While Democrats in the House and Senate see student loans as the only solution to helping college students pay for their education, College of the Ozarks follows a different approach—hard work and personal responsibility. At Ozarks, where 75% of the campus could qualify for top-tier Pell Grants, students “must work 15 hours per week to pay off the entire cost of tuition — $15,900 per year.” The driving principle behind this initiative: “students who put sweat equity into their education value it more.”
And wouldn’t you know it—work-colleges are (surprisingly)
socially and politically conservative. At Ozarks, drinking is forbidden, men and women live in separate dormitories and students must attend seven chapel services a year, whatever religion they are. The political outlook is evident in campus speakers like Margaret Thatcher and Tommy Franks, the retired general who led the Iraq invasion.