Free Green College

Interesting read this morning in NYT on a study regarding free college.  Apparently the best bang for the buck in helping with college costs would be to target lower-income students at 4-year schools.  From the article:

The scholarship had no evident effect on graduation rates at community colleges. That’s a sign that educational quality is a bigger problem at many two-year colleges than tuition bills.

What’s the bottom line? A nationwide program of free college would be extremely expensive, Angrist said. And many of the benefits would flow to upper-income students likely to finish anyway. But a targeted program, focusing on lower-income students, could have a big impact while also leaving more money available for other priorities, be it health care, climate change — or investing more money in the quality of education at community colleges.

I would still like to see a study on the viability for increasing volunteer-for-grant programs in America, like AmeriCorps, Teacher Loan Forgiveness, and especially some kind of new Civilian Conservation Corps that focused on a New Wave infrastructure (high speed rail, hyperloop, mass transit, high speed internet, cybersecurity, 5G cell, a Green New Deal, etc).