Education: Right or Privilege?

Education is a...

  • right

    Votes: 14 63.6%

  • privilege

    Votes: 8 36.4%
  • Total voters
    22
J

jps

Valued Senior Member
Is education a right or a privilige? What do people think?
I just came from a City University of New York Board of Trustees meeting where in the face of a large militant student protest, the board members proceded to vote in an increase in the tuition for students in the CUNY system. The CUNY system exists to provide an education for people who couldn't otherwise afford it and was free until 1979. The tuition has been raised several times since then. This is not unique to the CUNY system. Tuition has been rising at colleges and universitys around the country.

It seems to me that in a society where people are allegedly considered equal, the right to an education can not be based on one's family background or economic status. By making higher education avaliable only to those who can afford it, our government is ensuring that people who are born into well off families will remain that way and those born into poor families will remain that way. This will serve to exacerbate the growing gap between rich and poor and perpetuate the domination of the country by the same small group of people.

It is my opinion that in a progressive civilized society everyone must have a right to an education.
 
You know, I worked my ass off to get my education, it's only an associate degree but it's mine, I'm tired of people thinking the world owes them this and that, to those people, get off your ass and work for it. After basic education it's up to the person and it's unfortunate we have such a large number of people wanting a free ride into those places some of us worked to get to with our own sweat.
 
Originally posted by siledre
You know, I worked my ass off to get my education, it's only an associate degree but it's mine, I'm tired of people thinking the world owes them this and that, to those people, get off your ass and work for it. After basic education it's up to the person and it's unfortunate we have such a large number of people wanting a free ride into those places some of us worked to get to with our own sweat.
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What if you're associates degree had cost just a little more than you were able to get even working your ass off?
In general, if you don't have a college degree its very hard to make enough money to pay for college. Even harder to make that money AND attend classes.
 
As it is, too many people have degrees. It is getting to the point were all jobs require a degree. I worked hard to go to University, and feel it is part of the weeding out process. If you want to go, you better be ready to work your ass off. If students lived in the real world they would see how cheap tuition really is.
 
Originally posted by Jeremy
As it is, too many people have degrees. It is getting to the point were all jobs require a degree. I worked hard to go to University, and feel it is part of the weeding out process. If you want to go, you better be ready to work your ass off. If students lived in the real world they would see how cheap tuition really is.
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part of the weeding out process is making it impossible for people from working class families to go to college? The people who attend colleges like CUNY are by and large, already working very very hard to pay for their education. The last time tuition was raised 5000 people had to drop out. On the other hand people going to Columbia and Harvard by and large are NOT working very hard to pay for their college.

Making education a right is not about giving people a free ride, they'd still have to work to get their degree, its about leveling the playing field.
 
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Poll protest: How about "necessity"?

I personally think education is a right, a right of necessity.

Education is the key to human progress as a species; progress as a species means progress for the individual. But instead people would rather exploit imbalances in the world. Hey, I know y'all work hard to pay for college, but that's the point. Do we want Dr. Hibbert or Dr. Nick? Peaceful protesters or masked anarchists? People with fewer reasons to fight or a population armed to the teeth?

However, reality forces us to admit that some human beings are worth less to the species than others; if you're not born of privilege, no education is not your right.

A society has an obligation unto itself to educate its members to the fullest potential. Otherwise there seems no point to having a society.

:m:,
Tiassa :cool:
 
A society has an obligation unto itself to educate its members to the fullest potential. Otherwise there seems no point to having a society.
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I agree. The gap between the haves & have nots are increasing exponentially. Where is this going to lead? Collapse of society me thinks:bugeye:
 
Re: Poll protest: How about "necessity"?

Originally posted by tiassa
I personally think education is a right, a right of necessity.

However, reality forces us to admit that some human beings are worth less to the species than others; if you're not born of privilege, no education is not your right.
Tiassa :cool:
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Tiassa, think about this scenario and then tell me again your views on this.

In our country Education is made to be a compulsory right upto the PhD level. Everyone has an opportunity to be education since fees are waived. Tell me how to handle the following scenarios:

- How would our ivy league universities that currenly perform state of the art research function while being over burdened. Pretty soon they will turn into shit.

-How would people select their professions? With everyone educated, what prevent the entire society from being doctors, lawyers, and engineers.....Much needed blue collar jobs would be abandoned....Noone would want to do anything less than the education they recieved.

