Free College Tuition in West Virginia

Source: Price, Tom. "Student Debt: Should College Tuition be Free?" CQ Researcher 18 November 2016 , Vol. 26, Issue 41, p965-988. A cademic Search Complete . Web. 25 October 2017. Summary: This source provides a highly comprehensive perspective of the college system, regarding the rising costs of tuition, increasing student loan debt, and the conflicting views of causality and possible solutions. The Author, Tom Price tackles a wide array of issues and concerns while remaining unbiased and presenting multiple viewpoints where experts disagree, such as do increased government subsidies contribute to the rise in tuition, and are schools doing what they can to keep cost down. He explores the chronology of key events leading us to today, current and recent proposals, such as Obama’s proposal to provide tuition at two-year colleges, European countries providing free tuition, and For-profit schools. Explanations are provided on different types of student loans and a forum...

Source: Ivory Tower. Dir. Andrew Rossi. Perf. Jamshed Barucha, Anthony Carnevale, Sebastian Thrun. Samuel Goldwyn Films, 2014. Film Summary This film documentary takes a critical look at the college system with rocketing tuition cost and the ever growing student loan debt, now over $1 Trillion, and asks the question: Is College worth the cost? Filmmaker, Andrew Rossi builds a compelling view of the change to a business model that promotes the expansion of facilities and other amenities over providing quality education. The issues are brought to light through a series of interviews conducted around Arizona State, Cooper Union, Harvard, San Jose State, and Wesleyan University, among several others. He explores the use of massive open online course (MOOC) provided by MIT, edX, Coursera and San Jose State’s attempt at using Udacity, a for-profit educational company offering MOOCs, to meet educational requirements. The Thiel Fellowship, that encourages young students to drop out of...

Source: Harnisch, Thomas L., Lebioda, Kati. "The Promises and Pitfalls of State Free Community College Plans." Policy Matters . American Association of State Colleges and Universities. May 2016. Web. 23 Oct. 2017. Summary: This source provides an in depth look into the positives and negatives of free community college plans. The Authors, Thomas L. Harnisch and Kati Lebioda probe the current programs that have been instituted at the time of publication as well as a historical overview of free tuition programs in the United States. They explain in detail the various types of programs and how they function, such as first-dollar or last-dollar, in conjunction with, how the programs are funded and the qualification requirements. Providing positive data and projected results along with the negative data and projected negative outcomes they give the reader an informed guide to free tuition for community colleges. They also present a series of questions for thought along w...

Source: Patton, Carol. "Is Free Tuition Working?" Journal of College Admissions Summer 2016, Vol. 232, p30-33. A cademic Search Complete . Web. 20 October 2017. Summary: This source provides a look into the challenges face by programs that have been put in place to provide free tuition for states and community colleges. The Author, Carol Patton, focuses on the programs in Oregon and Tennessee and examines successes there. By examining the data from the number of increasing students attending college and by opening dialogue with key personnel involved in these programs such as Bob Brew the director of Oregon’s Office of Student Access and Completion, she has found that while the programs initially look successful much more needs to be done to continue and grow these programs. The data seems to support getting the students into college but further work to get those students into a major best suited for their aptitude. Funding is an ever present concern along with bet...

Source: Cilluffo, Anthony. "5 facts about student loans." FACTANK News in the Numbers . Pew Research Center. 24 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sep. 2017. Summary: This source provides a look into the Pew Research Center’s analysis of the data from the Federal Reserve Board’s 2016 Survey of Household Economics and Decisonmaking. The Author, Anthony Cilluffo, a research assistant with the Pew Research Center presents 5 points derived from the analysis of the survey data in the light of the ever growing $1.3 trillion of student loan debt in America. In keeping with the Pew Research Centers commitment to impartial research he reports the facts from the data analysis, which seem to support the attaining of a college degree while pointing out the pitfalls of the actual and perceived issues from obtaining student loan debt as reported by the survey respondents. Quality: This appears to be a high-quality source. The original data is from the Federal Reserve Board and the analysis o...