how can America invest more in education while still being ethical?

Question

dilemma -- in America, education once received belongs to the worker, who is free to take work almost anywhere he can find it.  Thus, there is little or no incentive for employers to provide training and education to workers, except in those circumstances where the employee who benefits essentially can not quit and take his training with him.

This leaves education and training to the vo-techs, community colleges, universities, and private for profit education system.  Sadly, many of their knowledge providers have little real world practical experience -- and the 'education' provided all too frequently is of little value to employers.

This also leads to some or many students graduating with large student debt, requiring a near lifetime [or longer] to repay.

Without violating the Constitution or America's anti-trust laws, how can this system be rebuilt to be both more effective, cheaper to operate, and leave the learner with lower debt?

{The underlying point of Bernie's "free college" campaign position is that America NEEDS to invest much more in education (it leads to economic growth).  the problem is that taxing those who won't benefit from that higher education in order to enrich those who will is simply another income transfer from the poor to the middle class scheme -- and makes income inequality worse, not better.}

Anonymous · Answer

There is much truth to what you say, but there is no ethical dilemma obvious to me in all that. For decades it's been true, employers hardly train their employees at all. Employers expect workers to come to their doorsteps with everything educational they will need to do the job. They give out those internships now, sometimes unpaid, instead of on the job training, where the prospective employee gets to be a gopher or sidekick for a current employee who needs an extra laborer for an assignment. In some ways it is better this way. Now the employee owes no loyalty to an employer. The employee owns her own knowledge now too. She acquired it on her own volition and mostly paid for it too. It's hers, not her employers. Unfortunately employers still mostly hold the key to earning a living, but even there they are washing their hands of a lot of that too.

The recommendation is to make community college education 'free.' There is no moral peril with that suggestion. You can view it as an extension of the primary and secondary education that is provided now that is free to all qualified comers. Of course none of it is actually free. They are covered by taxes.

The idea that wealth transfers are unfair is a pit of BS. Wealth is constantly being transferred on all levels, privately and publicly, legally and illegally in the US. You question a single transfer as if it is loaded with moral peril above all other wealth transfers. Why pick out one wealth transfer and make it out to be the one we cannot tolerate?

how can America invest more in education while still being ethical?

1 Answer