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With some restrictions, of course, if you qualify it should be free. I believe it is in many first world countries. It doesn't seem particularly smart for a country to deny education to those who want it and can use it.
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It's frustrating as an educator myself. I feel that higher education (post secondary) should be compensated, especially for those of us who put that education to some form of immediate use. This isn't to knock those who study the so-called "useless" subject, but it is for those who end up in serious debt--like myself--and are using the knowledge from our post-secondary in order to substantiate our careers. It is unfortunate for me, as I am in debt through student loans, extra credit card loans because student loans didn't cover it, and I am waiting in the sidelines for a job that doesn't really exist at this point and the "system" is having me wait it out. Why go study? Why go to school? Why not just live off social services if the government doesn't value the fact that we live, study, pay taxes, and contribute to THIS society?
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I'm not sure about this, but in Britain, if the student qualifies he is able to get further education.
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I'm not sure about this, but in Britain, if the student qualifies he is able to get further education.
Sadly, I got my graduate degree from a school where the only requirement was filling out a FAFSA and clouding a mirror. (There were indeed other places I could have gone, but I had a distance requirement since I was a care giver to my elderly parents.)
Whilst I am not at all feeling educated by my masters, I did apply to an MFA program. There was no way that I could afford that degree on my own. The acceptance process was rigorous. I also had the support of two alumni. Not that I received official notification, other friends from other schools that had also applied received "sorry, but no" letters at least a couple of times before I did. Maybe it was the quality of the education, or just the fact that it was Yale, but had I been accepted, all I was required to come up with was 2000 bucks after jobs, scholarships, and other funding the school had in place for the few that were accepted. So, my feeling is that if you're good enough you can make it.
@guitardds I think that medical people have gotten a major shaft since the HMOs started taking over. Not only has their ability to actually talk with their patients been taken away, they are suddenly expected to take an unbelievable pay cut. Yet the patient load increases, and visits to hospitals and rest homes stays the same. The only group I can think of that has more reason for burnout would be nurses with teachers following closely behind.
Since the past history (and I don't think the country's health care issues are as big a problem as many say, since the basic issues were already in place for decades before the current debate) doesn't compare at all well with what people still expect doctors to be, I can certainly understand why nobody would want to be, or want their children to be, involved in the medical field.
Back in the late 60s my cousin joined the Navy to become a nurse. (She's been burnt out for about 20 years now.) Maybe, just maybe, this might be a way to recruit new doctors. It's a shame (seriously) that a cost benefit wouldn't indicate the expenditure worth the problems/rewards.
Or, have a fellow doctor remove your heart and become a lawyer/politician/banker. They seem to be the only ones staying wealthy while working less.
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things worth having should cost you something. plain and simple.
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things worth having should cost you something. plain and simple.
doesn't always have to be monetary value, but it should cost something to get something valuable.
also, i am really starting to get annoyed by americans expecting everything to be given to them for free. it just further perpetuates the generalization that americans are lazy. and let's be honest, we are. don't expect the government to take care of everything for you. if you want something, go out and get it for yourself. i mean...what's next? should we have to pay for cars? should we have to pay for food? should we have to pay for houses? YES. why? because it's not the united socialist states of america. that's why.
people whine and complain all of the time, "This is 'Merica. We don't live in no communist country." blah blah blah. but when it's convenient to not have to pay for something because the government picks up the tab, it's not socialism. right? ha.
in africa, to go to school, you have to pay from elementary all the way up. education is not free there. at any age. do you know how appreciative they are of education? just to know how to read? here in south korea, parents pay thousands of dollars a year to send their children to after-school academies where they study english, math, science and all sorts of stuff so that their children have a chance at a good education (typically out of the country, in Canada or the USA). education is valuable. we were just raised to think it should be free and a part of our unalienable rights or whatever. and it's not. education is a privilege. not a right.
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Not if we Understood that we are all here to teach one another something. And to help each other learn. But we don't understand that yet. So we put prices on things which should be free.
