This has its challenges to, but the real issue is where the working poor are systematically being left behind. Multimedia lesson plans can be developed for every subject. Audio lectures can be listen to while commuting an hour to work, imbedded lecture notes can be studied at breaks or at home you can spend an hour a day working towards a valued occupation. We can test for each subject at any public space, attend touring skills and labs classes when they are open. All that is needed is a TV, Library or radio, even giving every home a 400.00 credit for a PC is something that is possible.

Currently, we "the working poor" have no options and they don't have the time or the money to improve their-our, lives and in this age this is a "Real Moral Issue".

Distance learning is becoming profitable and popular. It works! Access into this is possible, where giving everyone a 4000.00 tax credit may not be or, better yet, it can go towards the "limitations" of this idea.

PLEASE DO NOT LET THE WORKING POOR BEG FOR THE OPPORTUNITIES WE NEED TODAY

Give everyone the means to be both responsible for and affected by their decision to educate themselves. The real task is to have a system in place where at any time in our lives we can begin to work towards a future we are passionate about.

A free online university can deliver this promise for everyone at anytime in their lives.
 

Really this is a technical issue that many universities have obviously resolved. The idea of a free university eclipses what is now a very exclusive institution that absorbs 850 billion every year and this still does not include the contributions we all make in loans.

Testing can be set even higher standards and can be watched in secure settings, Lab and skills testing or work can like wise be secure. This is not about giving away diplomas, this about the moral obligation we have to each other given the technology to do this is now 15 years old!

So much of our money and effort goes into paying teachers to repeat day after day the same curriculum to disaffected learners. We can use multimedia lesson plans to present the material in any number of conceptual approaches-which can also set educational standards, and allow people to learn at their own pace. We can take any number of years to successfully learn the material we need for the degrees we pursue.

We cannot expect everyone to follow along the same learning path, some take longer to digest the information we give them, maybe because they demand a deeper understanding or confidence in ideas than others?

We can begin to teach people "how to learn" and then the teacher’s role can be more of a facilitator than a motivator to educational goals. ACTIVE LEARNING rather than PASSIVE LEARNING as well as RESPONSIABLE CITIZENERY is at the heart of my ideas. I want CHANGE such that no one adult or child has to suffer the exclusion we currently see in our educational system and where they can at any point they can begin to take to their own road on their way to their dreams.

I do not need to attend Harvard and sit at a nice oak desk with that best accommodations our nation can or can’t afford. All I need is the access to the information required for any degree program and public space to do the skills testing and lab work. Even if I were part of the "lucky few" to get the grants, loans etc and who can afford time away from their family and employers, I would rather have that precious time now an not run myself ragged like everyone else. Life does not have to be that desperate, everyone. We should not have to expect everyone to run their precious family life around a desperate series of student loan obligations and more begging at the feet of the university system.

The fact that the university system is better has yet to be really tested, Peter. Everything comes with its advantages and disadvantages. Myself, making a free Online University open for all beats any argument hands down and is a moral issue that can solve so many other issues in America!

SURELY WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS!

Uncle Sam owes me nothing but access that is technologically possible today. I can show the government that I do not need someone to hold my hand all the way through my learning experiences.

If we want to consider Democracy to mean more
than just another means of exclusion not inclusion,
we make education available for all!

Mr. Obama (My President):
 
I really have said my peace today and my "HOPE" this election season is that this makes it to your ears and you find it a just and equitable solution to what is a terrible moral inequality!

Let everyone voice concerns, but just know these key points:

1. Every University has established an online or distance learning system that leads to degrees.

2. Distance learning is popular and successful-not to mention profitable for the investors in these programs.

3. These programs cost only 40 to 80 million to establish.

4. Everyone will have, the moment you sign it into a bill, the right and responsibility to education in America.

5. Lastly, might I also, suggest that this be amended to the Constitution of the United States as it seems they did not suspect the information age at the time they wrote out all of our Freedoms…

I agree face to face is important for everyone too when they are stuck, but this does not mean that we need someone to hold our hands the whole time. I have found that learning is as much about discovering for your self the things that do not fit and developing the skill to look for answers. Rather than finding someone to tell you what to think about things all the time! Online learning augmented with programs with tutors, mentors and the industry can go very far in filling the gaps. So many question have been answered for me in forums and spending time in business where the ideas are used.

