I agree, and disagree.
I think it's important to make further education available to all people, not just the people who can afford it or who are bright enough to do the quagmire of math after adjusting expectations for the future economy, the admission counselors who fail to advise you on the risks or puff up the integrity of the school.
I had such an experience where I was talked into a school which later lost their accreditation and then had the misfortune of graduating into a recession. Then came the work injury that precluded me from eight out of ten jobs, leaving me with $10k as an apology against lost earnings in the future. Things that the brain fails to account for in doing the math of how to pay back a loan for a worthless degree, along with how vile debt collectors are.
Part of the issue is how much our society hinges upon the college degree as proof of capability, or uses it as an excuse to pay people less than they deserve for a job they claim any monkey could do. I agree that trade schools and technical training should be brought back into play, but so should experience.
Yes college probably wouldn't be free as you explain it. But it may just be a lot more accountable to the taxpayers should it fail to live up to promises, and it would cut out the debt collectors, who are leeches sucking money out of misfortune with extreme interest rates. More than that, it would allow people to study what they want, not just what they can afford.
Thank you for your feedback on this topic @torico. What additional percentage of your weekly/biweekly paycheck are you willing to part with to make sure that everyone can get the degree of their choice in whatever field they desire? College is generally pretty expensive, so if most people take advantage of the "free schooling," all will be forced to pay more in income taxes to make this happen. If most or many of the degrees are generally worthless then wouldn't this be a colossal waste of money? When government mandates that it's people purchase this or that, it's a very slippery slope because failing industries will lobby government to make us purchase more and more things that many of us may simply not be interested in. As for the learning value alone, I'd choose the internet over college any day of the week.
first off i think costs for education should be better managed. compared to europe, our costs are out of control, for very little value. just like medicine we have tons of middlemen and administrative peons that are totally unnecessary. second i think we should invest in redeveloping technical and trade schools. the internet is only so good as ones skills in research, critical thinking and ananlysis of data, so i think educational emphasis should be changed accordingly to adequately prepare kids to learn online if thats appropriate. education need not be expensive but it does need to desperately be restructured and updated, before we even talk about "free college" internet should be utilized to cut down on costs and allow a variety of course study. there's no need for everyone to go to harvard, but everyone should have access to materials to allow them to study law, or medicine, or engineering, on their own. this is how to make college affordable.
I don't think costs for education are managed or artificially set to begin with. That said, how do you propose government is to force new costs upon an already existing body of independent institutions? You said we should redevelop trade schools is there a problem with the current number of trade schools? Is there not enough of a supply to meet the current demand? What additional percentage of your weekly/biweekly paycheck are you willing to part with to make sure that government undertakes all of your proposals to modernize and streamline education so that it's more affordable?
you seem to be overly concerned with what you will need to pay. personally i would happily redo the budget and slash the budget to halburton to make it happen without costing the taxpayer anything. so the army gets one less aircraft carrier, what the hell is that against the education of children? I simply think the govts priorities are screwed up, and we as citizens are complicit in allowing it to be that way. and yes the number of trade schools and tech schools available to high schoolers has dropped significantly in favor of "further education", because thats where the money is. this is another thing that is out of whack, our thinking that a trained plumber or electrician is any less worthy of a decent salary than a lawyer or a CEO. They both do a job. What I propose is that we elect officials that actually want to change the system for the better and not keep the corrupt status quo, or barring that, start changing things locally instead of griping about extra taxes. Money isnt the problem. The way we spend it is.