Considering that in a democracy the people govern, we would hope that the people are educated, as their voting causes a chain reaction in th epolitical process. If the people are ignorant, they vote for ignorant politicians. And if the politicians are ignorant, the world suffers.
Inversely, if the people are educated, they wil vote for educated politicians. And if the politicians are educated, the world benefits.
Keeping this in mind, it would seem that free education for all ought to be the backbone of any democracy. Even manual labourers, considering that they vote too, should be educated beyond just simple job training. In essence, in any democracy, we need to create a society composed of an intellectual working class, an educated middle class, and philosopher kings ruling the state.
This being the case, it would seem logical that education ought to be free for all at all levels. The question then, though, is where the money should come from.
Some ideas I have on this are the following, and would like to know your thoughts on these or similar ideas:
1. Reduce school holidays and lengthen the school week to 6 days instead of 5. With modern technology, it is no longer as necessary for children to help their parents on the farm in summer. Besides, this could create jobs for needy adults looking for work while the children are in school, thus taking people off work assistance. This could also save parents money on babysitters in the summer while they work. A 6-day school week could also allow parents to work more hours without worrying about babysitters. Of course this would cost more money for teachers every year, but would allow students to complete their education, work, and thus pay taxes sooner to make up for it, not to mention money saved on babsitters over the years.
2. Make children complete their compulsory education by the age of 15. With (1) above, this should be possible, thus allowing students to work and thus pay taxes earlier.
3. Streamline school content. Just as replacing the combersome imperial system with metric allowed maths students to learn measurements faster, and also save money in businesses by saving time in not needing to translate between imperial and metric in international commerce (seeing how metric is more universal), we could promote international agreements in a kind of metric for languages. Language engineers could consider creating a common second language that is designed to be both precise and easy to learn, that could be learnt before a child even reaches the age of 15. In this way, even the least educated could access information from around the world efficiently, study abroad in this common language even if they lack the aptitude for language learning, do business while saving money on translation, etc. the money saved on interpreters alone would amount to the billions of dollars anually! Maybe even trillions around the world!
4. To make money transfers more efficient, rather than have workers give the money to the government by way of taxes, then have the government give or not give the money to schools and universities, the government could simply require workers to give a certain amount of their income directly to a school of their choice. Of course this amount must be high enough to provide education for all. This would cut out a lot of bureaucracy and politics out of it.
Inversely, if the people are educated, they wil vote for educated politicians. And if the politicians are educated, the world benefits.
Keeping this in mind, it would seem that free education for all ought to be the backbone of any democracy. Even manual labourers, considering that they vote too, should be educated beyond just simple job training. In essence, in any democracy, we need to create a society composed of an intellectual working class, an educated middle class, and philosopher kings ruling the state.
This being the case, it would seem logical that education ought to be free for all at all levels. The question then, though, is where the money should come from.
Some ideas I have on this are the following, and would like to know your thoughts on these or similar ideas:
1. Reduce school holidays and lengthen the school week to 6 days instead of 5. With modern technology, it is no longer as necessary for children to help their parents on the farm in summer. Besides, this could create jobs for needy adults looking for work while the children are in school, thus taking people off work assistance. This could also save parents money on babysitters in the summer while they work. A 6-day school week could also allow parents to work more hours without worrying about babysitters. Of course this would cost more money for teachers every year, but would allow students to complete their education, work, and thus pay taxes sooner to make up for it, not to mention money saved on babsitters over the years.
2. Make children complete their compulsory education by the age of 15. With (1) above, this should be possible, thus allowing students to work and thus pay taxes earlier.
3. Streamline school content. Just as replacing the combersome imperial system with metric allowed maths students to learn measurements faster, and also save money in businesses by saving time in not needing to translate between imperial and metric in international commerce (seeing how metric is more universal), we could promote international agreements in a kind of metric for languages. Language engineers could consider creating a common second language that is designed to be both precise and easy to learn, that could be learnt before a child even reaches the age of 15. In this way, even the least educated could access information from around the world efficiently, study abroad in this common language even if they lack the aptitude for language learning, do business while saving money on translation, etc. the money saved on interpreters alone would amount to the billions of dollars anually! Maybe even trillions around the world!
4. To make money transfers more efficient, rather than have workers give the money to the government by way of taxes, then have the government give or not give the money to schools and universities, the government could simply require workers to give a certain amount of their income directly to a school of their choice. Of course this amount must be high enough to provide education for all. This would cut out a lot of bureaucracy and politics out of it.