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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Texas Firefighters were kept busy by Independence Day amateur fireworks setting off various fires.
edited 6th Jul '13 9:40:02 AM by tclittle
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."So, once more, Oregon is a nice place.
Note that by affecting all graduates, we also get proportionately more from the people who get dick-over-head rich.
edited 6th Jul '13 11:49:19 AM by Pykrete
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WHAT. Oh my god I want to go to Oregon.
Seriously though that is great. And if people don't want to have to give up part of their pay checks then they can have the option to pay tuition up front too, right? I hope other states follow. Unfortunately it'll do jack and shit for me since I have two years of school completed already but yes. I am in full support. Make it so.
God dammit PA, why can't you do that? Oh yeah, it's because Corbett is an idiot that hates education and retirees but gives tax breaks to natural gas companies.
edit: I will never forgive my parents for voting for that man. Fortunately they're not thrilled with him either. He's been threatening retirement benefits for school employees which they fall under.
edited 6th Jul '13 2:10:18 PM by Kostya
Woof, I don't actually know if that's a good idea or not. Instead of a flat loan, they take 3% of your income for 24 years. Obviously I can't speak for everything, but I think I'd get a better deal just taking the loans. For example: if you're making an average of 50k a year, then 3% of that for 24 years is 36k — and the article says that the average Oregon student graduates with 24k and change in debt.
It's certainly a good program to have available, because some people simply wouldn't be able to afford to go to college otherwise, but I don't think I would have taken it if it had been offered to me.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.An Asian Airlines Boeing 777 crashes at a San Fransico airport.
edited 6th Jul '13 2:48:33 PM by tclittle
"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."My internship paid $14/hr. 40 hour week, 52 weeks a year, 24 years, comes out to a touch under $700,000 (pre-taxes — a huge chunk came out of it before I ever saw it). 3% of that is a touch over $20,000.
The average college graduate has about $25,000 in debt. Not counting what money they put into it before they went into debt.
Also, no interest. Also scales with pay, so the rich effectively get taxed. Also happens as you make money, instead of trying to squeeze it out of you before you can get a job at all and ruining your credit before you can get your foot in the door at all.
edited 6th Jul '13 2:58:49 PM by Pykrete
The advantage of the Oregon plan, from what I can tell, is that it's a fixed percentage that you pay over a long period of time. It's still an extra tax but I think it's a lot better than throwing a student with over 120k of debt into a terrible job market and demanding they begin repayment within the first year even if they can't get into the field they want.
Some elements of the GOP have been fighting under a Nullification mentality. It's one of those nothing things, given that even if they did try to nullify federal law, it would do nothing to stop federal agents from enforcing it within state boundaries (see: drug laws). It's still one of their more annoying crusades, since it's a question that was settled all the way back during the Jackson Administration.
I hate it when principle of intention trumps a realistic consideration of policy effects.
Standardized testing is like that.
Schoolchildren not doing well? Well, clearly, they aren't learning enough.
They're not learning enough? Well, what's supposed to guarantee that they are learning enough? Tests. So guarantee it harder, by making the tests tougher!
Result: People wasting more time studying for standardized tests, teachers wasting more time preparing students for standardized tests, with a lack of guarantee that the purpose of the tests actually serves a practical purpose other than "be harder".
I remember how the whole nullification issue started.
Hamilton: "Federal law shall trump State law."
Jefferson: "Go eat a dick."
And because of that conversation, this debate has raged on for centuries.
edited 6th Jul '13 4:30:38 PM by deviantbraeburn
Everything is Possible. But some things are more Probable than others. JEBAGEDDON 2016I like Oregon's plan, but I have to wonder where all that money is going to come from. Are there going to be more infrastructure repairs falling behind? Pay cuts for teachers? Other issues I am too tired to think of right now?
Oh, I would take what they are offering, but I am also wondering what some of the not-obvious things are.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!

This video is on-topic about the easing of restrictions on cursing and nudity on airwaves and opponents thereof: