2/2/2012: That’s the intriguing proposal from some UC students. Eliminate tuition and replace it with a post-graduation income tax. Proposal here, Insidehighered story here:
Student Proposal In Brief:
- UC students would pay no tuition up front to attend a UC campus.
- UC students would agree to pay 5 percent of their income for 20 years of employment after graduation.
- Payments would only be collected while students were working, not while students attended graduate school or were unemployed.
- Percentage reductions would be granted to students who transfer into the system, enter public service fields, and/or stay in the state.
Australia and England have similar plans in place.
This is a really interesting idea. I’ve heard about this in other countries, and it’s great UC students are taking the lead in pushing a conversation on this.
So like student loans, in some ways as both differ payment until the future. The main difference is it changes the prices of different degrees. So high paying jobs would be relatively more expensive to complete, while studying film and ending up unemployed would be free. So such a plan would encourage increased study of degree’s with lower expected wages.
Anon above: 95% of a bigger number is bigger than 95% of a smaller number.
I think the above (2:56 comment) was not saying it would make lower wage jobs more attractive than higher wage jobs, just more attractive than they are now in comparison. So it might flip a few people into pursuing those lower wage jobs. I don’t know if this was said as a positive (more people following their dreams) or negative (more people in low paying jobs).