
Originally Posted by
Rasselas
A couple of things: 1. There's nothing wrong with going into debt for an advantage that will increase your earnings over your entire lifetime. Current studies show that any undergraduate degree will do this.
2. In California, at least, the Pell Grant is the same as basic tuition at a Cal State. For qualifying students, tuition is essentially free because of that fact. This is true despite the fact that California has followed the lead of other states in defunding public higher education in favor of more prison spending. Other states could do the same.
Personally, I've never favored completely free college. The major difference between higher ed and K-12 education in the US is the level of risk for the students. Most people need to have skin in a game before they take it seriously...whcih leads me to point three:
3. In the UK, students at the secondary level already endure serious risk as they move through the upper forms because they have to take GCE qualifying exams for university. That is, if they don't pass what used to be called "A-level" exams in their chosen subject area, they can't get into a higher ed program in that field. Most college-bound Brits take multiple GSCE exams (or the equivalent in Scotland) so they have to earn their way into university--that's the gate keeper rather than money.