Also, we can do this for everyone has been my point the whole time, since unless you can decide not work for four or eight years and not have terrible things happen to you, you are part of the working poor too. But if you are thinking you have a right to Harvard classes or that you cannot learn on your own, then I have to say your missing the point of a real education.

We don't need the teaching practices of the last 100 years.

We need to free our educators up to teach those need help, and to continually contribute to the quality of lesson plans. They don’t need to repeat a lecture every day, to students who need more than the passing hour to absorb information. They can better give answer and question sessions and develop new learning experiences for their classes.

We need the next century where anyone at anytime in life can choose alternate paths or look deeper into the ones they want to know better. We need to see a day when we can wake up and download a subject we decided to learn and may seek new employment in.

We need to make engaging multimedia lesson plans that approach subjects from many conceptual viewpoints, which have audio lectures, embedded notes and readings. Video demonstrations, engaging software, pretesting  and movies that have been carefully designed by experienced teachers and top thinkers in the field.

No high text fees or tuition: All the student needs to do, is learn the module and schedule a writhen, skills or lab test at public spaces.  The tests can be held to higher standards such that a passing of 90% means successful learning and failure only means that they retake at another time. Student need to progress, but they need to actually learn the subjects and for some that means more of less investment.

We cannot let the idea that we can only learn by holding the universities hand all the time, this lead us to the same failing conclusions: That adding more to the already 850 billion we currently spend each year to educate fewer and fewer students is the only answer and it is not!.

WE NEED CHANGE

President-Elect Obama,

This issue does go in-hand with your pledge to increase broadband access to everyone. By allowing for the free educational system, then the working poor that cannot afford college could get their degrees. Now, the free part may allow this idea to run into trouble. If there is any fee, it should be very small. The fee should definately be small, after you realize who would necessarily be helped:

1) The working poor who cannot afford college. Even though every penny is needed by the working poor, it would be cost-affording.

2) A student could work full-time, and still be able to get their degree as a student on the online educational system.

3) Adults who never earned their degree, or want another degree could use it to gain that degree.

This idea could help millions of Americans.

what I rarely hear discussed in the education debate/complaints is the role an individual has and responsibility they have in their OWN education. I did my homework, studied, went to class, did not drop out, stayed away from drugs, had parents who went to teacher conferences and wanted to see my report card. Kids should not be allowed to drop out of school so easily and parents need to turn off the tv, or take their ipod etc. Hanging out instead of studying is not the teacher's fault or the school's fault. There is some personal responsibility required and not just passing the puck or looking for excuses. The FCC needs to take crap like Jerry Springer and soap operas off the air and put more educational and patriotic programming on the air. We are after all in 2 wars, a minor inconvenience to most of our thinking.

When everyone shares equal access to education it is the realization of the first

TRUE DEMOCRACY

Your program will not work. It ignores the elephant in the room, the Federal Reserve. Also, feeding One Trillion Dollars to a bunch of fat tick construction and remodeling companies is insane! It's nothing more than trickledown job creation. What guarantee do WeThePeople have those new jobs will be created, instead of raises being given to “favored” employees. At least start with One Half Trillion to WeThePeople, and the other half for infrastructure! Unless a radical change is made, Mr. President, beginning with the re-organization of the Federal Reserve, you will become the first American President to preside over the Greatest of All Depressions. I hope this helps.

Further, Mr. President, our economic system is based on two main principals. The first is that consumer spending is two-thirds of the economy. The second is that every dollar spent at retail is spent seven times in a year. The current plan is to send 90% of the money to non-consumers. Any plan that does not target consumers is doomed to failure.

It makes no sense to offer help to fat tick construction companies when consumers are not spending and banks are not lending. Is it too much to ask that the American Family get something directly to help their “crumbling economic structure” when consumers are not spending, and banks are not lending?  You are not FDR despite the Time Magazine Article. Quit listening to FDR experts. We’re at a New Gate!

http://vimeo.com/2783535

this is a great idea. I'm a technology professional. I could volunteer to assist those taking training with practical knowledge.

