I also agree with you in your statement that “It will REQUIRE students to understand finance before they step foot into such a life-altering change.” I did not have a finance class in high school, but after taking a personal finance class my freshman year in college, I am now a firm believer that personal finance should be taught in high schools across America. Maybe, in doing so, we could prevent our nation from going into more debt!!

I have done plenty of research, in fact my own father works in the private sector and contracts to the government through them. I'm an up and coming college graduate within the next year or two and I completely understand what is going on in the job market between the government and the private sector. I'm not saying it's a perfect idea but if it keeps college graduates off unemployment right out of college and adds to the economy, why not do it for a few years?

I don't think you understand just how many government jobs are out there that have nothing to do with politics. The NSA is government and they hire all different majors from linguists to meta physicists. The police, schools, public hospitals, those are all considered government/state jobs. That isn't socialism. Before you start freaking out about the United States becoming like France or Canada, learn what socialism is and check out just how many career paths students can take to get a job with our government without working for Congress.

You write “Above all else, it will MANDATE colleges and the gatekeepers who lend the funds to these academic treasures to change their standards so that everyone can benefit from the system.” State colleges are funded by the taxpayers — and most of the money goes to fund the high pay of staff/faculty and their outrageous benefits that are growing exponentially. This is why tuition increases has outpaced the rate of inflation. Our tax dollars are lining the pockets of a few at the expense of students and their parents.

The President stated something in his SOTU that I found very troubling — and that was his statement that the government would forgive your student loans if you chose to work for the government. That is very scary that the govt would attempt in any way to dictate the career paths that our young people choose. It is socialism… and that is a very slippery slope.

Don't look to the President for the right answers here; we need real change, change in how our government operates and how our tax dollars are spent.