Gov. Deal: Get more Georgians into college. And get them to graduate.
Here is a release from Gov. Deal’s office on the state’s new push to both enroll and graduate more students from college:
Gov. Nathan Deal, along with all 35 presidents of the University System of Georgia, 25 presidents of the Technical College System of Georgia and representatives from Georgia’s independent colleges and the business community, today launched the campus level completion portion of Complete College Georgia, which was first initiated in August 2011. The initiative calls for and identifies strategies for the state’s public and private colleges to add an additional 250,000 college graduates – whether a one-year certificate, an associate’s degree or a bachelor’s degree – by 2020, a number that is over and above current graduation levels.
“Any significant increase in the number of Georgians who complete college will require a historic new era of coordination between the state’s public and private colleges and the business community,” said Deal. “To have a successful future in Georgia, and remain competitive nationwide and globally, we have to have an educated workforce, and that means we need to do a better job getting people into college, make sure they receive a high-quality education and then graduate them.”
The presidents also heard from Chris Clark, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. Clark noted that the work of Complete College Georgia is in line with the economic needs of the state, as reflected in a recently released report from the governor’s office as part of Deal’s Georgia’s Competitiveness Initiative.
The Georgia Competitiveness Initiative, which gathered input from more than 4,000 Georgians for the report, highlighted education and workforce development, specifically improvement in the academic quality of and access to k-12 through postsecondary education, as a top priority in nearly every region of the state.
Over the past six months USG and TCSG officials have developed a statewide plan to meet the Complete College Georgia targets. Today’s event comes at the beginning of campus-level planning and work to align with the statewide plan.
“Make no mistake, this marks a big shift in higher education in Georgia,” said USG Chancellor Hank Huckaby. “To do this right, we have to work toward the long term and envision how higher education can better serve the people of Georgia, and we have to do this collaboratively with all players in the state.”
TCSG Commissioner Ron Jackson added, “Our institutions have been making strides toward improving access and graduation rates, but we have to do more. We needed to come together and have open discussions about what we can do as a state.”
A recent Georgetown University study indicates a great deal of work must be done nationally and in Georgia in order to ensure the nation’s future workforce needs. In Georgia, currently 42 percent of the population holds some form of a college degree, while the Georgetown study found that by 2020, that percentage should be 60 percent for the state to remain economically competitive.
To reach the “big goal” James Applegate, vice president of program development for the Lumina Foundation, said to the group, “You need to serve those for whom so often the current system of higher education doesn’t work.”
This includes the 35.8 million working-age adults nationwide that attended college for some time but did not earn a degree, Applegate said. Military personnel and minority groups also should be a focus in terms of ensuring more individuals are able to complete some level of college.
The Lumina Foundation, based in Indianapolis, is focused on expanding access and success in education beyond high school, with a single, overarching goal to increase the percentage of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025.
Georgia is a member of the Complete College America Alliance, a group of 30 states committed to significantly increasing the number of students successfully earning a college degree or credential. The state received a $1 million grant from Complete College America in August to focus on transforming remedial education, a core component of the larger Complete College Georgia effort.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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70 comments Add your comment
Jre
February 28th, 2012
1:20 pm
More students into college???? What a snob.
ByteMe
February 28th, 2012
1:25 pm
Clearly he supports Obama
carlosgvv
February 28th, 2012
1:30 pm
But……but…..but Santorum said Obama’s wanting all kids to go to college is just a Democratic plot to get more liberals. What do we have here? Dissention in the ranks?
novel idea
February 28th, 2012
1:34 pm
uh, governor deal. . . . give back some of the BILLIONS of dollars you have cut to the education budget, and then we can talk . . . .
JF McNamara
February 28th, 2012
1:45 pm
How are we going to fund it? Everybody wants to go to college, but some don’t have the money. Also, we have to graduate more college ready students which means bettering our K-12 system. We’re so broke we had to cut HOPE, remember?
The easiest (and cheapest) way to accomplish this is to add a certificate program at the High School level. If you don’t get into a traditional college, you go straight into the “13th Grade” where you get a 1 year post secondary cert.
No new buildings need to be built as it could be a night study program, and many of the current high school teachers are capable of teaching cert programs.
JF McNamara
February 28th, 2012
1:48 pm
@carlosgvv,
It always amazes me how extremely religious politicians have no problem spewing lie after lie.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/santorums-misfire-on-obama-colleges-and-religion/2012/02/27/gIQAl5KWeR_blog.html
Oh My!!
February 28th, 2012
1:53 pm
Gov. Deal obviously understands having a well educated workforce will attract industries/jobs to the Peach State.
Old Physics Teacher
February 28th, 2012
1:58 pm
Great! But you do realize that General IQ is not going to change, right? And that half the people in the USA have a below average IQ. You do accept that, right? And if we do NOT increase the ability of people to understand information (which we can’t in general – but we can in specific), then the only way to get more college graduates is to… wait for it… lower the standards? Kinda like what’s been happening in public high schools? That makes me a snob, right? No, that makes me a realist. And yes, there are underprivileged people who have high IQs just like we have Harvard Grads that have trouble adding 2 + 2. Don’t strain at gnats and swallow camels, OK? That’s the problem with statistics; only people who understand statistics should be allowed to do statistics. Let the politicians do what they do best – lie to us.
jconservative
February 28th, 2012
2:00 pm
JF McNamara has a cannot be ignored question – where’s the money?
How do you get the largest number of people into college?
Means testing HOPE will increase the number of people in college.
If one is on a HOPE grant and drops or flunks out, the grant becomes a loan to be repaid. This will increase the funds available and hopefully increase the number of degrees awarded.
And the 13th Grade is a solid idea worth exploring. The public school buildings sit vacant 12 hours a day.
johnny too good
February 28th, 2012
2:12 pm
@carlosgvv….. I agree, I also think that the blues and reds have more in common than they realize
Patrick Crabtree
February 28th, 2012
2:12 pm
Increase more students attending college and graduating? For real? How? All the Republicans have done is cut funding and raised the tuition. Boy we have geniuses in Georgia.
Brandy
February 28th, 2012
2:17 pm
I usually roll my eyes at these pie in the sky initatives, but JF McNamara, you have a brilliant idea! Has anyone, anywhere tried this?
William Casey
February 28th, 2012
2:30 pm
A “13th Grade” Certification might be a good idea, especially if it’s differentiated and tailored to people who also work. I know quite a few recent high school graduates who are “coasting along,” maybe dabbling with college, work or just plain old “hanging out.” One 13th grade program might be a four hour intensive college prep program built around “how to study.” Another might be geared toward technical fields. Yet another could be built on “how to get a job.” The 13th Grade needs to be “no frills.” No sports, band or other activities. Might work. The buildings are there, largely unused. Plenty of human resources, especially retired people such as myself who would enjoy teaching a couple of evenings per week.
Joke on us
February 28th, 2012
2:33 pm
its all a good idea; BUT the problem is still the GA high school system. instead of offering a polytech approach students will be required to finish up through Pre-Cal in math. the governor wants to push tech schools and other certificate level programs but none will happen due to the top down approach Race to the Top highlights. We have HS students graduating not knowing their multiply tables but have taken Math IV (can anyone say grade inflation) If someone tells you these kids know higher math: it all lies and it reminds me of Twain’s famous qoute: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
Struthers
February 28th, 2012
2:34 pm
What a joke. An awful lot of high school graduates can’t even tell you who the first president is, or even add more than 3 numbers in a column. College graduates aren’t a heck of a lot better. The goal ought to be to educate and motivate those capable of achieving, rather than just cranking up a number. With the government coming down hard on the successful in favor of the welfare recipients and lockstep unionized labor, it is hard to see why a kid would be motivated to work hard to succeed.
Dr. Craig Spinks/Georgians for Educational Excellence
February 28th, 2012
2:49 pm
Will increased political pressure upon the USG to produce more college graduates inadvertently encourage the educratic tendency to produce them- regardless of their Reading, Math, Writing and Thinking skills?
