Should College Education be Free?

[Jake17]

I just wanted to get some feedback on what you guys think and maybe any factual statistics you guys found on whether it works or not. Socializm in education. Personally i think its obvious that education needs to cost somthing in order to keep standards up and in the past socialized medicine has failed, Also kindergarden teachers would be getting the same wages as a college professor. What are your guy's thoughts on the topic? Please be sure to cite your sources, thanks.

 

[theotherguy]

no, but I beleive there should be a cap on tution or at least a general lowering of tuition, as well as more reasonable federal aide for college. I think state colleges should be free though.

 

[Raziaar]

Good colleges shouldn't be so expensive. That leaves only the wealthy to have the truely best education. Not the way it should be.

 

[Sainku]

It is a little expensive now, but it definately should not be free.

 

[Javert]

Private education should be left however they are/should be.

Public education on the other hand shouldn't be free, but it should be cheaper and the cost predictable and affordable. Financial aid should be given with ease. However, this is difficult to counterbalance with good faculty, the backbone of any college. You need to fund "good" education no matter what.

So in whole, college education is supposed to be costly because it is an investment in good faculty, facilities, and career possibilities.

 

[Hazar]

no, it should not be free

anyone who's in college knows the difference between public education at the high school level and at the college level.

 

[SAJ]

1) Free medicine works pretty much everywhere that its available.
2) There is no automatic relationship between the price and the quality of education.
3) educators getting the same as other educators, regardless of the age group that they teach? Sure, why not.

 

[JNightshade]

It shouldn't be free, but it shouldn't be anywhere NEAR as expensive as it is (at least in the US).

 

[VictimOfScience]

Its a nice idea but a harsh reality. NO.

 

[Sparda]

No

 

[Raeven0]

I'm thinking generally no.

Maybe a few government-sponsored universities, but not the entire university system...

 

[CptStern]

I just wanted to get some feedback on what you guys think and maybe any factual statistics you guys found on whether it works or not. Socializm in education. Personally i think its obvious that education needs to cost somthing in order to keep standards up and in the past socialized medicine has failed, Also kindergarden teachers would be getting the same wages as a college professor. What are your guy's thoughts on the topic? Please be sure to cite your sources, thanks.

what? why would proffessors earn as much as kindergarden teachers? and no, "socialised" healthcare hasnt failed ..it's serves me quite well in fact


education is a right not a privilege



btw very odd choice for a first post/first thread

 

[Raeven0]

and no, "socialised" healthcare hasnt failed ..it's serves me quite well in fact

I wish I could find the article I'm thinking of... Someone wrote, convincingly, that the reason American healthcare is comparitively more advanced (read: not necessarily better) than healthcare of other nations is that it isn't socialised. Doctors are free to do what they want and charge what they want, competition encourages improvement, etc.

Of course, this entire post is pointless because I can't even prove that the article existed, but there you go.

More relevantly, though, I just oppose trying to change a system that already works. Improve public education to a reasonable level first, then we'll talk about making university free.

 

[>>FrEnZy<<]

Hell no. Education should be free. Knoweledge is power, and the distribution of that power should be distributed equally amoung the people as much as possible. The education system will not work under market forces. colleges and universities will just become a tool to manufacture people with skills to serve the interests of the dominant institutions of our times.

 

[BeaverMon]

No. I don't think it should be free.
When it comes to Colleges, it's up to the Student to make that decision. And the Student should pay the fees to get a nice job.

College gets you nice jobs. So no it should not be free.

 

[theotherguy]

This is why I like the scholarship program. Smarter kids get better education for their skills. However, I don't think its fair that rich kids should be able to go to better colleges just because they are rich. I think the price should be lower in general and more people should be given better opportunities. Only the most prestigious universities should be costly to fund their private research and development.

There is a major relationship between school's funding and quality of education. I can garuntee you will get a better education at MIT or Harvard than at your community college or at a public university, simply because the best teachers are attracted to the highest paying positions. Similarly, there is a major inverse correlation between school funding and dropout rates in the US.

