[sperry]

The one problem I have with what you're saying Kevin, is that a high school education is not enough anymore to make a person capable of succeeding on their own. I don't think it's because the world is more complicated than it was 40 years ago... it's probably because the education system isn't as good relative to the complexity of the world as it used to be.

Now I'm not advocating that all college level schooling should be free. But I would argue that if a person wants it, they should have access to at least a 2-year college type school, or a trade/apprenticeship type post high-school education paid for by my taxes. I know I'm sounding more and more socialist in these threads, but I firmly believe that properly educating everyone is the "magic bullet" that will make the difference between America's survival as a prominent world nation and becoming China's place to outsource their manufacturing over the next 100 years.

Certainly there will be a noticeable difference between someone with a gov't school college degree and someone coming out of MIT, and certainly the cost of providing both those degrees will be drastically different. But unless we're able to significantly raise the bar on what it takes to graduate high-school, a post HS education is effectively mandatory these days if you want the opportunity to excel in life. IMO, everyone deserves the option to get some trade-specific or higher level education, and as a tax payer, I would consider that cost to me as an investment in my own future as well as the future of my kids.