Education Reform Act (Passed)

[Senator Cris]

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Sponsor: Senator Kent

[Clark Kent]

By this point, education has become devalued to the point where a bachelor's degree is a basic necessity to gain an entry-level job, even for careers that really shouldn't need one. By increasing funding for vocational education, college can go back to being a place for specialized education.

I think that this bill can help Atlasia invest in our future and ease the financial burden on our families, while also not bankrupting ourselves by offering free education to all.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I am heartily in favor of this Act and applaud Senator Kent from taking on the big issues facing our country right off the bat. Would the sponsor be open to expanding this to include non-STEM fields as well? I don't doubt the importance of the sciences, but surely we can agree that we need teachers, journalists, artists, historians, and the like. The fact that those professions are sometimes less lucrative does not diminish their value to our economy and society.

[Ebowed]

I motion to amend Section 3:

3. All veterans shall have access to vocational, technical, or college education (of up to 5 years) free of charge.

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While I appreciate the spirit of getting more people to go to college, ultimately any benefit we provide for prospective college students absolutely must also cater to those who wish to take on technical or vocational training - lest we exacerbate a situation where the prevalence of college degrees is saturated and their worth diminished.  Look to the situation in Scotland for the sort of logistical problems that will result in providing free college without also providing free TAFE.  Our desire to ease the burdens of college students cannot overshadow the fact that skilled trades are just as valuable, require just as much mental capacity, and can present a fiscal prohibition to those seeking to expand their employment opportunities.

[Clark Kent]

I am heartily in favor of this Act and applaud Senator Kent from taking on the big issues facing our country right off the bat. Would the sponsor be open to expanding this to include non-STEM fields as well? I don't doubt the importance of the sciences, but surely we can agree that we need teachers, journalists, artists, historians, and the like. The fact that those professions are sometimes less lucrative does not diminish their value to our economy and society.

You make an excellent point, Senator Truman. Yes, I would be open to expanding Section 1 to apply to all the fields you mention, with the exception of artists. While art is a valuable contribution to society, it is subjective, and I don't think taxpayers should be paying for it. But other than that, I agree with what you said.

I motion to amend Section 3:

3. All veterans shall have access to vocational, technical, or college education (of up to 5 years) free of charge.

That amendment is friendly.

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I completely agree, which is why I included Section 4.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I am heartily in favor of this Act and applaud Senator Kent from taking on the big issues facing our country right off the bat. Would the sponsor be open to expanding this to include non-STEM fields as well? I don't doubt the importance of the sciences, but surely we can agree that we need teachers, journalists, artists, historians, and the like. The fact that those professions are sometimes less lucrative does not diminish their value to our economy and society.

You make an excellent point, Senator Truman. Yes, I would be open to expanding Section 1 to apply to all the fields you mention, with the exception of artists. While art is a valuable contribution to society, it is subjective, and I don't think taxpayers should be paying for it. But other than that, I agree with what you said.

I don't see how the subjectivity of art has anything to do with it. As I understand it, the purpose of this bill is to ensure that promising, hard-working, committed students can receive an education and become informed, productive members of our society. Why should a studious, ambitious 18-year-old who wants to become an investment banker be treated differently from a studious, ambitious 18-year-old who wants to become a concert pianist? Both have worked hard to become the best in their respective fields, and both will leave college as informed citizens ready to contribute to our economy and democratic traditions. Presumably, the former field is more reliably lucrative (though the music industry creates considerable wealth and economic growth for its own part), but there are plenty of fields that pay less than six figures that are vital parts of our society. Shouldn't we encourage our brightest citizens to do what they do best, and thereby maximize their contribution to society, rather than to force them to chose between fields in which they have neither talent nor interest?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     This would benefit from defining its terms. What constitutes high/middle/low-income? What does a GPA of 60 or 90 mean? I am only familiar with the four-point scale. What qualifies a strong interest in STEM fields, and what grades must be maintained to maintain this scholarship? Does the scholarship include living expenses, or only tuition? Should we be treating all STEM fields equally here? Unlike Senator Truman, I strongly doubt the value of the sciences. How much funding must be allocated to vocational education and school vouchers? Not everything needs to be covered, but this bill is far too vague as is. Not to mention the issue of funding all of this.

