re: #314 Anymouse 🌹

Even back in the Seventies, conservatives were undermining budgets for education and complaining about “Marxist” professors.

Yes, but that is not the ultimate cause of the inability of states to pay college costs out of general revenue. The problem, even here in California where being a “marxist” is not totally anathema, the problem with everyone going to college is that it meant expanding the system significantly. And that costs money.

There is a salvation-by-education belief among many leftists. I think this has many causes, but I find that it is still a fallacy in the end. Education can provide one with important skills and, if the individual is so inclined characterologically, a way to think about the world.

But I find so much in life which can be done without forcing someone to sit through endless hours of required college classes (of subjects the student could not care less). One can, if trained by a good primary and secondary school system, accomplish quite a bit in life with only 12 years of formal education ( and yes, I realize many people live in areas where they are poorly served by their teachers and schools.)

Yet our society is set up to value its own belief system, and our society believes in credentials for credentials sake.