I grew up in a family of six children. The concept of intellectualism and academic achievement was really stressed by our parents. We were told that education is the most important thing we can have and we can go anywhere with an education. Although my parents are highly educated there was no way they can pay for college of six kids. They never questioned whether we should go to college. That was a must. Growing up, we all knew we will not get much of financial support from our parents. So, to me education was never a right it; it was a privilege that I knew I will have to work hard for. The courage and determination was what I needed to attend college not a financial support from the parents. .
As people who care about knowledge and learning, we have to understand that education is not a right; but a privilege. I don't see why the college education should be a right for everyone. College is not required for people to attend (only 25% of the population has a degree).
According to Mandingthecompus.com free education is simply not practical from economic point of view. Money is needed to fund education and research. Tuition is necessary because as soon as we hand out education for free and treat it as a right, the overall value of that education will go out the window. In many European countries college education is for free. Too many students go to college just because it is free and not because they want to learn. The results are: most of European countries have tax problems and since the government covers the tuition there is no money left for any kinds of research. They also have ridiculously high educated people who work in low level type jobs. According to "College Express" we need to use education as some sort of discriminator. It is not really worth paying to over-educate people to do simple jobs, where the money could be used elsewhere.
According to "Time Magazine" making higher education free would rapidly increase the demand.