This is what affirmative action should be... helping people out based on their individual situation, not because their skin color or gender.
Affirmative action was to address systemic inequalities, not individual ones. Bringing it up in an article about foster kids and then further including the bit about gender feels like flamebait.
All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
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Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#52Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#53This is what affirmative action should be... helping people out based on their individual situation, not because their skin color or gender.
Affirmative action shouldn't ever have been a contest with prizes for the most unfortunate. It was sold as a way to fix the wrongs of slavery. Having been enslaved legally in the US is not a race, it's an atrocity. The reason we should be paying for foster kids' college is because the state is their parent, so it's our responsibility. In a country that wasn't shit, regular people would be jealous of how kids who were…
Yet these are children, specifically, who deserve every opportunity we can afford them by default. Not “hopeless addicts” or some other group deemed not worth saving by so many of us, but people quite literally the epitome of worth saving. These people need every ounce of reassurance that we care and that they can integrate and function in society. That they deserve opportunity as anyone else does.
If we had to be self serving we could look at it like “each one of these people is statistically far more likely to be a burden on my own children in the future, so a small investment now could save a lot later”, but we seem to fail even in being selfish about it. I find this topic heart breaking.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#54This is what affirmative action should be... helping people out based on their individual situation, not because their skin color or gender.
Affirmative action shouldn't ever have been a contest with prizes for the most unfortunate. It was sold as a way to fix the wrongs of slavery. Having been enslaved legally in the US is not a race, it's an atrocity. The reason we should be paying for foster kids' college is because the state is their parent, so it's our responsibility. In a country that wasn't shit, regular people would be jealous of how kids who were…
Given that the money to do that would have been taken from those parents, you can see why in a democracy parents would object to having their resources stolen for government kids to have better lives over their own.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#55What is the legal status of foster kids with regard to general financial aid? Is their parents' income considered to be $0? Does the government want the parents' income information? (This used to be the norm for non-custodial and estranged parents.) It feels great to say "California's most vulnerable young people can take agency over their lives by seeking higher education," but how much is this changing? And since w…
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#56It's odd that many of the same people cheering this decision are the same ones crying for meritocracy in the workplace. Handouts and free passes as long as you're characterized by $some_immutable_trait? Then don't be upset when you're passed over for a promotion to fulfill a company diversity promotion threshold.
Or look down on them.
It’s funny hearing about the concepts of handouts when the people most offended are too often including those who have access to some amount of privilege but not enough.. and end up upset about sharing it.
There is a lot of easily accessible learning available there for your statement that would help illuminate a bigger picture for you. You are already part way there by being engaged on it.
Mostly about it’s not being about an immutable trait. Knowing this requires you to exert more than a basic interpretation and opinion.
If you don’t think it’s a big deal would you switch positions with someone in that position since it’s so easy?
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#57This is what affirmative action should be... helping people out based on their individual situation, not because their skin color or gender.
I do not understand why it should be limited to foster kids. Just make the schools free for all, and collect with higher marginal income / wealth taxes. It should not be dependent on parents’ status either. I got zero aid due to my parents, but I also got zero from my parents.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t agree. My parents are low middle class. We didn’t qualify for any financial aid and they were tasked with trying to find a way to send both my sister and I to college which they couldn’t afford. So what did we do? Take out a bunch of loans. Good thing I got a decent job that can pay for them. Too bad for my sister who had a masters and is making $35k as a teacher in Tennessee which is barely more than minimum…
I think it should be free because of stories like yours. It shouldn't be a requirement to be saddled with debt to participate in society.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
All school lunches and breakfasts should be free. It is abhorrent that any child in a country as rich as the United States should go hungry at school.
As a taxpayer who funds public schools, I find it acceptable to subsidize the food of those who are struggling, but I do not have any desire to subsidize the ruling elite (who, in many cases, intentionally keep working class pay low). They can pay for their own children's food.
Re: All foster kids in California can now attend any state college for free
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
All school lunches and breakfasts should be free. It is abhorrent that any child in a country as rich as the United States should go hungry at school.
As a taxpayer who funds public schools, I find it acceptable to subsidize the food of those who are struggling, but I do not have any desire to subsidize the ruling elite (who, in many cases, intentionally keep working class pay low). They can pay for their own children's food.
edit: The idea that your tax dollars are going to pay for the universal benefit of someone who pays more taxes than you do is mathematically nonsensical. It's purely a gimmick. It's a shell game with no shells other than innumeracy.