Will we Georgians soon see some of our public colleges issue diplomas as worthless as the ones many of our HSs distribute?
Prof
February 28th, 2012
2:53 pm
Well, I think that this “push” has already begun, on several fronts. The general rise in college enrollments has been steady ever since the 2007-2008 revenue bust began, for the unemployed and/or those who can’t find a job have all headed back to school to improve their employment chances.
There’s been a definite change of emphasis for the USG schools from valuing the size of their undergraduate enrollments to emphasizing their graduation rate within 6 years. The legislature’s funding for these schools will now be determined by their 6-year graduation rate rather than, as before, by their enrollment figures. So the schools have a real motivation for enrolling students who can graduate within 6 years, and thus they are raising their admission standards. The Regents meanwhile are eliminating remedial programs in USG schools, limiting them to the “feeder” schools and the technical schools.
Where will the money come from? Already 6 USG schools are being consolidated into 3, and I really don’t think that’s the end of the process. Duplication of programs also is being phased out. (I sure hope that duplication of mid-level administrators at the various schools is also phased out.) The intent is to save funds.
This all will probably have a ripple effect on Georgia’s K-12 education as well, to prepare students who will be competing in a new educational environment here. Given that educating college students always costs the school more than the tuition paid by the students, it will be in the school’s self-interest to be sure that the incoming students’ grades were not inflated in K-12 so that they can actually finish college in 6 years or less.
I am curious about the next stages of the Complete College Georgia initiative. The old saying goes that watching sausage being made isn’t pretty, and I have the feeling that will prove true here.
Follow Through
February 28th, 2012
2:53 pm
Only 15 in 100 can be a professional (Doctor, Lawyer, Teacher, Engineer) the other 85 with degrees will have only wasted their time and money.
We actually have expanded the educational system beyond its’ “reasonable” self-sustaining limits …. We are pumping money into a system (unintended HOPE) … it has grown so large we have a “bubble” and when people stop coming …
Just look at all the “college ads” in this paper … does it really enhance productivity or does it only provide cash flow to the schools?
MiltonMan
February 28th, 2012
3:15 pm
…and the GA democrats in this state – moonbats like Jimmy Carter’s grandson want to make sure that the “evil rich” kids do not get HOPE.
How about all you politicans get together & determine what exactly majors will be in demand – computer science, pre-med, pre-dental, pre-law, etc., etc., and focus on that as opposed to setting numbers & being happy with that when we get an additional 250k college graduates but they all majored in liberal arts & now cannot find a job
redweather
February 28th, 2012
3:17 pm
@Prof, it looks to me like the rise in admission standards at a school like Georgia Perimeter will be a boon for the Vo/Tech schools and I have no problem with that.
3schoolkids
February 28th, 2012
3:17 pm
Hmmm…Gates and Jobs didn’t graduate from college.
Money Manager
February 28th, 2012
3:28 pm
We need to require students who don’t graduate in 5 years (while attending full time) or 8 years ( while attending part time) to start paying back their HOPE grants and scholarships.
If they move out of state within 5 years of graduating, again, they pay HOPE back…perhaps over the next 20 years, as a state initiated student loan.
We are trying to create a more educated workforce for GEORGIA, not for California, Florida, or New York. If you do not want to make the commitment to stay in the state for 5 years, then DON’T take the opportunity. Get student loans.
Will there be fraud? Yes. Will it be hard to track? Sure. However, we already have a tracking system, not a great one, for tracking child support. It shouldn’t be THAT hard to keep track of these students’ state tax returns. Using state tax returns, we should be able to keep track of people for 5 years…during which some will create roots in our state. Of course, some will leave after the 5 years, but at least we will have received 5 years of taxes and contribution to our state.
It is time to think out of the box. If we are to continue HOPE, we need to open our eyes and admit that too many of these kids blow their HOPE their freshman year. If they can’t take their incredible opportunity to get an education and leave college virtually debt free seriously, then they need to pay for their mistake, move aside, and allow another bright eyed, bushy tailed kid a chance to achieve.
