European Union Forums

[GertrudeJKinzel]

Question for socialists only: How much education should citizens get for free? I can't find the data, but I know I saw a chart showing how countries with low education are very poor and countries with lots of education are much better off financially. So it stands to logic if a country were to give every citizen a free PhD quality education it's per capita income would be highest in the world. Would you support this? Why or why not?

[SonofGerald]

Germans gets free education up through college

[BenjaminRCarr]

You mean like in Detroit.LOL

[ThomasVRose]

If there is a workable way to give everyone a free education, then of course I'd support it. What kind of monsters would refuse education to the poor and thus doom them to coninuing poverty?

[LoriMPerron]

Most developed nations, you get as much education as you qualify for. Pass the entrance exam and you can to go any university, at public expense. They know that education benefits -everyone-, and that college educated people pay back the cost of their education many times over in taxes.

In the US we see it differently. We seem to want children to get only as good an education as their parents can afford. This gives the children of wealthier parents an advantage in getting into the better colleges and getting the better jobs. It also provides a large pool of exploitable unskilled labor, holding down the cost of labor.

After WWI we had the largest percentage of college graduates in the world because of the GI Bill. Those were the best times here in the US, the time of lowest unemployment, fastest technological development, etc.

Also consider that we have always prided ourselves on 'social mobility', the idea that a kid born in poverty could rise out of his situation to become successful in life. But the driver for social mobility, the thing that makes it work, is public education. Education is the ONLY way for a kid born poor to become rich and successful. If poorer kids get a worse education they will just stay poor, cost us in government programs and fill our jails and prisons. It seems like conservatives would rather spend the money on welfare and prisons than on schools! In fact here in California where I live we can't build prisons fast enough, and consequently we don't have money for education. Politicians have seriously suggested we close some of our state college campuses and convert them to prisons.

[Ruler]

1) Not all people are capable of functioning at the university level. Not all of those are willing or even want a PhD.
2) The country in the western hemisphere with the highest level of general educational attainment is Cuba.
3) Free isn't free. I think There should be community support through Vo-tech or junior college. And scholarships to qualified students (based on academic merit) for a 4 year degree.

[MarkRBonnell]

nothing is free

[ElmerCSmith]

Certainly Cuba has an excellent education system,possibly the best in the "Third World".In England state education means it is free up to leaving school,but a student-loan system is in place for Universities.Until 1990 it was a grant system.Of course those with disposable income can go private and produce people like David Cameron,who went to Eton and is married to a Sainsbury heiress !!

[NancyKLynch]

That wouldnt work in the United States cause then they would have to divert alot of the taxpayers money from fattening the politicians wallets, free medical and social services for illegals, free welfare for Americans not willing to get a job and all of the other liberal programs that deplete American tax payer dollars. I would be all for it but all the people benefiting from the above are too entrenched in our federal liberal government wont stop giving to everybody that doesnt earn it and taking 33% of earnings away from those that work hard.

Somebody gave me a thumbs down. Either you are one of the illegals collecting American social services or one of the politicians getting fatter off tax payers money. Didnt mean to insult you. Just hate having to support you when you are working off the books and taking from a system you are not contributing to

[AmosJAllen]

Look at Cuba to buck that trend, and look to Scandinavia to support it.

The problem with making any real equivalence is that it is easy to give someone an official qualification, when they don't deserve it.

A good example is the UK, "A" levels used to require a lot of study and retained knowledge, and individual reasoning, up to about 1980, but now a trained monkey could pass one.

If everyone had a good education and qualification, who would do the dirty work, on which every economy depends

[KevinDEvans]

to the person who said conservatives want to support welfare, uh, no they don't

[FreeMan]

I think that there should be free primary and secondary and that third level should have an income related test. This way funds can be loosened up to help the most disadvantage and that the money isn't waisted as an electoral gift to the middle class.

[FromtheFlatLands]

How exactly does it stand to reason that you would want to pay more taxes to pay for college? You see anything you are deeming as "free" is not free, someone has to pay for it. There are plenty of programs for the disadvantaged to obtain a college education in this country, but as with most things in life you need to work to get those benefits. So under your reasoning, the taxpayers should spent thousands or millions toward educating individuals who are C or D students at a PhD level thereby cheapening our value of education? The problem here is, you can offer a person the education, but there is nothing that guarantees the student will be able to preform at that level, therefore it would make our colleges useless and nothing more than diploma mills. This would mean we would even have more overpaid under educated employees. Even a majority of communist nations do not provide paid college educations. Also there are millionaires who barely passed high school, so a PhD does not always equate to wealth.