Steve,
Anytime, primo. Sometimes I can get all egghead when it comes to these things.

HP,
I should start limiting your comments to 200 words.

So what would happen if the United States made education free? I could think of only two possibilities: Option A and Option B. Option A being that public schools would then become (over time, of course) subject to political forces and restrictions, getting more funding in certain administrations, less in others, used for political favors, and an overall significant drop in public education quality. Just look at what free education has done to our public schools – especially in their interaction with the poorest citizens. Is that a model we should follow?

Option B is the opposite side of the spectrum (and significantly less likely). Basically public Universities capture enough political favor to increase their funding, political clout, and academic influence. But then who would be paying and who would be gaining? Given the known fact that state taxes tend to be regressive and top public University attendance is largely a benefit for the well off, this option would result in a largely lower middle class paying for the education of the upper middle class and upper class. In other words, the poor paying for the rich to become richer – resulting in larger income inequality.

Sure, some of that free money will ‘trickle down’ to poor students. But even then it’s a small minority that attend college. And of that small minority, a significant portion of those students don’t finish college. And of those that do, another significant portion take majors that get them nowhere. Coming out of UCLA with just a bachelors degree in Chicano Studies, for example, prepares you for a life of…McDonald’s service. All of this, while the upper middle class is largely concentrated in professions that will greatly increase their wealth later in life – doctors, lawyers, engineers – resulting in a huge return for their tax dollars.

So when you compare the winners to the losers…and factor in admittance rate, graduation rate, and life prospects after college of the poor, and who would end up paying the taxes to fund these Universities, you get a far different picture. Overall the Warren Buffett’s of the world would be very happy, but the Jose’s and Maria’s would be screwed over.

My stand is obvious: I take the typical conservative/libertarian position: “So California’s tuition increase is a step in the right direction; its universities should mimic elite private universities by setting a high official tuition rate, while discounting that rate for those of limited means. Better yet, California should simply privatize the entire university system.”