The parent post is about college, so this is not about children anymore. I think what making it all free takes away, is the importance of making good decisions about college. If it were all free, I bet a lot fewer students would take it seriously and be more likely to enroll in less practical degree programs -- english, psychology, american studies (not architecture, engineering, design, as you mentioned). They would also not have any urgency to finish in time, to see well-paying careers afterwards.
> If it were all free, I bet a lot fewer students would take it seriously and be more likely to enroll in less practical degree programs -- english, psychology, american studies (not architecture, engineering, design, as you mentioned). They would also not have any urgency to finish in time, to see well-paying careers afterwards.
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.
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.