Subject: Re: Control Panel: My week with AI
A lot has to do with a lack of imagination - and where one lives.

One option is to head off to Europe where, assuming you are bright enough to qualify, from the standpoint of American costs, a college education (through post-graduate school) is essentially free.

Another idea is to take a bite of the Big Apple.

Well over a century ago, my grandfather, as an immigrant child, clawing his way out of the slums of the Lower East Side attended The Cooper Union to get a free electrical engineering degree (during which time he started his first business). Founded by Peter Cooper to provide free education, but a financial crisis led to charging tuition in 2014. All students since then have been paying half-tuition or less. The school is going back to free tuition by 2027. It is one of the top engineering, architecture and arts school in the country.

Both my father and mother, as well as my sisters and wife attended the City University of New York for most of our degrees (I think one of Wendy's is from another institution and were additionally subsidized by assorted scholarships. The University offers a broad swath of programs including engineering, medicine, law, business - and about every other type of degree you can imagine.

The CUNY system was traditionally free, but when I went there, there was a nominal tuition (I'm guessing about 10% of current prices).

Today's prices:

NY State Residents (Full-Time Community College): ~$4,800/year
Out-of-State/International (Full-Time): ~$18,600/year or $620/credit
Part-Time (NY Resident): ~$305/credit

Undergraduate Tuition (Estimated, 2024-2025)
NY State Residents (Full-Time 4-Year): ~$6,930/year ($3,465/semester)

Graduate Tuition (Estimated, 2024-2025)
NY State Residents (Full-Time): ~$7,365/semester
Out-of-State/International (Full-Time): ~$1,005/credit

Financial Aid: Many NY residents attend tuition-free through programs like the Excelsior Scholarship, which covers tuition for families earning under $125k

So, in our case, our family has benefited for generations of essentially free, world-class education through post graduate levels and while most of us also worked during our student years, to the best of my knowledge, none of us went a penny into debt in order to obtain whatever education we desired.

Sure NYC has the highest taxes in the country, but it also has the best and most varied university, mass transit system, artistic centers, financial center and multi-ethnic environment of any municipality in the country (and, while Paris, London and Toronto veer in the same direction, I would say in the world).

So, the simple answer is, if you want an affordable education system, it simply has to be paid for with taxes.

Jeff