Quote Originally Posted by Don Corleone
I'm all about equal access and equal opportunity. I would argue (and I'm really going to lose my conservative club membership for this one) that in today's society, a university level education is a requirement to be a functioning member of society, and we as a society owe it to individuals to make certain that anybody that wants one, gets one. We actually have a lot of government backed student loan programs to achieve this goal, and when I say university level, I do mean technical colleges. Not everyone needs to be attending Princeton to get a PhD in Economics. I also believe in a strong meritocracy for public payement of university education.
I understand what you are saying but I would argue that our school system (k-12) should raise the bar so that a high school diploma was the equivalent to at least a modern associate’s degree in “general” subjects, a diploma should be adequate for a decent (entry level) white collar job and additional skills should be gained thru tech schools, apprenticeships and internships. It is crazy to me to require nearly our entire population to have to go into debt just to get an average job. Back in the day a high school education was more than good for most jobs but as jobs have become more difficult (or require more knowledge to do) our school system has only gotten worse. An average education should be sufficient for an average job. An average job shouldn’t require a secondary or tertiary level education that sets a person back 10 years of loan payments (or grants paid with tax dollars) especially when we pay so darn much to have a K-12 school system.

If the goal is a decent job in a white collar job or a more advanced blue collar job then there are always jobs that require less skill to do and should be done by those on there way to a decent job. No one should be living their entire life on a paycheck signed by the government (unless there is a real good reason, like a handicap).