College Education

It is difficult to fault the "doomsday" budget and support yearly budget increases for higher education when we hear stories about overpaid professors who only teach a couple of hours a day and take paid sabbaticals every three years. We also can't forget the million-dollar coaching salaries and all the sports revenues that have nothing to do with education. Revenues from higher taxes are not trickling down to benefit the students. The solution is to curb spending. Dan Griffin, Perry Hall

Following the urban unrest in the 1960s, there was a move toward requiring college degrees for police officers. That movement never gained serious momentum across the nation. Today only a few of the police departments across the country require applicants to possess a college degree, and concerns are still being raised as to whether today's police officers are best prepared to deal with the myriad of situations presented in modern policing. Indeed there are serious questions as to whether a modern democracy can survive without better prepared law enforcement officials able to handle the stresses of the job without overreacting.

Anne D. Neal's recent commentary deriding St. Mary's College of Maryland unfairly paints the school with the same broad brush her organization has used to criticize colleges nationwide ("Cautionary campus tale," May 30). Ms. Neal's group, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, states on its website that "American higher education has generally abandoned its obligation to prepare graduates who have the knowledge and understanding to take up meaningful roles in our free society.

On Friday, Belvedere Square will help pay tribute to the late Nelson Carey, the owner of Grand Cru, a European-style wine bar that has been one of the longtime anchors of the North Baltimore marketplace. From 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., during Belvedere Square's weekly free   Summer Sounds   concert, merchants such as Atwater's, Ceriello Fine Foods and newcomer Tooloulou will be serving a different version of Carey's favorite food -- the hot dog.  Guests will be asked to make a $5 donation for each hot dog, and the money raised will be used to help finance the college education of Carey's daughter, Paige.

A YOUNG man who entered an Eastern private university with the Class of 1953 paid $500 in tuition. When, at graduation, he became an executive trainee in banking, a comparatively low-paying field in those days, he earned $3,200 a year, nearly 6 1/2 times his annual tuition cost.The tuition at the same university is now $17,000. Even assuming a student finds a job at graduation, by no means a certainty today, he or she would have to earn $109,000 a year to have an equal prospect of recovering the cost of that exorbitantly-priced college stint.

After serving in the Navy in World War II, Marylander Charles Schelberg was able to attend Washington College in Chestertown thanks to the GI Bill, which covered all his costs. Mr. Schelberg, who hailed from a working-class family of Chesapeake Bay watermen, was the first in his family to attend college and earned an economics degree that led to a successful career in community banking. There were millions of Charles Schelbergs after World War II, and the individual success of each one fed the cumulative success of a nation that shrugged off the economic malaise of the Great Depression and stoked the economic engines of the world's most vibrant economy.

MY son elected to attend a military academy, so I have never received one of those frightening tuition bills for him. But because he needs money for uniforms and combat boots and, well, a new road-racing bicycle, I turned his college fund over to him. He laughed out loud. "What kind of college education did you think I was gonna get with this?" he asked. I stopped saving for my children's college education when it became clear to me that I would never save enough. College tuitions are spiraling toward the unbelievable, and compared with those numbers their "college funds" looked more like the proceeds from a lemonade stand.

The University of Maryland University College expects to be among the first wave of schools this academic year awarding transfer credit to those who have taken - and can prove they learned from - certain "massive open online courses," known as MOOCs. The school, which targets working adults with its own online classes, and six others nationwide have agreed to track student progress as part of a research study gauging how well the MOOCs, which are relatively new to the education world, prepared the transfers for a more traditional learning experience.

NOW is the time for parents to do some long-range planning for their kids' college education. A year-old state program lets them avoid inflationary tuition costs by enrolling in the Maryland Prepaid College Trust. The current sign-up period ends June 10.It's a money-winner. The program offers tax benefits as well as an array of savings options. For instance, parents of a newborn infant could cover full tuition at any Maryland public college -- or partial payment at any private college -- for only $143 a month.

Michael Phelps, the 16-year-old swimming sensation from the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, is turning professional. Phelps has signed an endorsement deal with Speedo, the Los Angeles-based suit manufacturer that outfits many of the world's top swimmers. "This is a very special opportunity for Michael," said Bob Bowman, his coach at the NBAC. "It will allow him to pursue his education and train in a way that will allow him to be a world-class athlete." Phelps is believed to be the youngest American male swimmer to turn pro. Bowman would not discuss financial specifics of the deal, other than to say that Speedo will pay for Phelps' college education.