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Well, the other folks posting on this have it right- we're certainly paying too much for it. I see that as making education unduly difficult to obtain to those who will work hard, but don't have parents who can afford it. (I have a big beef with the expectation that parents should pay for a child's education, by the way; my parent couldn't, and I wouldn't ask her to.)
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Well, the other folks posting on this have it right- we're certainly paying too much for it. I see that as making education unduly difficult to obtain to those who will work hard, but don't have parents who can afford it. (I have a big beef with the expectation that parents should pay for a child's education, by the way; my parent couldn't, and I wouldn't ask her to.)
I disagee greatly with the commentors that say that education will be cheapened by not putting a dollar ammount on it. Education is cheapend by people who have money and then sleep through classes because they truly didn't care to apply, but their parent pushed them into college anyway. I have been brought up to explore the world and have interests and have always expected to pursue them at college. Both of my parents went to college with no financial assistance from their parents, and I will do the same. I think both my mother and father cared about their education, and this is evidenced by their hard work. By saying that education should be highly expensive because students wouldn't work hard otherwise is very nearly saying that poor people don't want to learn.
However, I do think tuition should have some price- it would be dificult to fund reserch and give faculty decent salaries otherwise. But I do not, as losertalents says, want to see student have to take out 200K loans. Just how destitute do you think self-supporting young people with no middle-class parents to prop them up should be?
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I wish education were free. As a health care student myself, I agree with Guitardds. BUT.. as the cost of heath care decreases, the quality of it will decrease along with it.
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I wish education were free. As a health care student myself, I agree with Guitardds. BUT.. as the cost of heath care decreases, the quality of it will decrease along with it.
Being forced to pay for an education ensures that those who are most dedicated to their prospective field become members of it. Someone who is not interested in / does not have an aptitude for a profession will not drop 200k to study something they are not interested in. If salary decreases, the academic quality of the applicants will decline as well. One could argue that if tuition was not a factor, more individuals would have access to an education, and in turn, the brightest students would prevail. I disagree. I would rather have the more determined/ dedicated student who was willing to take 200k out in loans, rather than someone who enrolled in medical school because it was free and had a decent salary. The former would undoubtedly be more dedicated to the profession..which would probably be evident in their practice.
A college degree is not worth what it once was. These days, one must earn at least a master's degree to truly get ahead of the pack. Although.. the condition of today's economy makes it seem like companies view educated folks as greater financial burdens than their non-educated counterparts. It's a disaster. Students are racking up loans, and are not able to get jobs after graduation.
Although I do believe that the quality of high school education needs to be improved (so the general public will be more educated), I think that a college education needs to be cheaper, and more exclusive than it currently is. The socioeconomic gap is widening folks, and the escalating costs of tuition are not helping. Lets hope Obama spends more on education, and state schools stop accepting non-qualified applicants just to meet a financial quota. I'm all for everyone getting an education, but the state of the current job market is a disaster!
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While I was attending college. I asked that very question. My teacher said community colleges used to be free, but nobody came to school. As soon as the colleges started charging a small fee, people enrolled. Funny huh. If I had the money, I would go back to school. There is so much to still learn.
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Great Question, and eventuallyyyyyy, you may not have to.
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Great Question, and eventuallyyyyyy, you may not have to.
Call me a prophet but here's a simple look at how the domino's are going to fall.
National Health Care will pass, great, everybody's happy except one thing will start to become apparent over a few years which is, well, very few are going into medicine and the amount of doctors to treat patients will drop.
Why? Because the cost of education to become a doctor is no longer worth the piddance of the salary that doctors make under nationalized health care (which by the way med school at this time can be anywhere from the high 200,000 to the low 400,00K)
SOOOO, In order to stimulate the advancement of higher education, the YES, government will start making higher education much much cheaper, which is good, BUT more and more tax.
Maybe Im wrong, but let me just say, I don't know one doctor out recommending the field of medicine to their OWN kids right now due to the debt/income ratio we are about to face. Just Sayin.
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imagine not having to pay for diamonds.
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