Latin American class at SDSU and the professor started going off about how in the Mormon faith you had to pay to move up into leadership callings, and some Mormon in the class told her she was wrong and broke it down step by step in how leadership in the church was appointed. This was my only example of professors doing this. Maybe this kind of stuff is what people are against.

[Alexander]

And they APPLAUDED?