Why is education not free?

This is another topic I just went through in a political science class. If the government paid for education, then it would be greatly underfunded. From what my teacher told me, his nephew went to in Europe and the facilities and classrooms were in a state of great disrepair, along with the teachers, not being paid as well as college teachers are in America, are not as readily available nor willing to help a student outside of class or on a one-on-one basis.

Once again this is not a first-hand experience, so please do not get angry if this is not precisely correct

Because it helps enforce a class system without actually doing so formally. If you can’t afford to educate yourself then your prospects for earning income are reduced. You have kids and can’t necessarily pay their way through school so they don’t further their education either and the cycle repeats. The basics are that rich people generally remain rich or become more rich while poor people either remain poor or become more poor (as inflation increases). There’s a lot of powerful people out there that would like to keep that status quo. I mean, Paris Hilton needs someone to clean her house, right? How could she possibly find a maid if they were all doctors, teachers or engineers? Wouldn’t that be terrible? I mean, society would just crumble with all those educated people around.

@crackerjack, If we’re speaking anecdotally then I’ll chime in. My wife did her master’s degree at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and I spent a lot of time there with her. Education is tuition-free if you’re from Denmark. Their facilities were excellent and everything was brand-new. The concept that anything that isn’t for profit naturally crumbles is quite simply false. It is also an idea that really only has traction in the U.S. largely due to the vast amount of wealth it can generate for a few people who like to keep the status quo (see above).

@paulc
Thank you for telling me that, the person who I heard about went to I think England, but it could be somewhere else but I know it wasn’t Denmark, and so I was led to assume that all free education would be the same

Also, interesting interpretation I haven’t really thought about it like that before.

Isn’t education free? Many modern countries have free, public, and compulsory primary and often secondary education, don’t they?

@shared
In America, secondary school is not free unless you get a really good scholarship/grant.

Oh, well what about community colleges? They are pretty cheap to attend, right?

Yes, they are a lot cheaper but many people choose to go to universities because they look a lot better on resumes.

Oh, well for universities, aren’t the really good ones using their endowments now for funding middle class and lower kids’ educations?

They say that, but coming from a lower-middle class family with only one parent, I have to pay around 90% tuition next year

Because someone needs to pay for it, and the theory is that the person going to school benefits the most from the education and thus should pay for it himself or herself. Also, public education tends to be one of the first things to be cut when state budgets need to be trimmed.

Community colleges tend to be more focused on getting the students who did poorly in high school up to a two-year degree program—lots of remedial education to cover what the student missed in high school, plus some vocational training for careers that require certification. Because of this focus, they’re usually pretty weak at four-year degrees, especially those with a more academic or preprofessional bent.

@shared3: colleges and universities in the US have a more or less standard formula to determine, based on income and assets, how much a student’s family can afford to pay for him to go to college. The rest is made up from grants and loans. Many families find that while they could pay the amount the formula indicates, they would prefer not to, and so the student goes to a cheaper school. The formula is not really in touch with the realities of life, and it severely penalizes parents who have accumulated assets.

Also, the schools have figured this out and so education costs are skyrocketing: the school can charge $40,000 per year with a straight face, knowing that some students will be able to pay that, and for the rest, the school will just transfer several thousand dollars per student to itself, call it a grant, and count it towards the required spending to maintain tax-exempt non-profit status.