Why does Canada/United States etc not offer FREE Post Secondary Education?

[and i love it]

I know the governments subsidize a lot of what it costs. But some countries and such are able to offer free education past high school, so it would seem plausible.

Anyone know about this? I have been trying to find some good articles but failing and curious.

 

[desoiation1]

taxes would probably be increased dramatically... quality of education would drop... higher degrees would be required for jobs

 

[al audi]

there are more cons than pros if this were the case in the US though.

think about it for a second.

 

[and i love it]

Originally Posted by desoIation1

taxes would probably be increased dramatically... quality of education would drop... higher degrees would be required for jobs

Yeah, those came to mind, I was wondering how like Australia and other places are able to pull it off. Anyone have a good paper or something? But I quickly read that there are fewer Universities there and also fewer seats for each major at these Universities. And then to get into the Universities for free an exam is taken and the people that do the best get in.. so in that sense still not everyone has an equal opportunity to get in. And it seems there may not be as many chances in some places (like we have community College and the sorts).


 

 

[awwsome]

College is a business.

 

[gtotheriffin]

Originally Posted by And I Love It

I know the governments subsidize a lot of what it costs. But some countries and such are able to offer free education past high school, so it would seem plausible.

Anyone know about this? I have been trying to find some good articles but failing and curious.

because educating the youth of the nation would only be for the betterment of mankind in general.
better question: why does the government charge interest on student loans?

 

[hennysmash]

An educated minority (black, hispanic, other) is detrimental to the powers that be. They rather put an orange ball on your hands and pay you millions to put it in a hoop.

 

[kdawg]

Originally Posted by awwsome

College is a business.

And therein lies the rub.

This is almost the same argument we have about national healthcare - people are making a lot of money out of education in the US so don't want it to change. It's not about academic standards or research - there are many fine institutions all over the world doing leading-edge research who aren't crippling students with debt.

Im also not convinced that everyone needs a degree to get a job - there are a lot of people out there studying useless subjects - who would be much more valuable to society if they were working. It's just corporate snobbishness that says that everyone 'must have a masters' to work here - there's no actual need for it.

Same with people have to do an undergraduate degree before studying something like medicine - rather than doing what the rest of the world does and doing a 5 year medical degree.

 

[waveyjoneslocker]

It is a common misconception that the "quality of education" will drop. That's not true at all if you look at the top colleges and univeristies, many of them are state-run schools. This is the problem those controlling the school system always bring up.
Also, the more educated one is, the harder it is for the govt. to keep them under their fiNgers.

 

[trelvis tha thrilla]

Originally Posted by hennySMASH

An educated minority (black, hispanic, other) is detrimental to the powers that be. They rather put an orange ball on your hands and pay you millions to put it in a hoop.

There are plenty of ways that minorities or regular people can go to school for pretty much free.

 

[theabove]

Originally Posted by awwsome

College is a business.

Yup.

At least in Canada, our leading ones are subsidized by the government. Tuition for the U of Toronto and others are roughly speaking 5000-7000 a year.