We can build a great resource for learning in any area of interest.

Professionals can be set to evaluating and extending the curriculum into new possibilities.

Educators can inform the content and presentation as well as build a library of test questions that is based on important areas of each lesson plan.

The test can be accessed at any time for practice and for testing. With thousands of questions to cycle through and the ability to test with 50 to 100 questions in each test, we can eliminate bias testing altogether! No more monkey questions meant to maintain the bell curve the school’s superintendant reads (who looks for too many passing grades which indicated a lax teacher or too many flunking students that indicates too harsh.

This will end performance anxiety for both the educators and student.

I fail to understand your reasoning here overeducated/underemployed.

Someone taking college classes today, should have minimal computer skills for college courses. To believe that this is unrealistic is not a well thought out opinion.

You seem to imply that because some people are computer illiterate then an option for universal access to college is not practical? The suppressed premise is that a free online university needs every citizen to be computer savvy-which is obviously a non-starter argument.

Moreover, the fact that lesson plans can be developed to be more accessible as required is being missed altogether. Someone taking an intro to computers class should only include accessible DVD audio/video lectures.

In all I take your comments to be just dismissive of a very real plight struggling Americans.

I cannot see how anyone can think that for what little it would take to build a free online university and how it would give every American Access to accredited diplomas that it would not be a viable solution over what is now a failing system of exclusion. overeducated/underemployed I could hardly disagree with your thinking any more than I do.

Your position seems to be to pump another 850 billion into what is in fact an Educational Monopoly that excludes more Americans than it includes!

This type of thinking is immoral and plainly wrong!

Having spent over 22 years in an inner-city high school, I think this is a wonderful idea.  We had students who were forced to be in class (under age 16) who made it impossible to teach those who really wanted to learn.  This would give those students (when they finally figured out they needed an education) a great option.  It would also help those with little way to qualify for grants or scholarships to get college credits.  Teachers could be employed in public libraries, YMCA's, community centers, churches, or any other place the community feels the need.  This idea supports teachers as well as expanding opportunities for those in need.

A free Online University available to all will bring the University system in line with the needs of Americans. But the biggest need is to ensure everyone has access regardless of ability to take the 150 thousand dollar loans to get the good paying jobs.

We have a situation where education in America is a "Pay-to-Play" system that only allows the privileged the access to high paying jobs. Yea some make it through-with much effort, but this is not what should be expected in a Real Democratic Society.

A free Online University can give everyone access at anytime in their lives to a future that they can have and the only requirement is that they work for it.
 

American do not need to play the "rat race" with student loans and grants.

A free online university is possible with only 40 - 80 million which is nothing compared to the 850 billion our government gives our educational system every year and this does not include the 100 thousand we pay as families.
 

In all a free Online University will bring Real Democracy to America
by giving everyone the opportunity to strive towards their career goals.

Imagine Real Democracy and a new way of learning

After wasting your high school opportunities, you decided today you no longer wish to work in the factories or the current job market. Even though you just got laid off, need to work and do not have money for school, you can imagine a new life that has really what you always wanted.

Because as desperate as this situation would have been last year, you know this is a desperate situation because you woke up to a world where we now have
a Free Online University.

You go to the university web site and review the curriculum and the required classes to get your new degree also, which local businesses are offering mentoring programs. You review the job outlook for the field and many other statistics. Watch documentaries on actual working professionals giving as realistic view of the experience this field has given to them. From this initial orientation you decide to begin a 4 to 10 year study for the degree.

You navigate to the web page and download the first multimedia lesson plan or you go to the local library to have them give you the course materials to meet your specific situation. You begin with the first video lecture that gives many tailored graphics/visual representations of the information. After watching this over the next few weeks, studying the lecture notes while on break at work and listening to the audio version of the lectures during your morning and evening work commutes. You schedule a time to test at the nearest public testing space. You submit questions to online educators or attend some classes that offer question and answer sessions. Though once you found it nice to pay a professional educator/entrepreneur that has built a new business upon giving richer teacher student learning experiences. Until then you begin to work on the free pretesting software for the module while at home to prepare you well. Eventually you pass that module-even though the requirement to pass is 90%- this one you took a few times until you finally did it. Confident in the material you are ready for the next module.

