Free College Tuition… If You Stay Here
Here’s an interesting hypothetical that is being put before the Education Reform Commission in Wisconsin.
Would you agree to live and work in Wisconsin for 10 years after college if the state offered to pay your tuition costs for all four years?
It’s an interesting idea. Although it’s only for state schools, I think it would be beneficial to the state for a few reasons:
1. Heck, it’s free tuition. I don’t know the main reasons why people want to leave Wisconsin after they graduate. Maybe it’s the desire for warmer climates, maybe it’s because they are in an industry where you need to be in a “big city”… I’m not sure. But for someone like myself, where there are plenty of job opportunities in Wisconsin for me, I would think that even if the position in Wisconsin pays slightly less than the same position in, say, Chicago, the fact that I don’t have any tuition bills might make that a little more bearable.
2. 10 years isn’t that much. I’ve been out of school now for 5 1/2 years. It feels like I’ve barely been out 2. That puts most people at around 32 or 33 years old–still young enough to move across the county on a whim if they wanted to.
3. The state of Wisconsin has had a huge problem with brain drain. We educate them, then they leave for cities with a better quality of life. This gives smart people an incentive to stay in state, which, in turn, helps the state’s economy.
I don’t know what kind of affect this would have on the private schools in the state. I’m assuming since cost is always a big issue at a private school, this might hurt their enrollments. On the other end, maybe giving free tuition to more students in public schools would free up state funding to be given to private schools, also making a private education MORE affordable.
What are your thoughts on this?
I’m not following your logic on the effect on private schools. If anything I’d say it will have a negative effect on them. As for if I would do it, yes I would! Come on, it’s not THAT bad here!
Comment by Tim — 12/12/2006 @ 6:05 pm
I think this is kind of a catch-22 in that its a great idea, but the jobs also have to be here
in Wisconsin for them when they graduate, and how do you ensure that? If no one here is hiring
it won’t work very well. Other than it being more “fun” or warmer or whatever, the reason
people flock to LA, or NY or DC or Atlanta is because that’s where the greatest
amount of industry is and the better long term career opportunities. The weather isn’t any
better in Chicago or Minneapolis, but TONS of UW grads are in those cities since that’s where
the hubs of industry are for this section of the Midwest. Most larger companies on a national
level have an office in one city or the other (or both). If suddenly there were 5,000 extra
college grads looking for jobs in Milwaukee, I don’t think they’d find much. The fact that
salaries are lower here points to the fact that there isn’t a huge gap in the employment demand
that is being unfulfilled. If that were the case, salaries would rise to attract people here.
Comment by Jon — 12/14/2006 @ 9:40 am
Where do I sign up???
Comment by Tulsa — 12/19/2006 @ 8:09 am