Why should public school be free when community college isn't?

 So after you are done with high school, if you want to continue school you gotta pay.

My Take:

This can be looked at in a simple, fast way, or more in depth. Lets do both.

Simple way:

If public school wasn't free and even if it was very cheap probably more than half of the kids in school now wouldn't be in school. At all. God forbid your kids get an education at the cost of some money. While a lot of parents would just refuse to pay, some also wouldn't actually be able to pay for it.

In depth:

So its a standard thing in our nation. Everyone knows it and how it works. You start kindergarten and are in school from then until you graduate high school. This is a given for everyone. Why? Well one because you are required to go. If the government is going to pay for you to go to school, well you better go to school. And why not anyways? Its free, you learn shit, you get to meet people and make friends all for the price of $0.00.

So what if it wasn't free? What if the government charged a yearly fee for your kid to go to school? Would you pay it? What if it was $100 per year? What if it was $500 per year? This I think all depends on income of the family. Is $500 a year actually alot of money for an ENTIRE year of schooling? Not at all. What if you have 4 kids? Little more expensive now. So lets look at three different examples assuming that the yearly cost for school is $500.

Example One:

Middle class family that makes $65000 a year and has one kid. $500 a year? No problem. That's hardly anything for your child to go to school for an entire year.

Example Two:

Same family with the same income but with 4 kids. Now were talking about $2000 a year for your kids to get an education. Yes, definitely more expensive but $2000 over a years time really isn't much money. Just give up your daily Starbucks coffee for a year and that's around $1400 right there. Education > Coffee.

Example Three:

Lower class family that is struggling to get by and has two kids. $1000 a year? Hell ya that's alot of money when you are barely making it already. HOWEVER, knowing our lame ass country we will make a "welfare" version of education that will lower the price. So say our government lowers it for the less "fortunate" and make it only $200 a year per kid. So now you are looking at only $400 per year for both of your kids to get an education. Definitely doable.

I think that there is a different underlying problem though, and that problem is parents unwillingness to sacrifice for their kids. While alot of parents have no issue sacrificing to better their kids future, alot of parents also wont. A lot of parents don't care how their kids do in school. Don't care to help with homework, or go to after school activities. Some don't even care if their kids go to school at all. I personally think that these types of parents are PROBABLY in the lower class also because of their lack of give a shit.

So what happens when you then require parents to pay for their kids to go to public school? I can guarantee you that you are going to see alot less kids in school because god forbid you have to come up with a few hundred dollars to provide an education for your kid. Lord knows you cant do without that coffee, cigarettes, or pick a random crutch that you HAVE to have in order to live life.

I personally think that the parents should pay their children's teachers, on top of what they already make. If your kid goes through the 2nd grade and makes it to the 3rd grade, and he/she learned over that year, you should pay that teacher an extra $500 out of your pocket. I think that is totally worth it. Not to mention teachers are heavily underpaid anyways. Think if a teacher had a class of 20 kids for a school year. That means that teacher will get an extra $10000 at the end of the year for doing a good job. Did your kid fail and have to repeat the 2nd grade? (assuming that your kid didn't fail because of missing school or something he/she did) the teacher doesn't get that $500 from you. That's a pretty good incentive and would probably also promote better teaching.