I'm Brazilian and living in Sweden, that is how society here thinks (mostly), social mobility here is absolutely real. Just as an anecdote, I have friends who are 1st generation born here from very poor immigrant families, they are architects, engineers and fashion designers with good careers ahead. That was only possible because they had access to free education for all of their lives.
I am proud to pay my taxes here and fund this, even though I never have used (and don't plan to have a family), as many issues as this society has it works and tries to improve itself, coming from Brazil it's another world.
So I don't appreciate the rhetorics around not funding public education and healthcare, these are basic tenants of the societies of the future.
What are those people doing now if they didn't go to college because it was too expensive to pursue an "impractical" degree?
Wouldn't providing people the option for further education be a net good for society in general?
I'll choose to ignore the entire notion of "impractical" degrees. The society I want to live in is not without music, literature, and art. But those are "impractical" studies.
This really adds to discussion as people get also to discuss if they really want to spend more of their own money. The word 'free' in this context seems to automatically dismiss any discussions about tax rise and public spending.
Disclaimer: I'm Brazilian, not some angry republican.