Wal-Mart Offers Its Employees Everyday Low Prices on College Degrees

I'm seriously considering immigrating to a 24-hour Wal-Mart. As far as I can tell, as soon as Wal-Mart starts offering sleeping pods, a fairly decent lower middle-class, middle-American life-cycle should be possible entirely within the confines of one of the megastores. I will get a job there, purchase my cheap organic produce in-house, pick up a gun if I want one, and buy everything else on the cheap. When I have kids, I will get Wal-Mart to put RFID chips in them, so that they will be easier to keep track of. When I am old, I will get my "women's medications" for osteoporosis at a massive discount. To sweeten the deal, Wal-Mart has announced it is getting into the college education biz:

The purveyor of inexpensive jeans and lawnmowers is dipping its toe into the online-education waters, working with a Web-based university to offer its employees in the United States affordable college degrees.

The partnership with American Public University, a for-profit school with about 70,000 online students, will allow some Wal-Mart and Sam's Club employees to earn credits in areas like retail management and logistics for performing their regular jobs.

The university will offer eligible employees 15 percent price reductions on tuition, and Wal-Mart will invest $50 million over three years in other tuition assistance for the employees who participate….

"If 10 to 15 percent of employees take advantage of this, that's like graduating three Ohio State Universities," said Sara Martinez Tucker, a former under secretary of education who is now on Wal-Mart's external advisory council. "It's a lot of Americans getting a college degree at a time when it's becoming less affordable."

More on the joys and sorrows of getting a college degree online here.