Why can’t our representatives make the tough choices on this? Instead of continuing to cut the amount given to hard working families, hold the kids who make bad choices responsible for their actions.
Maybe I should run for office…oh! Wait! I’m more interested in actually SOLVING a problem than in getting elected…
Hillbilly D
February 28th, 2012
3:29 pm
Not every job really requires a degree and some of it is supply and demand. If every person in the country has a Doctorate, somebody still has to pick up the garbage.
HS Public Teacher
February 28th, 2012
3:31 pm
LOL! Really? Does this mean that he wants college to “pass” everyone just as we are supposed to do in K-12?
Look at what that has done for our K-12?
TW
February 28th, 2012
3:32 pm
And there you have it – Deal is a liberal.
Somebody please tell the Gov that an educated electorate will mean the death of the GOP.
Bernie
February 28th, 2012
3:32 pm
what an interesting take this story has, espicially in light of the absurd comments by one Mullah Rick Santorium. Students from other Nations are exceeding the educational level of the American
Students in numbers unseen in America’s history by levels that would be diffcult to match in this lifetime.
Sadly, uneducated republicans think all people that attend college are SNOBS. isn’t that Rich!
Jeff
February 28th, 2012
3:47 pm
Here’s a crazy idea………maybe the reason the graduation rate is so low is because many of those kids aren’t qualified to be in college to begin with.
College is not for everyone. And when everyone has a college degree, then none of them mean much.
Follow Through
February 28th, 2012
3:49 pm
Education is the largest business in this country. It has been allowed to “operate” and produce products that we don’t have a market for or the “market is saturated” … where did industry go? … well, it went overseas because we had lost our technical expertise … and the “educators” allowed this drain to happen because there was a “blue” stain on the collars of the tech grads.
Hillbilly D
February 28th, 2012
3:56 pm
The main reason industry went overseas is cheap labor. If a company can move it’s manufacturing overseas and bring the product back into the U.S., at no additional cost (other than shipping), the vast majority of them are going to do it.
Follow Through
February 28th, 2012
3:58 pm
and “industry” was environmentally unfriendly … therefore we focused on the “service induatries” …
Jerry Eads
February 28th, 2012
4:00 pm
Novel, it was Purdue who cut the legs from under education in Georgia, not Governor Deal. Mr. Deal seems to be trying to get some of it back into education budgets.
Jeff, they’re not talking only 4-year degrees, but also 1- and 2- year certificates and degrees from the community and technical college systems.
Follow Through
February 28th, 2012
4:08 pm
There is plenty of money in the systems … goes back to the old saying … “the more you feed the beast the more the beast demands to be fed.”
Money is not the issue … it is direction and true, true desire.
Prof
February 28th, 2012
4:23 pm
@ Jeff, Feb. 28, 3:47 pm. These are the figures for 6-year graduation rates of Bachelor’s students across the country, according to the NCHEMS Information Center (Google http://www.HigherEdInfo.org: Graduation Rates):
State with highest %: Massachusetts at 69.2%
U.S. average: 55.5%
Georgia average: 47.5%
State with lowest %: Alaska at 26.9%
This 6-year (not even a 4-year) graduation rate is a national problem, not just a local one.
williebkind
February 28th, 2012
4:24 pm
I am sure the Gov. was not wanting all those graduates to have useless liberal arts degrees. If he wants to improve the workforce then he should demand more technical college graduates who will actually have an employable skill.
williebkind
February 28th, 2012
4:27 pm
“and “industry” was environmentally unfriendly … therefore we focused on the “service induatries” …”
Now that is how activist can destroy an economy. I should live like native Americans but not for them. Hmmm…Al Gore.
3schoolkids
February 28th, 2012
4:31 pm
The number one educational priority identified in the Georgia Competitiveness Initiative referenced in the article is an increase in the number of skilled technical labor to support workforce demands. The state has created a “pipeline” for students forcing them at a very early age to decide if they will attempt a 4 year degree or choose technical school. Is the “tracking” of our students really designed to help or just to provide statistics to align with their agenda? It is all about money, businesses get major financial incentives to move here, then complain there aren’t enough educated workers and bring employees into the country on work visas. But, it will be ok because the State has created an educational pipeline to provide them workers. What will we have? Higher taxes and a glut of unemployed educated workers who still aren’t being hired because it is still cheaper for the corporations to bring in employees on visas.
