He happened to catch me on a good day, so I was in rare form. I reiterated the Higher Learning Plan I have on my site and I belabored, once again, how I had the answer to a critical problem, but the only thing the people or the media seem interested in is the old tired match-up of Democrat "Status Quo" verses Republican "Same-old, same-ole". Neither candidate has a clue as to what they are going to do to reduce tuition in Texas, much less to create jobs, but the people are once again ignoring options and choosing rhetoric and campaign lies hoping they will "save the day".

Here's the problem:

   1) An increase in tuition means fewer students attend collage which equals fewer Americans with advanced skills

   2) Fewer Americans with advanced skills means a growing number of less skilled workers, which creates a slowing economy and lower quality goods and services

   3) A Slow economy and lower quality goods and services creates a declining demand for these goods and services, and American workers in general

   4) The declining demand means lower wages

   5) Lower wages means even fewer students can afford higher education

   6) With fewer students able to afford college, the Institutions of Higher Learning are having to meet rising costs with less income, which equals a Tuition increase

   7) Return to Step 1 and repeat, indefinitely

The problem becomes an infinite loop that continues to spiral downward until this country can no longer maintain itself or its position as a world leader, which we are on the verge of already. In 2009, 39% of American IT jobs were going to Foreign Legal Residents because employers couldn't find enough qualified American workers to do the jobs. It seems the answer to keeping American moving forward is Education, at any cost!

Once again, which Political Party candidate is stating this fact or their solution for it? The answer, of course, is neither. Who can blame them, they aren't really there to serve us, any more than it takes to get elected. And with the Media and the Public so concerned with the two major parties, faux partisan drama, there is no answer for this problem in the near future, if ever. At least not from Rick Perry, Bill White, or their prospective parties. For those of you that haven't read my Education Reform Plan, I have the absolute answer to this problem.

The major costs of any institution is the facilities and the property they stand on, this is true of virtually all businesses. The quickest and surest way to reduce costs is to reduce the amount of these facilities and the property needed to support them. A plan needs to be developed that gets the education to the people without getting the people to the classroom. Virtual Classrooms would make this possible and also provide a new and better way to fund education. No only would it majorly reduce costs, it would make Higher Education available for just about everyone. And, a tremendous side benefit would be the reduction of traffic and the resulting decrease in pollution, traffic accidents and accident casualties.

Imagine a Professor giving their class from a special teaching area at their home, all of their attentive students watching the lesson from the security of their own home. Biometric devices such as Fingerprint Scanner, DNA sampler, and Visual Recognition Software coupled with a web-cam, would assure that the student "attending" the class and doing the work was actually the student it was supposed to be.

The technologies and ability to implement this system already exists. We would need to insure that all of our Professors are properly Certified and a standard for the curriculum would have to be established. Get with all the computer manufacturers and get them to include the devices and software in all new computers. In such mass-produced quantities it shouldn't do much to the price of a computer. Then, it just takes setting up the internet to handle the load at the speeds necessary. Because there would no longer be competition for a "seat at the table", we base the qualifications for taking a class on whether that person has passed the prerequisite courses instead of Grade Point Averages, and Voila, education for the masses. The cost, $5/person/semester.

With this system any number of people, anywhere in the world, can "attend" a class. Only in classes such as English Composition, where an actual person is needed to judge performance, would the number of students even matter. A single class could be made up of a million students, each paying a fee to "attend". The better a professor the more students would want their class, so the professor's quality and effectiveness would dictate how much they made per semester, and a million students would be $5 mil for 3 months work, and that's just 1 class.

The Professors wouldn't necessarily have to teach from home, they could still do so from a classroom at an institution. There will be some students that prefer to "do it live" , or that want the college experience. Naturally, their tuition would be higher for the added expense of the facilities, but with enough students "attending" by Virtual Classroom, it would still be much less than it is today. The Professor would pay the institution a percentage out of the fees paid by the Virtual Students and if the Professor was a General Practitioner, a freelance instructor not affiliated with a particular institution, they would pay the State that percentage, which would be used to supplement Public Education for our children.

Under this plan, there is virtually no one in the world that couldn't afford a higher education, especially in America. The number of Americans with advanced skills would rise significantly, and so too, the quality of America. There is no bad side to this plan, implementing it would only take a few years and it would pay for itself in just a few more. It would provide quality education to any that want it, no matter what Tax Bracket they were in, and encourage all people to continue their education.

Though I have been concentrating on the Higher Education part of the spectrum, this plan can be adapted to High School and even Intermediate School (Junior High), to some degree. Young children need a certain amount of social exposure to develop properly and an actual positive school environment would serve that purpose. There are several school districts that are experimenting with a 4 day school week and many more are considering this option. Right now it is for budgetary reasons, but what if we take it one step further, a 3 day school week, much like college is now. The children would come in for classes like P. E., Band, Football, and any others that required hands-on participation such as Chemistry Labs, etc. The classes that are reading, writing, research, or homework intensive would be done much in the same way as my plan for the colleges, possibly even reducing School Property Taxes both by decreased school facilities and costs, and supplementing it by parents paying for the online classes as they can reasonably afford to.

This Plan insures that we can afford to educate every American to the fullest of their ability, anything less is a disservice to the people and a danger to the future of our country. Whether or not I become Governor, the citizens of Texas and America should demand a major overhaul of our education systems. We should secure our future and the future of our children, right now, through comprehensive Education Reform. The only way this will happen is to reduce cost and increase availability. There is no reason to deny an education to anyone that wants one, especially by simply out-pricing it. One day, I would like to see a world where education is free for everyone, up to and including a Doctorate. Until then, my Plan is a solution that can accomplish nearly this goal, today.