Free University Education

I did not know that my opponent would be focusing on the U.K. I agree with him that it is exceedingly difficult to find statistics that represent the world, and so, in light of my opponent's focus, before I move onto my broader argument, I would like to point out a few things that *are* true about college education in the U.K., particularly regarding how little people are actually able to afford college these days. - 3/4 of U.K. students will not be able to pay off their student loan debts. (1) - My opponent said that someone would typically end up paying about 27,000 pounds in student loans. However, this was under the old system, which was removed some time ago. Under the new system, the average is 44,035 pounds. (2) - "While tuition at public universities in Japan is considerably less than American colleges and universities, tuition in the United Kingdom is more on par with that in the U.S."(3) This doesn't sound terrible until you realize that U.S. college students are now over a trillion dollars in debt. (4, 5) That's right. Tra-tra-tra-trillion, people. That's more student loan debt than the amount of money possessed by most *countries,* and the U.K. is charging rates similar to this in a *smaller economy.* Less than a fifth the size of the U.S.'s, in fact.(5, 6) Either the government needs to force universities to stop charging such ridiculously high sums of money for education that is given for free in most developed countries, or they need to pay the money for their decision to allow universities to keep prices that high. "'It is quite unfathomable for most Europeans that you would start your adult life tens of thousands of dollars in debt,' says Oberle, who researched higher education systems in countries such as the U.K., Hungary, Argentina and Turkmenistan for her book 'College Abroad.'"(3) Thus, my opponent's repeated claims that student loans are affordable, even in the heavily socialized U.K., are rendered invalid. Now I move on to a broader focus. My opponent insists, time and again, that college students will refuse to ever work low-paying jobs, when statistics clearly show that the number of college students working low-paying jobs has actually been increasing at an alarming rate. In the U.S. alone (I know what I said about using one country as a global representation, but my opponent and I seem to have come to an agreement on that XD) "the number of college graduates working minimum wage jobs is nearly 71 percent higher than it was a decade ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest figures. As of 2012, 284,000 college graduates were working at or below the minimum wage, up from 167,000 in 2002..."(7) My opponent makes a valid point regarding job experience vs college education, saying that employers often hire pepple who have job experience before they hire people with college degrees and no job experience. However, plenty of people with degrees have or have had jobs. Also, this preference for people with job experience is only present in certain fields. My opponent also points out that a degree only educates in a certain area. I would like to point out that people usually take more than one course in college, and that working at a single job gives a similarly narrow field of expertise. My opponent says that my points in the last paragraph of my last entry are correct, except that they advocate for free-schooling in general and not necessarily college. However, this is not the case, as I specifically mentioned college campuses, putting special emphasis on them being the centers of major cultural shifts such as the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements. A point that I would like to make is that the quality of life, as well as the happiness of the citizenry of countries wherein tertiary education is free or nearly free is higher than that of countries where it is expensive. People are more easily able to delegate their finances and not stress about the future when they don't have back-breaking student loans to pay off. I would also like to again stress the fact that education is not only to prepare us for work; it is also to make us better people. Martin Luther King Jr. said that "the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."(8) We spend tax dollars on so much that is immoral and illogical today. We pay for drones that spy on and kill civilians and wars that benefit those who took the money from us in order to pay for them. These things are wrong, but we have a chance to get something right. We can pay just a bit more than we already are, even if it's only for the tuition, or even if it only lowers the coast, not removes it, and in exchange we'll get a brighter, more enlightened, more open-minded future. We don't even have to pay it, actually, as long as we're willing to tell those Harvardized schmucks that beating the little guy in the face with a baseball bat-sized pipe wrench and then emptying his pockets so that they can go pay a different little guy a nickel to shine their shoes is a total (insert nickname for Richard) move. Conclusion: I would like to once again thank my opponent for this intriguing experience. Prior to the debate, I hadn't really seen any compelling arguments for his case; however, he has definitely brought up points for me to ponder further, and I am grateful for the experience and broadening of my perspective. I remain unwavering, though, in my assertion that college education, or at least the tuition or room and board, if not both, should be free, or else the entire coast should be dramatically reduced. 1- http://www.independent.co.uk... 2- http://www.bbc.com... 3- http://www.usnews.com... 4- http://www.forbes.com... 5- http://www.usdebtclock.org... 6- http://www.nationaldebtclocks.org... 7- http://www.usnews.com... 8-http://www.brainyquote.com...