TW
February 28th, 2012
4:46 pm
A good start would be removing the chamber of commerce from the school boards.
nelsonhoward
February 28th, 2012
4:47 pm
90% of college greaduates cannot find a job, the other 10% are Drs., engineers and lawyers[however that is not always good]. Get in the trades, plumbers make $150.00 an hour.
Prof
February 28th, 2012
4:56 pm
@HS Public Teacher, February 28th, 3:31 pm: “LOL! Really? Does this mean that he wants college to “pass” everyone just as we are supposed to do in K-12?”
As I recall, you and I had a long exchange about this (understandable) fear on an earlier blog about the legislature changing the funding rationales for USG schools to follow their 6-year graduation rates. I’ll repeat what I noted then. College/University professors have tenure, and K-12 educators do not (for guaranteed due process when being terminated isn’t really “tenure” as usually understood). K-12 educators can be pressured into grade inflation….not least because state law permits “social promotion.” But professors cannot.
I have never been directly pressured, nor have I ever changed a grade because of indirect pressure. Nor do I know of any others who have. Professors in general are an ornery lot. Administrators may wish they’d pass their students merrily along, but know better than to ask, let alone demand.
catlady
February 28th, 2012
4:58 pm
I want to see this accomplished, given the bare bones approach of the last 9 years. Cut, cut, cut. Where will the money come from? I am guessing the middle class will be sucked even drier, and “someone’s friends and family” will get the jobs running the show.
I like the idea of 13th grade. I’d say, however, put it in grades 11 and 12. No sense prolonging childhood even more. If a kid doesn’t show college desires/abilities by 11th grade, they should be in a learn-to-work curriculum. Practical math, practical English, and a trade skill. Also, let’s push the unemployed who have outdated or neglibile training, and welfare recepients and the “disabled” into work readiness programs–something besides making babies. No schoolee, no checkee.
Rick
February 28th, 2012
5:00 pm
Most everyone I know with a college degree obtained it somewhere else. The problem in Georgia is worse than the statistics show, if the state is counting all those “imported” degrees.
The AJC reported on all sorts of games being played with our high school graduation rates, when Cox was State Superintendent. John Barge seems to understand Georgia needs more skilled laborers. However, training cost money, and those in power in this state have little interest in helping the poor and or uneducated help themselves. Ignorant leaders leading us in circles, getting us nowhere. Georgia will stay where it is, near dead last in all important measures until its elects leaders make the welfare of Georgians their first priority (not just the interest of their financial contributors).
Halftrack
February 28th, 2012
5:12 pm
Someone said ” Everyone is ignorant on different subjects.” The other side of the coin says:
There was a student named Guesser;
The more he studied; the more he learned;
the more he learned; the more he knew;
the more he knew, the less he knew about lesser and lesser.
Why don’t we cut College class study down to the principles of a Major and cut out the fluff. We could get more graduates in less time with less cost.
Hillbilly D
February 28th, 2012
5:15 pm
Get in the trades, plumbers make $150.00 an hour.
Charging $150 an hour and making $150 an hour, aren’t the same thing.
yuzeyurbrane
February 28th, 2012
5:32 pm
Great goals but the proof is in the pudding. You can’t have high completion or graduation rates while tuition and fees are skyrocketing. And you can’t cut tuition and fees while you are cutting billions of dollars from state education expenditures. Not unless, of course, you gut the quality of education. Increased numbers of graduates at a lower cost—what a great campaign slogan. I hope diploma mills are not what Deal has in mind.
bart
February 28th, 2012
5:44 pm
Of course, all kids should not go to college. But we are doing our kids a disservice if we make them think post high school education is not a necessity. Trade and technical schools are avilable for kids who are not college materrial. A high school education alone in the future is not going to get you a job. Those kinds of jobs will no longer be available. Everybody will need a skill.
