Should North Dakota residents who are at least 55 years old be able to take college classes for free? The chancellor of North Dakota’s university system says that if it was allowed, it would complicate matters for paying students and make reporting confusing, according to Inforum.com.
Chancellor William Goetz spoke at a House Education Committee hearing against legislation (sponsored by Rep. Vicky Steiner, R-Dickinson), which would let older North Dakotans enroll in undergraduate college courses without paying tuition or fees.
This program would not include online classes and would not require additional instructors, according to Inforum. No action was taken Tuesday, and the panel will make a recommendation later to approve or defeat the measure.
“If we can encourage them in lifelong learning, and if we have the availability within our university system, some of these people have paid into that university system all their lives,” Steiner said. “I would love to see them be able to participate with that incredible experience that the universities offer.”
There is already a policy in place that allows state residents who are at least 65 years old to sit in on classes and waive audit fees, according to Goetz. If the new proposal passed, students 55 and older would have to be counted if they were attempting to earn college credit.
To read more about this developing story, check out the article on Inforum here. But what do you think about this? Should those eligible be able to take classes for free? Why or why not?
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Photo credit: ron koronadal
