March 3, 200818 yr What earthly difference does having a high school diploma make as to the "value" of someone's job? I have a good friend that is a firefighter that has never seen the inside of a college classroom. Does he have an important job? (I going to go out on the line here and say "yes.) Ranking the value or importance of jobs is a pretty arbitrary and subjective process. But anyone who says that the jobs of our military men and women don't rank right at top of any such list need to contemplate on some of the freedoms and rights we enjoy in this country. First you ask why a high school diploma is important, then you compare it to a fireman not having been to college. So my answer would have to be "an education is important to help me recognize logically flawed arguments. " If I hadn't received at least a high school education, I might not have recognized that your argument makes little sense.
March 3, 200818 yr If you can get the military to pay for your student loans you acquire before joining you should do it. I may be wrong, but I don't think that is how it works. The State Police also have a program to assist in paying for college of their troopers, as do some other state agencies, also some local governments. What you are talking about is the Federal government paying off loans students promised to pay yourself prior to their employment. These are two different issues. Yes, you are talking about situations in which an employer is willing to pay or offset the educational costs of one of its employees. I have no problem with that whatsoever. In fact, it's an excellent benefit to offer as a recruitment tool. I have a problem with the federal government deciding which occupations they so value that they would be willing to use my tax dollars to pay off someone else's education (outside of the military, for reasons I've already enumerated).
March 3, 200818 yr First you ask why a high school diploma is important, then you compare it to a fireman not having been to college. So my answer would have to be "an education is important to help me recognize logically flawed arguments. " If I hadn't received at least a high school education, I might not have recognized that your argument makes little sense. Clever. I guess I was taking a leap by assuming you'd be bright enough to figure out my analogy was to the point that the level of one's education does not automatically translate as to the value of one's job - whether or not the analogy referenced whether someone had or didn't have a high school diploma or a college degree. But again, it was far too big of a leap considering I was responding to someone who feels the job of the military is of less importance because it can be accomplished by men and women who don't have their high school diploma.
March 3, 200818 yr Author If you can get the military to pay for your student loans you acquire before joining you should do it. I may be wrong, but I don't think that is how it works. The State Police also have a program to assist in paying for college of their troopers, as do some other state agencies, also some local governments. What you are talking about is the Federal government paying off loans students promised to pay yourself prior to their employment. These are two different issues. My step dad used to be a recruiter for the Army, and he has told me more than once that the Army will pay up to $40,000 of student loan debt in order to get people to join. These are the same loans that I have, the same loans that I have promised to pay back. These people do the same thing. They get these loans, promising to pay them back, and have them paid off when they join the military. I just had a friend join, and he could either have his loans paid off or take a signing bonus... He chose the signing bonus because it was larger than his loan amount, and he paid off his loans with the signing bonus.
March 3, 200818 yr No one has said or implied that public service positions are not important. They are hugely important. So are a bunch of non-public service positons - people like doctors and engineers and lawyers. You don't also propose to pay for their education, do you? But if you honestly need to have it explained why the military provides a very unique and special job for our country - all at a very low pay rate scale - that makes it worthy of rewarding them after their service by helping pay for their education, that's a real shame. I'm going to go out on the line here and guess you never served in the military? You would be correct about the military part, I have never served. I have two brothers that served, along with my father. I moved 6 times as a child, I think I have a handle on military life. And I'm not talking about paying for education beforehand, more of a grant program(read earlier posts). Aside from you talking about military, and me talking public service jobs, what are the real differences? Do some people in the military put their lives on the line every day? You bet. Are there plenty that never see anything close to a live battle? Yep. Both jobs are severly underpaid. I just don't understand how you think that serving in the military is special, but teaching the future of the nation is not? They are both special, and we cannot survive without either. I don't care how militarily strong we are, if we are ignorant it means naught. What is a war worth fighting, if we don't know what we're fighting for?
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