Elizabeth
February 28th, 2012
6:18 pm
Here’s to Perdue– lowering standards and causing grade inflation yet again. Will he blame the college professors when kids don’t graduate– or will public school teachers be blamed yet again for something beyond their control?
the prof
February 28th, 2012
6:47 pm
@Prof….I agree. My 15 year distribution is along these lines…10%A, 15-20%B, 22-25%c, 20%D, 20-25%F. I know this doesn’t add up to 100, but factor in 10-15% withdrawals. I’ve never been pressured to inflate or change grades although I have heard from some others that it occasionally happens.
HS Math Teacher
February 28th, 2012
6:48 pm
“The World Needs Ditch-Diggers Too!” – Judge Smails
ScienceTeacher671
February 28th, 2012
7:50 pm
If Governor Deal really wants more college graduates, we need more students graduating from high school ready for college – which means we need more students coming to high school with the skills to succeed in high school.
Maybe Governor Deal can work with John Barge on some good first steps: increasing the rigor in our educational system. For instance, getting rid of “committee promotion.” For instance, making sure that students who pass the 8th grade CRCT actually have 8th grade skills – now they only need to be reading or doing math at a 4th grade level. For instance, requiring students to get more than 45% of the questions correct to “pass” EOCTs.
ScienceTeacher671
February 28th, 2012
8:00 pm
Also, since the “post-secondary education” includes tech school, why not encourage more of what we used to do – and which is still possible – joint enrollment at high school and tech school, so that a student can graduate high school already certified in a trade.
Ron F.
February 28th, 2012
8:23 pm
It’s late, and today has been a long day, but I almost find this laughable. Deal cuts HOPE down, not even addressing the rampant mismanagement of funds and now wants to say we need to get more kids through college…I think I’ve added a nickname to my list for him. Now I’ll just call him Double Deal…
I agree with those who have posted about the benefits of technical colleges. Many would be well prepared for a career and for future learning if they attended technical colleges. I’ve had students who found their true calling in life there, and I’d love to see more attention given to these schools. Four year college degrees aren’t for everyone.
To JF McNamara
February 28th, 2012
8:55 pm
What good is a grade 13 certificate?
What will that do for the student?
What will that mean for a prospective employer?
Sounds like the only person who might benefit from it is a teacher who wants to moonlight to earn extra money.
Good Mother
What Concerns me about Deal's Message / GM
February 28th, 2012
9:02 pm
What concerns me about Deal’s message (actually a lot concerns me) but this particular sentence concerns me a lot:
“…we have to have an educated workforce, and that means we need to do a better job getting people into college, make sure they receive a high-quality education and then graduate them.”
Notice he said “graduate them” and not “so they can graduate.”
What concderns me is that he wants to socially promote college students just as we do in k-12 GA schools. I graduated high school with students who were functional illiterates. That high school diploma was worthless.
Now, I don’t want GA universities to become more diploma mills more than they already are. I often get resumes from people, even with Masters degrees, with horrible grammar. One applicant with a Masters degree wrote in his summary “I HAS experience doing X and I HAS experience doing Y.” HAS? HAS? It is “I Have…” and my child’s teacher demonstrates the same lack of fundamental grammar.
We don’t need more poorly educated college “graduates.”
If Deal is serious he would provide pre-K for all students in GA. An early education is key. We also need to ensure we hvae quality teachers in k-12 and classrooms of a manageable size. We also need to ensure that college tuition is affordable for everyone. Until those three things are met, we won’t have real college educated Georgians in significant numbers.
Good Mother
To HS Teacher
February 28th, 2012
9:05 pm
You wrote ““The World Needs Ditch-Diggers Too!” – Judge Smails
Your comment is patronizing.
Good Mother
3schoolkids
February 28th, 2012
9:07 pm
Not to knock the Technical Colleges as an alternative to those students who don’t seem to be academically motivated by their high school years, but here is a link to an MIT study on brain development in young adulthood (age 18-25).
http://hrweb.mit.edu/worklife/youngadult/index.html
Technical Colleges are a good option for those who have a desire to seek that career path, but I don’t think we should be rushing kids to choose based on economic policy.
redweather
February 29th, 2012
6:30 am
Deal says “make sure they receive a high-quality education and then graduate them.”