I have thought the college process is a little over the top after having put four children through college ( "We share the blame for college student woes," June 16). The stress and the drama associated with high school students looking to make "the right choice" and going to seminars to have a chance at a "stretch" school seems to be rooted in money. Consultants, teachers, guidance counselors, the colleges and universities are all in on making it a circus. We need to set expectations correctly as parents.

Despite five years of economic recovery, college graduates continue to face a tough job market. Certainly young people should take responsibility for their lives, but parents, educators and politicians all share some blame for their troubles. College graduates earn much higher wages and are less likely to be unemployed than high school graduates - and those gaps are increasing. Still many recent graduates cannot earn enough to live independently, and they often end up in jobs that don't require a college education.

New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan will be the main speaker at the Maryland Democratic Party's annual gala May 21 in Upper Marlboro, Gov. Martin O'Malley announced Friday. Hassan, the nation's only Democratic female governor, was elected in 2012 with the help of O'Malley when he served as chairman of the Democratic Governor's Association.  O'Malley, who is expected to be a frequent visitor to New Hampshire over the next two years as he looks toward a likely presidential run, issued a statement praising Hassan's record in office.

The Sun, in its recent article about Maryland Ready, the state's four-year plan for postsecondary education, points out the complexity of raising the number of Marylanders with college degrees to 55 percent by 2025 ( "New state higher-education plan addresses changing demographics of students," April 9). In a more recent editorial ( "The 55 percent solution," April 14), it reiterates that point and suggests that the plan lacks the specifics needed to turn the goal into reality.

Harford Community College officials may have come to a reasonable usage fee accommodation with the recreation leagues that play on the baseball and softball diamonds that serve as the Route 22 front yard of the college, but underlying problems exposed by the ham-handed proposal to increase the fees do not appear to have been addressed. On the subject of the fees, the college initially announced the per game cost to play on the crown jewel of the complex, an artificial turf diamond, was going from $100 to $600, and the charge for the other well-groomed fields from $100 to $200.

The body overseeing higher education in Maryland unveiled a new four-year plan Wednesday intended to help serve the low-income, first-generation and nontraditional students that make up a growing segment of the academic population. The Maryland Higher Education Commission's plan is also meant to push the state toward Gov. Martin O'Malley's goal of increasing the proportion of college-educated Marylanders to 55 percent by 2025. "We realize that in order to have the workforce that we need to meet the demands of our economy … we have to look beyond those students who have traditionally comprised our graduation cohorts," said Maryland Higher Education Secretary Danette G. Howard.

StraighterLine, a Baltimore-based online college education startup, expects to announce Friday that it raised $10 million from venture capital firms to market and grow its business. The company's student enrollment this year was about 1,500 students, and it expects to enroll 4,500 students over the next year. StraighterLine employs 11 people and plans to grow to more than 20 employees over the next 12 months, said Burck Smith, the company's chief executive officer and founder. The company offers online college courses for credit through a $99-a-month subscription model, an approach the company says is a response to the escalating cost of college education.

If you were a guy who graduated from high school 40 years ago, in June 1972, you were only semi-worried about the Vietnam War. The draft was winding down, and if your number came up in the last of the Selective Service lotteries, maybe you went for a physical, but that was it. The draft ended a year later, the war two years after that. If you worried about anything in 1972, it was the choice you'd made during senior year: to go to college, assuming you could afford it, or to look for a job. If you looked for a job, you probably had some luck.

The total per credit cost for in-county students at Harford Community College was increased last week to $124.80, which translates to $374.40 for a single three-credit class. It's hardly a king's ransom. College officials are also quick to point out that it is a bargain relative to the cost of attending even a Maryland college system facility as an in-state student. Still, as has been noted before, the latest round of increases (to fees rather than tuition, a distinction that's meaningful only to hair-splitters)

In response to Susan Reimer 's March 6 column, "An education is not optional," I say a college education is optional! As a parent, I have to feed, clothe, house and make sure my child attends school through grade 12. Anything beyond those basic necessities is at my will and is based on my economic situation and relationship with my child. As a loving, caring parent I have gone above and beyond those basic necessities. Like my parents before me, I have done without so my child could have those things that were most important to him. However, when or if my child should start making bad choices, then some or all of the luxuries may go away.