Thomas Jefferson said that, and it's etched into the walls of his tomb in Washington DC.

As a conservative, you see an education only in terms of how it benefits you personally, as if it's a guarantee of a financial reward down the road; an education is an investment no different than buying stock or capital equipment. If an education is only a personal benefit, it's not unreasonable to question the "fairness" of giving people access to education who haven't "earned" it.

As a liberal, and admirer of Jefferson, I see how an educated citizenry benefits society, and as a member of that society, how general education levels affect my life personally. I'm not happy living in a world of stupid; I'd be happier if there were less general ignorance and irrationality in the world, and I know the cure is general education. It matters to me that other people get an education.

Even conservatives acknowledge that educated workers benefit businesses, so right there you're acknowledging that education isn't strictly a personal benefit. To take that position to its logical conclusion, you have every right to expect your employer to pay for your education. Too bad it's a chicken-and-egg problem: You're unemployable (economically worthless) until you have an education.

Who breaks that logical impasse? I personally don't see the fairness in demanding that people toil "...58 hours a week at close to minimum wage every summer..." and "[end] up with $2500 in student debt at 8.5%" if it's for the benefit of your (future) employer. Even worse that the onus is on you, the 18 year old kid, to guess what the labor market will be like a decade down the road.

But if you don't have the job yet, who else but society, in the form of government, can bridge that logical gap? And yep, the cure is taxation: Tax business to pay for the education of their future workers. Make business do more than just whine about the poor quality of American workers (while starving society of resources needed to cure the problem).

Of course, as a liberal, I see the value of an education in more than monetary terms. Who at the HabitableZone doesn't wish for a higher level of scientific literacy in the world? Can a democracy function, and even survive, when a majority of its people don't understand basic facts about how the world works, or even what a map of that world looks like?

Sad to say, Rob, but your view of education as a benefit rather than a right has prevailed for several decades now, and the result is both toxic levels of student loan debt, and a poorly educated citizenry. America may not survive that philosophy.

It's a serious mistake to relegate education to the status of just another consumer commodity.