 

[>>FrEnZy<<]

No. I don't think it should be free.
When it comes to Colleges, it's up to the Student to make that decision. And the Student should pay the fees to get a nice job.

College gets you nice jobs. So no it should not be free.

Ahh no, studying in college gets you nice jobs. If colleges were free, and everyone studied to get nice jobs, then college would be much harder to get through, because the standards of education would rise. Therefore, the people who got nice jobs would me smarter and more skilled at what they do.

Not only that, but the smartest will get the good jobs, not the richest.

 

[Ikerous]

You don't have to be rich to go to the best colleges :/
You just have to be willing to pay off the loan with your fancy job when you're done.

*Insert general libertarian propeganda about free education*

 

[Jake17]

ok, so basically i'm pretty sure that socialized medicine doesn't work as well as it does in the us simply because of the point that someone made about the competition going lower and therefore the quality going down, why spend more money on developing a better medicine when you can't charge more for that medicine that beats out every other one. Socialism in medicine and in public schooling doesn't promate determination to be better than others in the industry. Also a kindergarden teacher earning the same as a college professor is obviously not right... Someone who goes to school and works for there position 4 times as much should deffinately get paid more, no doubt.
Also please give me some reasoning other than the ones i pointed out for why college shouldn't be free. this is for a highschool debate we are required to do by the way, thanks for all the input thus far.:cheers:

 

[gick]

Ideally yes (getting a good education should be available to all, not just the rich), but realisticly speaking it would cost too much for the entire system to be government funded - IMO a sensible mixture of government and personal investment would be the best.

As for the socialized medicine, thats a debate for another thread.

 

[ríomhaire]

Public education should be free (despite that fact that you obviously pay for it with tax ).

 

[Ludah]

Perhaps not necessarily free, but they could certainly use a price reduction, at least in the United States. Some of the tuition fees are absolutely astronomical.

 

[$kelet0r]

well you all seem happy enough to pay for college - fine for you guys
me? the Irish state pays me to go to university

 

[Jintor]

I have no idea. I don't know the benefits vs. negatives in this arguement.

 

[HunterSeeker]

I dont see any reason why not, the state pays the universities in sweden so they can remain free (they cannot charge people for education). AFAIK Sweden has no reputation of having bad education, quite the opposite acording to what I have heard (and if you point out the irony in me writing that sweden has good education with grammatical and spelling errors you will have to translate this post into swedish). It is not completly free as you still have to pay for the cource literature though.

 

[15357]

Hell no. Socialism is EVIL. And I don't want my taxes going to pay for some stupid evil commie minority students who go "DEMOCRACY FOREVER!" and throw firebombs at police.

 

[SAJ]

I wish I could find the article I'm thinking of... Someone wrote, convincingly, that the reason American healthcare is comparitively more advanced (read: not necessarily better) than healthcare of other nations is that it isn't socialised. Doctors are free to do what they want and charge what they want, competition encourages improvement, etc.

Of course, this entire post is pointless because I can't even prove that the article existed, but there you go.

Although I strongly believe that healthcare should be free to all, I would agree that US medical technology is more advanced (and that it is the charging structure that is largely responsible).
However, that alone does not deliver the best care to the greatest number of patients, in fact I would argue that the cost of American healthcare is a major barrier for most people trying to get adequate treatment, and the struggle to provide health insurance for ones self and family forms a large part of the US poverty trap.

Does this make me a socialist?

 

[HunterSeeker]

Socialism is EVIL.

Its a belief system, it cannot be good or evil. Even though I would like you to explain why you think this and please make the explaination more detailed then "I dont like north korea".

 

[^Ben]

Hell no. Socialism is EVIL. And I don't want my taxes going to pay for some stupid evil commie minority students who go "DEMOCRACY FOREVER!" and throw firebombs at police.