     Putting all of that aside, this is corporate welfare for institutions that have grown bloated off of decades of corporate welfare. I proposed and got passed bills in both the South and in the Atlasian Senate that helped close the spigot of federal dollars and forced universities to lower their outrageous costs of attendance. This would write them a blank check and throw countless billions down a hole where it will never be seen again.

[Former Senator Haslam2020]

I am not a senator, but the Speaker of the South and I say why hell this is a great act! Please support it!

[Senator Cris]

Senators have 24 hours to object to Ebowed's amendment:

I motion to amend Section 3:

3. All veterans shall have access to vocational, technical, or college education (of up to 5 years) free of charge.

[Blair]

Is there a Senate historian who knows what the current laws are college fees? In the Northeast for example college is free for Northeast citizens

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Is there a Senate historian who knows what the current laws are college fees? In the Northeast for example college is free for Northeast citizens

I'm hardly a Senate historian (Yankee and PiT are probably the closest we'll come to someone who remembers most everything that's been done in the last five years or so), but I do know that the last college tuition bill sponsored by Sen. PiT placed a $10,000/year tuition cap on public universities receiving federal aid. That should help counter the reckless inflation anticipated by my Southern colleague.

[Barnes]

This legislation certainly has promise and I congratulate my colleague, Senator Kent, introducing it on his first week on the job.

However, I share Senator Truman's and Senior Pit'stop concerns over the focus on STEM fields and clarity, respectively.

It is crucial to the full and wholesome development of our society that our arts and culture flourish with n ok inhibitions and with the full support of ther state.

[Senator Cris]

The amendment has been adopted.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I think we should probably strike that section ultimately, since the GI Bill is a thing. The amendment made no difference. I am going to propose an amendment to the text of Section 1.
Replace Section 1 with:

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     All subsequent sections are renumbered accordingly.


     This takes the focus off of STEM (which is both arbitrary and broad; we truly do not need more math majors, unless we want such to be a qualification to work the register at McDonald's) and puts it on the nation's actual labor needs. The scholarships are limited so as to avoid glutting fields, and students can either take them to public institutions and enjoy a full ride, or take a smaller discount at a private institution if they so choose.

     Sorry if it's a little rough; I haven't done an amendment on this large a scale in a while.

[Clark Kent]

Senator PiT's amendment is friendly.

[Senator Cris]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Tuition inflation is a big concern and it is the primary reason why so many people cannot afford an education. Market forces don't work to drive down costs because of the prestige and what not, people willing to spend extra money to get that degree from the most well regarded schools and the end result is out of control inflation and the squeezing out of the middle class from a college education leaving just the rich and whoever is lucky enough to be subsidized by the government.

I support PiT's amendment. It is vitally important that we consider the viability of the fields in which degrees are being subsidized in order to 1) not throw that blank check out and 2) to most benefit the economy with mininal downside in terms of the economics of that field.

[Senator Cris]

The amendment has been adopted.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     So now, this is our Section 3:

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     I would like to propose the following amendment to replace Section 3:

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     I was inspired by the original text there. This is a small thing to reduce the cost of college, but it is a reward for students who excel in their classes, whether they are majoring in engineering or philosophy.

     As a side note, part of the plan here is to curtail grade inflation. At UC Berkeley, there are 18 majors (mostly languages) where the GPA is too high for qualification to be possible here. There are 63 more majors where the average is above a B+, requiring the student to do better than an A-. There are other, prestigious institutions where high grades are even more common. Grade inflation is an issue that we face in our universities, and this creates incentive to curtail it.

[Senator Cris]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Senator Cris]

The amendment has been adopted.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Alright, now time for the former Section 4, current Section 5:

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     I propose an amendment to replace the current text of the section with:

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[Senator Cris]

Senators have 24 hours to object.

[Senator Cris]

The amendment has been adopted.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     For the former Section 5, current Section 6, I am borrowing on a law that passed in my region about two years ago. I propose as an amendment replacing Section 6:

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