Tiassa, under our current system, and while education remain to be a previledge, our talented poor are still being educated because they have the drive and ability to win in this system regardless of the setup. My dad came to this country with 20 dollars and F1 visa 35 years ago and managed to pull a PHD from University of Michigan....When the environment is correct, professors have opportunities to pull the talented from outside, even those who can't afford the program. If you drown the system with a bunch of useless souls who shouldn't be there, then the talented would loose out in the process.
 
monkey: agreed.
it's everyone's responsibility to themselves and to society to learn as much as they can.
 
Originally posted by jps
Is education a right or a privilige? What do people think?
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Depends on your GDP eh? If you've go the resources, education becomes a right. Otherwise it's a privilege.
 
Where I spent most of my life (Latvia) education was an obligation.
In US, considering prices of education and competition, it is a privilege. Back in the day when Afr. Am.'s werent accepted to schools, education was a privilege (my point being that this isnt news).
 
Originally posted by whitewolf
Where I spent most of my life (Latvia) education was an obligation.
In US, considering prices of education and competition, it is a privilege. Back in the day when Afr. Am.'s werent accepted to schools, education was a privilege (my point being that this isnt news).
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Yeah, clearly, it is a privilege in the US, but do you think thats as it should be?
 
Well, in my country tuition fees are paid up to the BA degree level by the state. In the past two months, the Minister for Education suggested abolishing the free college tuition idea, only to trigger a massive outcry from the majority of the population and to have the idea shot down before it ever got past the cabinet. But is it seen as a right or a privilege? Neither. It's seen as a necessity, for purely practical reasons, namely that it's harder to get a job without a degree.
So can we amend the poll to add the "Necessity" option please?
 
I'd like to hear from Elsparks if the Universities in his country compare to Harvard, Berkely, Duke, ect.....And how does his country obtain funding for university research, ie.....Is research funding also publicly supported or is it privately supported by the industries.
 
Re: Re: Poll protest: How about "necessity"?

Originally posted by Flores
-How would people select their professions? With everyone educated, what prevent the entire society from being doctors, lawyers, and engineers.....Much needed blue collar jobs would be abandoned....Noone would want to do anything less than the education they recieved.
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That's a possibility... but here, school is free from the first year to the PhD one. Of course some school are not free but University is, thus everyone CAN study as long as he wants or as he can. The problem comes from food and bedrooms but our system helps students to pay it...

Now, we don't have so many post-graduates students... Lots of the teenagers like "blue collar" jobs too! Why can't everyone study, even if he will not use all his knowledge in his job? I heard once that knowledge is something that you will never lose... (but if you've got memory problem). That's our main treasure...

Don't worry, I understand your point of view, however I disagree! Just a thought : are you able to save someone that is doing a heart attack? I know that it's not a typical education topic but why would it be only studied by doctors? A baker could learn it too, no? I guess you would agree if you had an attack in his shop... I don't mean that a baker (or everyone else) should study medicine, but when the general knowledge of the population increases, that's good for everyone.

Understand? :bugeye:
 
Your points are well taken SG-N, but very unrealistic. You are sacrificing much when you make university education free. You are sacrificing the quality of education and removing the competetive edge and talent elimination system. Free market societies have been the best places to harvest opportunities, breed talents, and weed the useless. Universities need to stay as a free market so that they can react to the change in the world and always reflect the state of the art. Detaching universities from our supply demand economy would isolate universities from the outside world and would quickly deem them ineffective in producing with accordance to the need.

Also don't forget that money is not the only aspect. Scores and previous education play a big role. For example, in a free market system like the US, a 40 year old man may start studying engineering while holding a full time job to change his career. In France, that might not be possible, only highschool graduates with certain scores are admitted to certain universities...For example highest GPA goes to medical, lowest GPA goes to Gymnastic Education.....So France is producing a bunch of dum educators who have only studied education because their GPA was low even though some of them wanted to be doctors.
 
Wrong! In France university is open to everyone that has its baccalaureat (equivalent to A-levels). There's no exams needed to enter a french university. If you care about the "level" : the bad students are not able to go in 2nd year... that's all! Do your students get from 1st year to last year without passing exams? I guess that the answer is "no". The only difference between your system and ours is in the first year : you don't allow everyone to try, you don't give them a chance... while we don't think that it's a waste of time!
And for your information, Gymnastic Education is the only university that has a limited number of students... ;)
 
Sorry, I assumed France education system resembels Socialist Egyptian system that I briefly experienced. Sorry for the big extrapolation and thanks for the great info.....;)

I played with Frensh Gymnastic team in a mideterenean cup and they are very good.
 
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