A few months pass and you come up to a lesson plan that requires actual skills testing and lab work to be done for passing. After a few week of review and a solid understanding of the key concepts you ready yourself for the next time the lab or skills testing comes to your area or you decide to travel across state to get into that lab next week.

After working your way up at your own speed, you managed to get your diploma and sign up for the next spot in the mentoring program the government has established with area businesses. This key part of education-the working experience, is all that stands in your way to that new life. One at a time, the business-that receive funding from our government, gives the waiting list of graduates time on the job. With the government/business alliance the country builds a stronger community of skilled workers and has all but removed the demand for employers to pay for work force development.

After this success you start to think about getting into Psychology too?

You can have a new life, lets get this Idea noticed:

xoxide the free market has failed the working class since the duration of this nations existence and the current trends of 6% rise in tuition is a testament. However, I do not advocate limiting universities form charging double tuition tomorrow and good luck really changing their minds.

A free Online University available to all will bring the University system in line with the needs of Americans.

But the biggest need is to ensure everyone has access regardless of ability to take the 150 thousand dollar loans to get the good paying jobs. This is a necessary safe guard since so many of the working poor is being left behind in the global economy and not being prepared for the information based jobs.

"The realists" I am surprised at your attitude:

This idea does not create a workforce nor does it give degrees out like candy. This fulfils the moral obligation for those who are denied access and will not cost much at all. Yea this will create competition for jobs, but the people who do not which to educate can still to the work you assumed no one would do.

Do you really believe it is right to deny millions the opportunity to succeed?

To hold that belief is to be morally bankrupt
and has nothing to do with a free democratic society.

Your advice leads to millions of the working poor-who may already understand your job better than you, to have to waste their potential under dripping press in factories that are closing. The privileged few do not want to compete for their jobs with a motivated working poor nor do many who already have elite jobs.

You assume this will not help those in college. Your wrong here too: you see after getting a diploma most still need additional training or in some cases the whole filed is gone. Just ask the hedge fund majors across the country where their jobs went.

I know this might scare the privileged who found the money to get the top jobs, and feel threatened. Don’t let this elitist mentality get in the way of a moral obligation.

In response to "TheRealists": I worked for almost 20 years in foundries-hard work many cannot understand and factories. I always made too much to get anything for free. I worked along side great creative minds that is for sure too. The assumption that I or anyone I worked with would want anything without paying taxes is a straw man argument at best; though the only argument you made that is not contradicting the values of a true democracy, it does not apply to the working poor in this county. In fact, I am sure my blood & sweat that went into the taxes I paid, to benefited your education well.
 

I pray Obama can see through this hegemony surrounding our educational system!

Through this web site I have come to see what some Americans really think
about education in America and I am shocked at their lack of concern
for the plight of the working poor.

This Country will have to change! Obama.

Education for all is what this is all about.

Every university builds them around 40 to 80 million. All that is needed is public space to testing, labs and skills work-a 25.00 fee can be made for these last two.

Teachers can build their own businesses around delivering very specialized educational experiences-this can build a whole new industry for those with some foresight.

You cannot believe that the current 850 billion is comparable to 80 million when more than savings tax money, we have access for all to accredited diplomas at any time.
 

This is not welfare, but it demands that the individual take responsibility
for their own education.

Now with the current attitudes about learning in the US you are sure to still have your garbage man the next day "TheRealists"

People cannot abuse the testing when the questions are drawn at random from a bank of thousands of questions developed over time-each revised for ambiguity, vagueness and most importantly relevance by all our nations’ teachers.

Then throw out every monkey question, some teachers use to maintain the "Bell Curve" where to "not being too hard" or "not being too easy" keeps their jobs. With the teacher performance issue out the door, and the best minds focused on further developing lesson plans, teachers they can get back to helping those that have questions or have fallen behind.