Honors-Obama Higher Education

After reading Joy Resmovits’ blog, I see the intention of the “race to the top” competition, but I do not think this is a good idea.  I see that Obama wants to keep college affordable and provide grants to kids that need them, but this is not the right way to do that.  Once again, in this plan it looks like the government wants to take control of things and standardize them rather than letting individual people or organizations do what they feel like they need to.  Early in Obama’s presidency, there was a lot of talk that he was going to turn our country into a socialist one.  I don’t believe that the United States will ever be socialist, but I do think that right now the U.S. government is trying to regulate too much.  It would not be good if the government gets it hands too much on college education.

I really like Robert J. Sternberg’s letter to President Obama.  I know that college is getting tough for many to pay for, and some things may need to be done.  I think Sternberg also realizes this, and he has great advice for President Obama.  He wants the government to slow down a little bit so they don’t make another decision like No Child Left Behind.  I support all of Sternberg’s advice.  It is important that colleges retain their identities and that the government doesn’t standardize colleges without thinking about it.

Joy Resmovits’ blog is much more political than Robert Sternberg’s letter.  Joy talks a lot about Obama’s popularity with other groups.  She also mentions a lot about how this affects students versus already graduates.  This issue has a lot of politics in itself.  Robert’s letter was a lot less political.  He did not talk about popularity or argue anything in response.  He did not even mention if he supports Obama or not.  He simply gave advice before he makes a decision.  His goal was not to talk about politics; it was to provide awareness of possible conflicts.

As a college student and a friend of other college students, I can say that we would like a little help with some of the cost.  That does not mean I support Obama’s proposal.  I chose Morningside College because it stood out from the rest of my choices.  I felt like I belonged here because of its mission and atmosphere.  I did not choose Morningside because it was the cheapest.  In fact, another school offered me a lot more, but I felt like this school will prepare me in my area of interests better.  I just made sure it was possible to pay the money back.  Even though I will have to work a lot harder to pay the money back, I wanted this college for its identity.  That is why I think Obama needs to reconsider the “Race to the Top” proposal.  Colleges need to be able to do what they need to do in order to maintain their mission and identity.  Colleges are not going to raise prices to ridiculous rates because students will not attend them if they do.   I like what Sternberg says, and I think that Obama needs to listen to him.