From in front of the classroom, this is much easier said than done. Unmotivated and/or disinterested students account for as much as 30% of the students I see in the college classroom. Anything we do, as others have pointed out, is made more difficult by the skills Georgia’s high school graduates bring to college. I know it’s popular to bash the public school system, but there are too many kids entering college who are reading and writing at about an eighth grade level, and who struggle to get through a college algebra course. I can see the day when the pressure to graduate students from college, no matter what they haven’t learned, will make college and high school diplomas almost indistinguishable.
ScienceProf
February 29th, 2012
7:04 am
Wanting more college graduates and getting them to graduate are two totally different things. No one I know is going to “socially promote” anyone out of our college courses. My courses are rigorous and will remain that way. One part of my job is to get students to realize what they want to be when they grow up…and sometimes that realization includes coming to the realization that they aren’t college graduate material.
Sarah
February 29th, 2012
7:17 am
Just what we need. government telling us what to major in. When you don’t have a job, you can say it’s not your fault and demand that a job be “saved or created” for you.
Michael
February 29th, 2012
7:26 am
COLLEGE IS NOT FOR EVERYBODY – we can get to 100% grad rate, but where is the quality? Where are we going to put the students? Many colleges in the USG are busting at the seams – lets all take a collective deep breath and make sure the quality of the education and graduates are better, first.
commoncents
February 29th, 2012
8:18 am
redweather: “Unmotivated and/or disinterested students account for as much as 30% of the students I see in the college classroom.”
I’d be unmotivated too if I saw neighbors/friends/family recieve governement benefits my whole life. If you told me while growing up that I could have the same quality of life not working as someone who did work, I probably wouldn’t try too hard.
Csoby
February 29th, 2012
8:28 am
Appears to be a push by the university system to make another jump in tuition and cost. Why am I starting to see industry make a pitch for trade degrees and education in lieu of a piece of paper from a University. Perhaps we need to re think this in lieu of listening to the elite that take their wealth from the unervisity system that has no accountability of Cost to attend vs expenses to operate and profitability. We have here a ponzi scheme!
LeeH1
February 29th, 2012
9:10 am
Send them to college with a Rick Santorum scholarship. Only the sons of white people can get them- minorities and women don’t need no edukation!
And Tea Party members should only send their children to private schools. They oppose taxes to support the education of women and other worthless minorities!
Where Are The Parents??
February 29th, 2012
9:42 am
“Unmotivated and/or disinterested students account for as much as 30% of the students I see in the college classroom.”
This may be a huge part of the problem. I’ve worked over 20 years in IT for a major corp. An ever growing number of employees and contractors come here from India, China, Pakistan and other places overseas. These guys and gals are highly skilled and highly motivated. I’m told that in India when they take the eqivilence of a “Technical SAT Test”, the parents are right there with their kids – waiting hours and hours while they take the test. Education is a family affair. And most of these people are dirt poor beyond anything we can comprehend – so it’s not about privilege, it’s about the promise of pursuing something better..
Rural Georgia Educator
February 29th, 2012
9:45 am
The fundamental need is to increase the level of education attained by Georgians. Completing high school, a technical program or college degree doesn’t necessarily mean one has attained a proper education. High school graduation rates have increased across Georgia, but rest assured that the level of preparation and education has not! My father had a high school education and he was far more educated that most college graduates I know. He was self-educated. He read and studied every day of his 85 year life. Oh, by the way, he worked at least two jobs all his life and contributed greatly to his community.
We must compete and we can’t do so with an uneducated population. Let’s get back to the basics. All students who leave Georgia’s K-12 education system should have mastered reading, writing and arithmetic! Period!!! Whether one has a GED, high school diploma, technical education, college degree or advanced degree, reading, writing and arithmetic are essential.
