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After a couple of tragic days involving the satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine, it is perhaps ironic, but certainly fortunate, that satire may take our minds off the horrific events in Paris at least for a few minutes.
Yesterday, the Obama Administration announced plans to make two years of community college free for “responsible students” across America, a proposal that could benefit as many as 9 million students, according to the White House.
The proposal is a powerful idea, Talking Points Memo (TPM) says:
Being able to tell a middle or high school student definitively that college can and will be affordable is a clear message that could allay many concerns about the cost of higher education. It also reduces the financial risk of not finishing college, since students who enroll, borrow, and drop out are much more likely to default on their student loans.
However, TPM adds, “The real revolutionary nature of this proposal is not what it means for the students who may save a few thousand dollars in tuition—it’s the implications for states.” TPM goes on to explain how, if adopted, the proposal “finally creates a formal expectation for what states should contribute to help their residents afford college.”
Now, none of the above is satire.
How Republicans can be expected to react to this proposal will probably be (GOP) life imitating satire — as Andy Burowitz explains:
President Obama’s plan to offer Americans two years of college for free has come under fire from congressional Republicans, who are calling it a blatant plot to make Americans smarter.
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The G.O.P., which has benefited from the support of so-called “low-information voters” in recent years, accused Obama of cynically trying to make people smarter as a way of chipping away at the Republican base.
.“You take low-information voters and give them information, and pretty soon they’re Democrats,” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said.
.House Speaker John Boehner said that “forcing knowledge into people” was “flagrantly un-American,” adding, “We make this promise to the American people: if you like your brains, you can keep your brains.”
Read more about Obama’s Community College Plan here.
Have a good weekend.
Lead photo: Shutterstock.com
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.