There is no valid argument against the need of a standardized public or private education to help the workforce, society, or even oneself. This education can prepare people for life’s many journeys. However, it has not always been so.
Five hundred years ago, children and young adults were given a minor practical education in their future career that was mostly provided by their family or close friends.
Yet, the nobility received the finest teachers to enhance their studies. The difference lay in the role of education at that time.
The majority of the populace was purposely kept uneducated and illiterate, and the few in power were taught how to rule that majority. Education was used as a tool to keep the serfs poor and helpless and allow the rich to prosper.
Today the societal landscape is much different. People in this country are given a kindergarten through 12th-grade education.
Our society tries to give everyone the opportunity to advance, primarily using education to secure better jobs and attain more wealth.
Further, educating the masses serves to strengthen our people and republic through intellectual power, giving the people the ability to actively and effectively participate in government.
Yet, is twelfth grade enough?
In the competitive marketplace that now spans the globe, should not a college education also be available to all?
It is an interesting question. By our moral values, people have a right to go to school and receive an education. But where, if at all, should we draw the line, to make a barrier where any further education is unachievable by many due to economic or other reasons.
Should college be free?
The moral problem is simple: it should be. College is becoming an integral part of modern life that even our founding fathers might never have imagined. Without even some college, job opportunities begin to fade.
Yet whose responsibility is it? And this is where the moral problem gets murky.
As it stands, the public pays for K-12 public schooling anyways in the form of taxes. If the government were to step in and provide free college, then two things would most likely happen: taxes would be raised to gain the necessary funds and government inefficiencies would be incorporated into college.
If the private sector were to step in, then it would be near impossible for this organization to survive because the prices of the tools needed to provide a good college education are vastly expensive, and assuming money would be gained through donors, the odds of meeting the requirements are highly unlikely.
And of course I have not even mentioned those who would seek to take advantage of that system of free schooling by going to school forever, defeating the purpose and ruining it for those who would use it to the benefit of other people.
I personally believe college should be free of charge. However, given the alternatives, I feel that the burden placed on our populace to sustain further years of college may be unfair and unwise, especially considering our current economic situation.
However, there is no right answer, or at least I do not have it.
I definitely understand both sides of the subject. There is no doubt that an education is needed today.
But the lines of when and where, how and why eventually become blurred and skewed under scrutiny.
This is a subject assured to spark debate, yet I have a feeling that any viable answer is still out of reach.
Ê

Author