I’d also add that there is great public benefit when young people have an appreciation for work, self motivation, self reliance and citizenship. Yes, we have a serious education problem in the State, but we have a greater social challenge too. Education and work are not valued. Educators and those who work are not appreciated. Hard work is not rewarded when the state provides according to need rather than based on work!
Wake up Georgia! Stop the entitlements, the class and race warfare and get serious about changing the culture! Work and study never hurt anyone. So, put down the cell phones and gaming devices. Close your FACEBOOK accounts and turn off the television and get start studying and working!
Politicians can’t and won’t fix this – you must do it!
EJ Moosa
February 29th, 2012
10:06 am
Just another popular myth to push more dollars into universities.
Much like the idea that if everyone votes we would have a better election.
We could all have college educations and all vote and all the smothering regulation of federal state and local governments would still be in place.
redweather
February 29th, 2012
12:54 pm
@commoncents, indifference is an equal opportunity problem. My students run the gamut from privileged to dirt poor. No race or ethnic group that I am aware or, or that has been represented in my classroom, is immune. Some kids will squander every advantage that comes their; others rise above their disadvantages.
Ole Guy
February 29th, 2012
2:32 pm
Is this the same Governor who hands out promotions…like Captain to General…with no other explanation than “Governor’s Discretion”? What a fine leadership philosophy…IF THEY DON’T/CAN’T EARN IT, THEN HAND IT TO EM”.
I believe the Reagan Administration wanted everyone to own a home, whether the could afford it or not; whether they, quite frankly, DESERVED IT OR NOT. We’ve seen what happens when the UNQUALIFIED and UNDESERVING have things handed to them.
After that military maneuver, Governor, I’m probably not alone when I proclaim my absolute lose of confidence in your leadership.
Ivan Cohen
March 1st, 2012
1:47 pm
In the very near future, just to pick the garbage up will require a Doctorate. American society will be so selective. My definition of a level playing field is when the person who is in the Governor’s mansion has a G.E.D. or a vocational education. So far, it has not happened yet. College is not for everyone, yet this nation still has a love affair with intellectuals and intellectuals went to college. At least that is what they tell us. Industry went overseas for cheap labor and they didn’t have those “pesky” unions to deal with. Human labor won’t be required to dig ditches, a machine will be doing that. Only human involvement will be to program the machine. Programming will require education but not that much. Some career fields now which use machines. Machines don’t require coffee breaks and they don’t get sick. When the out of state companies relocate to Georgia, they bring their “educated staff” with them. The Georgia resident gets an entry-level position and all too often is locked into that position for the duration of their stay with the company. Are they kept there due to education or because of a lack of education? In a word yes, however more often it’s a “seniority” thing rather than an “education” thing.
Ole Guy
March 3rd, 2012
3:25 pm
Interesting phrase…GET THEM TO GRADUATE. That’s sort of like…GET THEM TO POOP. Aren’t both of these functions, more or less, “internally generated”. Oh, you can feed the kid the appropriate diet which will, likely, “promote” the later. Regarding the former, the appropriate diet would be THE OPPORTUNITY FOR AN EDUCATION…A FREE ONE AT THAT.
All the programs and initiatives in the world won’t mean a damn thing without a little EMF…that’s ElectroMotive Force, better known as VOLTAGE…more precisely, A KICK IN THE PANTS!
When are we going to stop pissing around with these kids? Everytime some guru comes up with a “program” of one flavor or another, the message, in kids’ minds, is reinforced: “OH, YOU NEEDN’T DO A THING. WE’VE GOT A PROGRAM. I keep harping the same gd thing…STANDARDS. “Ok, meatheads, these are the standards. You either hack it, or pack it”. If, by the age of 16, the kid demonstrates absolutely no interest in school…BOOT IM’ OUT!
There now…that wasn’t so hard to understand, Governor, wasn’t it?
N. GA Teacher
March 3rd, 2012
9:07 pm
It is NOT the state’s or Gov. Deal’s responsibility to “get kids to go to college” or “graduate” students. It is the responsibility of the STUDENT to EARN entrance into a college and then use talent and work ethic to EARN graduation.