this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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[–] Triasha@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

Private businesses oppose state funding to make their product available to citizens

In other shocking news, the sky appears to be blue. Tune in at nine for our analysis on how to make your life wet with a single substance that falls from the sky.

[–] daannii@lemmy.world 19 points 6 days ago (2 children)

There is no reason community colleges shouldn't offer bachelor's.

The professors all have masters or PhDs and have the same qualifications as teaching at universities.

My associates, from a community college was 1/3 of the cost of my bachelor's that I received at a "cheap" local state University .

Make college cheaper. Do it do it do it

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

The professors all have masters or PhDs and have the same qualifications as teaching at universities.

This is very much not the case. I work really well with my cc colleagues, but there are significant differences in qualifications since CC's teach lower division courses only.

The colleagues I have in analogous cc departments nearby? They don't even have appropriate credentials in the right discipline. Some of them will have a computer science undergraduate degree and then a business master's. Some will have two business degrees in marginally related fields. Most don't have Ph.D.s at all, so that is largely irrelevant.

The way they keep up with the field? Remarkably different. We do research which advanced the state of our field. Ideally the boundaries we push allow us to craft new and important experiences for our students, not just the same things you could look up in a government catalog.

You wouldn't have noticed because the instructors you had at the CC were only teaching first and second year courses. The bar is actually pretty low there, even in many universities. As a grad student I taught introductory sections possessing only a bachelor's in the subject. The truth is many cc instructors may not even know the materials at the upper division you may see at a 4 year.

I appreciate your lived experiences, but they are in the end of the consumer, where everything is tidied up (as well as it can be) on the other side for you. The actual reality is far different.

BTW, big leftist dude here. I want the cost to go down and the real solution? Go back to pre-1980s funding models prior to Reagan being governor of CA. He defunded education on a large scale, shifting the burden of education costs from state taxes to the individual 18 year old with no actual money.

Things got worse after that, as defunding became more advanced and more prolific. We can't further devalue degrees, nor can we afford to further defund 4+ year degrees because competition will collapse.

[–] PointyFluff@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 days ago

Just make it free.

[–] despoticruin@lemmy.zip 10 points 6 days ago

You know, I wonder how many places are captured like Wyoming is.

Fun lesson on the sparsest state in the nation, their constitution allows for a single public university. One. It's in Laramie. That college basically owns Laramie, the college campus takes up the majority of the town. Cost of living there is similar to the Chicago suburbs as a result. The college is the only option for in-state tuition for residents to get a 4 year degree with federal aid.

It's the only public option and trying to open another one would be illegal.

The president of UW is one of the most insanely compensated individuals I have ever met. He has a mansion in the mountains and owns the surrounding few miles. He is so filthy rich it's disgusting.

The teachers, on the high end mind you, make $55,000 a year. By high end I mean multiple doctorals and decades of experience teaching 40+ credits per semester.

I bet the private colleges would stand to lose money, and honestly fuck those guys with a spiked tentpole. That scum is worse than UW and UW should make anyone with a degree bearing their name feel a deep sense of shame and regret at the least. That administration is outright racist, ableist, and corrupt garbage and a good chunk of the teachers are complicit in funnelling kids that have no business being in college at all into crippling debt just to make a buck.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the private colleges had a similarly corrupted state of affairs when it comes to federal loans and aid.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 7 points 6 days ago

How are they going to extract wealth from the working class if there are affordable options for higher education?

[–] sparkles@piefed.zip 45 points 1 week ago

“We just kind of struggle a little bit to see how allowing community colleges to offer four-year baccalaureate degrees is our best use of those finite education dollars we have in the state,” Obradovich said“

Idk dude maybe increase the dollars rather than try to funnel all the low income or cost conscious learners into 1-2 donor approved fields?

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They already compete against public universities, why would this be any different? They just don't want to compete at all, because that means the obscenely bloated admin paychecks may have to decrease

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There are only three public universities that offer bachelor's degrees in Iowa. Community colleges would absolutely increase the competition as community colleges could offer degrees closer to where people live.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 days ago

Which is bad for those wanting to gouge their customers, yeah.

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Professor/chair/whatever here. We don't really compete at all. It's actually the opposite. I work really well with the CC dean's in my area.

2 year degrees serve many important purposes. Some of them are down after their degree. Others transfer to us.

The former aren't a category that are interested in another 2 years anyway. No big deal.

The transfers? They are awesome from an administrative perspective. They produce degrees faster, which is important if we want our universities funded. They actually cost less to educate.

The big problem is that more CC's offering 4 years (outside of some special cases) is that it would turn things from a productive relationship to actual competition. That is disasterous for both parties as we need both to exist and work together in a productive fashion.

There are tons of smaller issues, but the whole system will become even more difficult to work if the standard divisions disappear.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip -1 points 6 days ago (2 children)

It's kind of scary that a college professor could misread what I said so badly.

I said private colleges were already competing against Public Universities/State Colleges, not CCs.

And frankly, no one actually needs private colleges to exist. We need affordable educational opportunities, and private colleges have decided to abandon that in favor of greed. And fucking franchise sports.

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's kind of scary that a college professor could misread what I said so badly.

You wrote they in a situation that has multiple entities attached to the story. Your statement was ambiguous.

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The context clues within that sentence removes any ambiguity. No one with a passable grade school level of reading comprehension was going to think I meant CCs were competing with Public Universities, especially given the title I was responding to had Private Colleges as the primary actor.

I mean says you, and that's fine. But of course you would think so.

[–] a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Private colleges have their own niche. They're important too. And they're absolutely not cannibalizing the public institutions. They're far more expensive, offer more specialized experiences, and generally speaking support at different clientele.

Edit: If you don't like the idea of private 4 years, wait until you hear about private universities. XD

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Who said anything about cannibalizing?!

Damn, you really can't read.

What do you think competition for limited resources means in this context?