Questions/ Education · lifelong learning and digital literacy
Should everyone be able to expect schooling that is free to begin with, and open on merit at every level after?
Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights asks states to make primary education free and higher education equally open on the basis of capacity. Line 4 of the family’s draft is written from it.
What everyone can expect, draft 0.3, line 4 · ICESCR art. 13
Schooling that is free to begin with and open, on merit, at every level after.
Two starter cards
Written for the hearth so this question has a whole card on each side to argue with. No visitor wrote them, so the two parts only a person can fill are empty: what happened to you, and who on the other side called the case against fair.
Yes, at any age
Where this card stands
Yes, and every level should include adults going back to study, so the line should name learning at any age.
How sure, before and after the case against
The strongest case against it
Free at every level means taxpayers who never go to university pay for people who do, who are on average better off. A loan repaid from higher earnings is fairer.
What would change this card’s mind
If free university mainly added places for students from better-off families.
How this card would word the line
Schooling that is free to begin with and open, on merit, at every level after, at any age.
Free to begin with, yes. After that, open on merit, with grants for the students who need them in place of free places for everyone.
How sure, before and after the case against
The strongest case against it
Means-tested grants leave out families just above the line and put off students who fear debt, so free places reach more of the people the grants are meant for.
What would change this card’s mind
If students from poorer families enrolled at higher rates where university was free than where it had means-tested grants.
“Argue with this card” opens the card on the front page with this card’s position as the case against you. You write where you stand and what would change your mind.