Education is a right or is more like a priveledge

[umair127]

To a degree. It's just the bar will be raised for society as a whole. But since a greater percentage of the population will be better educated and more productive, society is raised up as a whole. And then we learn more, and we learn how to educate better. Someday kids in grade 1 who are learning addition right now will instead be learning devision, and graduate school engineering will be taught in high school. And the cycle can continue. Imagine what the individual can do with more knowledge. Then imagine that a country will be like if everyone had that additional knowledge.

[fdiini]

We already have a lot of over educated unemployed bump sitting at home reading this forum.

[5flags]

Education is inevitable, unless you're in a sensory deprivation chamber.

If you're talking about formal schooling, then no one has the obligation to provide it, although it is your right to seek it.

[nickenburg]

People is answering as if this question was a moral one. But almost all current societies already decided that education is a right.
If this right is indeed respected and, if in some societies, education becomes a privilege of the well-off, that is another question.

Yes its a right but you still have to pay for it, thatswhat i dont understand.
And the best schools in the world are also the most expensive.
Look at Harvard it's like the most expensive school in the world.
Only rich parents can pay that or you will have to get a scholarship.

[negafen]

I get free education from the internet.

[titan86]

IMO depends on the age. If you are talking about school than it's a right but as for college and Univesity it's a priveledge

[Trading]

You can get education for free if you can't pay it, including college. But not free access to the best private universities. That is indeed a privilege.
 

[b!z]

Education is a right.

[Trading]

On the issue of the poor having access to free education (actually, for basic education it's the poor and the rich, but that will have to end in time, because of demographic problems) paid by society:

Some already wrote that society has every thing to earn with that. Many poor people are bright people, having them working on construction means that society is not taking advantage of their best elements. A society based on merit can only operate with free education for the poor. An economy not based on merit won't be an efficient economy. Think about medieval economy, where the best were excluded from access to some professions based on their birth.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg, there are other aspects:
1) Moral issues (solidarity with the poor)
2) Justice issues (about equality of opportunities and limiting ending inequalities that can even affect democracy)
3) Income issues: what was the role of society on the income you got? On infrastructure, on all the ideas and instruments society made for you that allowed you to get your income...Why shouldn't society get its share on your income? Paying taxes is extortion or slavery as Nozick said? Think twice.
4) Political issues: and these are the decisive ones. Everybody votes and the majority of voters are poor or median income: they decided they want to have the support of the richer on social issues. You don't agree with the other 3 criteria? They couldn't care less. The majority will send the State to take your house if you don't pay taxes and get caught.