It doesn't. It costs money to skip a lot of the effort and have someone guide you through a curriculum and give you direct guidance and feedback on how to get that knowledge.

I have an Engineering degree, everything I learned there could absolutely be learned by someone curious poking around on the internet for videos, papers, and course slides that you'll probably need to read alongside a wiki page. They tend to come up pretty quickly once you're familiar enough with a field to start investigating one level deeper from a basic high school education.

Here in Sweden education is free, and the government provides a (small) monthly payout to students.

It doesn't benefit the ruling class if too many of the wrong people access education; they may get ideas.

A man I respect quite a lot used to say that college should pay a full-time wage to the students. It should be challenging, it should be a real education (which a lot of modern college is not), and in exchange for that, if you are improving your understanding of the world and your ability to contribute to society, that should be something that society pays you a pretty decent wage for, because it's a fucking valuable activity.

It was free until some time in the 1960s when black people started getting involved in higher education, then the republicans got big mad about that and changed the rules because they're racist pieces of shit. They would rather make everyone suffer if it hurts one person who isn't a white christian republican.

There's more detail but that's the short version.

Disclaimer: I 100% support "free" healthcare and "free" education.

Being a teacher is a job. Being a college professor is a job. Being a nurse is a job. Being a janitor for a college campus is a job. People need money and benefits to do jobs. We've not yet achieved a post-scarcity economy where people can work without being reimbursed for their efforts.

Anyone who labels the goal of providing publicly-funded education or publicly-funded healthcare as "free" is either arguing in bad faith or too naive to understand what the goal should be. As a society we should provide public services, such as education and healthcare, to all humans who ask for it. For the good of all humans. But it's something we all have to collectively fund.

It doesn’t.

It takes time and effort to gain more knowledge. It has never been cheaper or more accessible to acquire knowledge than it is today.

To increase your intelligence, is another matter all together.

It's still free. You're not paying for the education, you are paying teachers and university buildings/materials. No one is stopping you from going to the library and learning. The internet hosts a large wealth of knowledge.

I'm ready for those downvotes, but it's just a hardpill to swollow

It doesn't.

You need to study to be smart and studying is free.

I would argue that its rare for education to make you smarter, it mostly makes you more knowlegable.

Knowledge is mostly free though. You can get it from the internet, from the library etc. A lot of what you are paying for is the certification - some places let you just sit the exam I think.

The library is free, my dude

RIP Aaron Swartz

Free education would empower 'those' people. And the right desperately needs an other to denigrate.

Thats about certificated stuff from school. Knowledge has never been more accessible than today.

It is not about getting smarter. It is about transferring knowledge. For that, the teaching person must a) have the knowledge, and b) the skills to actually transfer it. Both do not come easy and cheap.

You simply pay a professional person money for professional work. And sometimes it is really, really worth it. I learned one programming language in an expensive three day course - from the person who wrote the actual tools. This was intense. The amount of knowledge and insight gained was marvelous. And well worth the money.

*in the US. In Germany a semester at my university costs about 300 Euros and that includes cheaper lunch and a ticket to use all public transport in the whole of Germany.

Libraries are free.

Many libraries and community centers offer free classes depending on the subject. Local clubs can offer classes. Lots of youtube classes are free, like Khan Academy.

What you’re paying for is the degree on top of the education. A checkmark in a box that employers use to weed out people that don’t play the game of jumping through the hoops.

In Australia University used to be free. At some point they realised that Asia is close and has a virtually limitless supply of rich parents who want to pay big money for their kids to be lawyers and doctors.

Education is now one of Australia's main exports.

I guess you're talking about the US.

Well, everything costs money there: education, health, safety... It's capitalist dystopia.

This may not be a popular opinion but I personally reject the belief that universities have a monopoly on education. In fact I think most are designed to create a more compliant employee.

That said libraries are free, piracy is free, YouTube hosts millions of lectures by experts in their field and can be downloaded to watch or listen offline. I personally have spent the past couple years learning about the affects of US imperialism and haven’t spent a cent on it

Formal education isn't for education but for the formal paper. There is so much information on the web, just learn from that. Also, libraries often times have material other than physical books

formal education feels like it was fully co-opted by "the market"

If you want to join "the market" (have a job and get paid for it), you need formal education
To get formal education, you need money
To get money, you need to join "the market" or have someone who's "in" to pay for you

As for "getting smarter", that's different from formal education

There are a lot more quality free learning resources than people realise.

There are all sorts of classes available at top schools via opencourseware. You can take the highest tier courses that the US has to offer, and become educated. While not degree offering, it still would look great on a CV, if you can somehow prove you did the work.

Free books. A few years ago, I read a free electrical engineering book available on the internet, which I found fascinating. It has been a little helpful in practice as well, but I think it’s just cool to know how capacitors and motors work. Public libraries exist for a reason. Gutenberg is another option.

Many 2 year community colleges are now free tuition if you reside in the state.

And of course, there are still ways to get a degree cheap, if the paper is important to you. I finally landed at WGU 15 years ago and it was very reasonable, and has paid dividends on my original investment.