In the last few months, the subject of cancelling (college) student loan debt has been popular and amongst its proponents has been the assetion that "college should be free". But should it? After all, providing an education of any type at any level has a cost which someone has to pay. What this slogan is really declaring is that "someone else shoud pay for my education" which of course raises two interesting questions. (Not begs, but prompts. Begging the question is something else.) The first is "why?" and the second is "who?".
I must confess that my undergraduate degree was "free" in that the state paid for it through taxes and that while I paid for my postgraduate diploma, it was subsidized. However, my masters was fully paid for by me at market rates which were then significantly less than they would be now.
The fundamental questions here are again, "what is education?" and by extension, "what is education for?".
Back in the old days, before the 1960s or so. education provided the base needed for entering society and it ended with the end of elementary, then with middle then with high. One of the effects of this change was that instead of the predominently academically-minded staying in school, everyone stayed in school.
The corollary to this was that high school graduation became gaining credits rather than demonstrating knowledge and skills, and it then changed again to mean completing time served. What had been high school academic demands became APs, IB and dual-enrolment programs added on top of regular high school and only available to and required of some, not all.
The effect is that while the creme destined for MIT, Harvard and Stanford were unaffected, other than by more competition for places, the bulk of the student population was aiming at state colleges and lower ranked private entities. So what in other countries is still middle school and high school curriculum, here in the US is now college-level. And what a High School Diploma used to get you now requires a Bachelors while a Masters is required for anything managerial or professional. (My local bank recently advertised for "a trainee manager, masters required".)
I would be very interested to see in all the international comparisons about student fees an analysis of K - 12 academic demands. My purely anecdotal experience suggests that those countries with "free" college have fewer students going to college than the US, and those that do possess a higher academic level.
Paying for college is not the black and white and simplistic issue so often presented, but what piques my interest is its changing nature, purpose and population. College is absolutely essential for society. I would just like to add, "what is college?" and "what is college for?".
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