Lowering or effectively removing cost to education pays for itself many times over. When you educate people, they are able to provide the skilled labor needed by most employers and innovators. People with knowledge go on to start companies, create jobs and opportunities, and bring innovation and improvements to the lives of all. My real point, however, is that the educated generally pay more taxes, and start companies that pay taxes, which almost certainly would repay the investment in education with a lifetime of returns for the government. Give people the knowledge and skills to make money, and receive a lifetime of larger tax payments. The current system leaves too many stuck in a lifetime of tiny tax refunds and no future, while also leaving society and the government with more limited resources, that (supposedly) place even our Social Security system at risk.
We do not need a deliberately uneducated working class. There is no need to “dumb-down” the workers you expect to be increasingly productive. There will always be those who choose to not achieve, or who have limited interest in academic pursuits; they can provide the laborers or “service class” by choice — you don’t have to force them to do it. The world has plenty of under-achievers who will fill jobs considered menial. Some will work very hard for minimum wage, while others will pretend to work while employers pretend to pay them.
However, denying an innovator the opportunity to leave the world a better place because their parents or economic situation left them without access to the knowledge and training they need to succeed will continue to deprive the world of the contributions those people could have made to the greater good. If you equip a mind as you would equip an army, then those trained academic achievers will help lead us to a better future. You cannot predict who the next genius will be.
Almost no one talks about Einstein’s parents, or his children. A brilliant mind can occur anywhere, to any parents, because of the way genetics works. Our world is better off for Einstein having had an opportunity to learn all he could, and then spend his life teaching us about the universe we live in.
Nikola Tesla is considered by many to be the father of the 20thcentury, inventing the electrical system that lets us power an entire neighborhood on three (relatively) small wires. He did this not because his parents were wealthy, or because he was a particular skin color (there's STILL debate as to his ethnicity, 150 years later.) Tesla took his education, and changed the world. Not for money — he died in poverty — he did it because he was born with an exceptional mind, and was able to access an education that helped him realize his potential (pun intended). Tesla improved the world and envisioned a better world because he could, even using his knowledge and discoveries to go up against Thomas Edison, and successfully proving that he had found a better way to bring electricity to almost everyone. Had he not had access to education, where would we be now?
While there will always be plenty of schools to cater to those who can afford to pay the tuition, there should be schools for higher education that remain available to all. Universities should exist that do not saddle those who choose them with crushing debt. Free the minds of all who want to learn, and you can unlock the potential for discovery and innovation, while simultaneously reducing the number of people dependent on public support — because they were able to obtain the skills that let them earn a decent wage.
Businesses will benefit from workers who can think, instead of just uneducated followers who drain company resources just trying to manage crises exacerbated by workers who lack knowledge and skills found in an educated workforce.
Governments will benefit from a larger tax base and increased innovation in society as a whole.
Biggest of all, workers will benefit from having the choice to be educated. Even workers who study subjects or “Majors” that it may be hard to imagine how they might apply in the workforce. Most of those who go on to higher education learn important life skills: critical thinking, and getting facts or the truth through research, while honing communications skills that improve their ability to share ideas and concepts. It helps you look at the bigger picture, to see how things inter-relate.
Getting a degree shows employers you can begin a project and see it through to completion — surprisingly, it doesn't matter what the project was. When you have schools that help students learn, without regard to their ability to pay, that investment in education will change the world. It will drive the economy with skilled labor and lead to massive economic growth as educated consumers spend those larger paychecks (natural economic stimulus, driven by consumers from the bottom up).
Why so many are short-sighted about this has baffled me for years.