:roll:

Most of western Europe has cheap or free education and we do fine for ourselves, more educated people equals higher paying jobs for people, which in turn leads to more taxes being paid because of this.

Or do it how its done in England, the goverment pays upfront for most of it and than the student pays it back once they earn a certain amount of money.

 

[Raeven0]

Although I strongly believe that healthcare should be free to all, I would agree that US medical technology is more advanced (and that it is the charging structure that is largely responsible).
However, that alone does not deliver the best care to the greatest number of patients, in fact I would argue that the cost of American healthcare is a major barrier for most people trying to get adequate treatment, and the struggle to provide health insurance for ones self and family forms a large part of the US poverty trap.

Which is why extremes are never good. Some sort of balance that gets the advancement of capitalism with the broadness of socialism would be great. "Let's make Medicare open to everyone!" (Disclaimer: not my real opinion.)

 

[Majestic XII]

Knowledge is power. A country with a well educated population is a strong country in my eyes. I don't mind paying a little more in tax to help my friends to reach their goals. Free education doesn't mean its a crappy education. I'm from Sweden where all education is free, private as well as public schools. I just graduated from a three year education (Digital Production program) on a small private school in central Gothenburg. We got laptops from our school to do all our work on (Maya, Game Development, and other design stuff) which we could to pretty much whatever we wanted with (bring them home, install whatever we want and so on).

Now I'm on my way to University. What do I have to pay? Nothing (other than tax). I don't think I would have gotten where I am today if it wasnt for our education system so Im quite happy with it.

The problem we have here in Sweden is that people OVER-educate themselves. It's much easier and safer to stay in school and study than to get a nice job.

 

[15357]

The thing in Korea is that most students strive to get into good Universities, and goverment funding would halt that.

 

[15357]

Its a belief system, it cannot be good or evil. Even though I would like you to explain why you think this and please make the explaination more detailed then "I dont like north korea".

It goes against our nature, and there has been no socilaist nation that has not been a despotism.

 

[^Ben]

It goes against our nature, and there has been no socilaist nation that has not been a despotism.

England has "free" healthcare and it also has "free" education. We are not suddenly falling into some kind of pit.

Having free education does not make you a socialist nation.

 

[Majestic XII]

The thing in Korea is that most students strive to get into good Universities, and goverment funding would halt that.

Why? They would accept students with the highest scoring grades or through work samples and interviews (like they do here) and take the best of the bunch. It would still keep people interested and focused to get into that school. Money shouldnt be a issue.

 

[Sparda]

On average in the US how much dose collage cost per year?

 

[CptStern]

in the last 3 years or so my family has incurred in excess of $700,000 in medical/hospital bills/specialists ..had I been in the US and without insurance I'd have to pay that off to the hospital in monthly installments for the rest of my life ..and even if I did have insurance it might not cover it all or the premiums could become prohibitive. Sure I could have had speedier service but I highly doubt the quality of care was any different ..in fact my wife saw a specialist head of pediatrics and 2 other specialists from New york and Chicago on a exchange program

I'll stick with free healthcare, thankyouverymuch ..at least everyone has a fair shake when it comes to their health

 

[15357]

Why? They would accept students with the highest scoring grades or through work samples and interviews (like they do here) and take the best of the bunch. It would still keep people interested and focused to get into that school. Money shouldnt be a issue.

Also, most Universitys here are private. And the money could be going to better purposes, say, I dunno, Defence? Law and Orer? Social Services?

 

[Majestic XII]

Also, most Universitys here are private. And the money could be going to better purposes, say, I dunno, Defence? Law and Orer? Social Services?

Better than education? I think education is pretty high up there. It all boils down to how much tax you're willing to pay. Socializing education and health care requires money.

 

[15357]

We have a duty to undergo education until you graduate junior high. Its for extreme competition which has everyone worked up in a frenzy to get one point better than other people....


I change my mind. I support free College education, but only when you are smart enough