Why America “Can’t” Have Tuition-Free College
Yes, “can’t” in quotation marks because, of course, we could have education without charging ridiculous amounts of money for access to it, but…
I have one child at university and two more in high school, so wouldn’t I just love it if the United States offered tuition-free options for higher education? You betcha. Germany is often pointed to as the example, but there are a few countries that have some version of free college/university education. So why doesn’t the U.S.? Well, some might point to the fact that we are a very large country, that state governments are kind of the middle men when it comes to offering higher education, etc. But there’s another glaring reason:
Capitalism.
You see, a capitalist society doesn’t function without a poor and uneducated class to handle manual labor and the jobs taken by those unequipped and unable to do anything more than the basics. If everyone gets smart, they’ll also get wise to the system that is oppressing them and may even have the temerity to do something about it.
On top of that is the classism that the rich and educated depend on. Universities have long been as much about forging networks as about learning anything—in many cases, more about making those connections that about whatever degree you walk away with. The wealthy are invested in protecting those networks from anyone they deem unworthy of having access to them. Therefore, no free and open enrollments. If anything, they’d rather make it more difficult for people to attend college so that they can keep the elites, well, elite.
And then there’s good, old-fashioned politics. An uneducated population is easier to lie to, trick, control, and frighten. The fewer intellectuals there are, the better off any would-be despot, tyrant, or dictator (and his cronies and “ruling class”) will fare. Controlling information is key to controlling a country and its people. That’s why China, North Korea, and the like have strict laws regarding the internet and any world news or contact with that outside world.
So, yes, America could have free college tuition. But not until it ousts all the old, elitist assholes making the decisions that benefit them rather than the population as a whole.