Its a possibility however, we'd then have people 'milking' the system and the value of the degree would be lost..in the UK you don't have to pay back student loans unless you earn a fair income..so therefore the system is fair..we must also remember many youngesters don't want to study after leaving school..they just want money :D

I don't think it would make a vast difference, sorry to say. What they really need is guidance, support and to be taught a sense of morality through their school years; I think that would reduce the degree of crime and the recidivism rate.

Due to human psychology, I don't think that lowering the level of effort required to achieve something makes it more desirable, or motivates previously unmotivated people to achieve it. I just heard yesterday on NPR that monetary issues are responsible for about 10% of college dropouts; the other main reasons are lack of academic preparation and, I forget how he phrased it, but something along the lines of lack of feeling part of the college or feeling at home on campus. You might call it psychological preparation I guess. It probably arises largely, IMO, from one's upbringing and academic expectations.

Mostly things which do not cost are nothing worth. We have it in Germany and it does not bring much more as in thre USA. Lots of unqualified pupils and students are blocking the level.

Maybe in a perfect world but let's look at the facts: Children in countries where school (k-12) is not free do better than in countries where school is free on average. Obviously in countries where school is free there is less performance because there is no money involved directly in it (outside of tax money). If little tommy goes to school and fails 7th grade, there's no money riding on it directly out of mom and dad's pocket, so parents are less inclined to care if the child fails. Oh of course they want the child to graduate and be smart but parent's don't have money invested in it each semester or whatever, for many people unfortunately they think educational facilities are primarily responsible for %100 of a child's education and it is a daytime babysitter. My point being, that if colleges were free sure more people might attend but there's no certaintly that just because more people are attending that more will get a degree and even if they did get a degree well then you have more people out there with degrees looking for jobs which means that you have less available jobs and employers have more options and so then even with a degree you still have more competition for a job and have to either be at the top of your class or go get an apprenticeship or some other educational supplemental skills to give you the edge. Then what happens is with all these people who have degrees still working menial jobs because the job market is oversaturated with over qualified people, they take the jobs from the less educated and then a college degree is the equivelent to a diploma and you have people with bachelors degrees flipping burgers (which is sorta the situation we find the USA today.) So then we have employers requiring even more skills and school to be qualified so as to edge out all the people with degrees, then we have those with degrees working menial jobs, then we have those who have no degree losing jobs to overqualified people and then those people take jobs from others below them and then those are out of jobs and then you find a percentage of them resort to crime. So no, I don't think offering free college would really fix any situation. What I think we need instead are colleges that teach real skills, applicable skills, that people can actually use in their field of work choice. I have a business degree and a bs in Graphic Design and Illustration and still struggled for jobs when I first graduated because colleges do not teach you hands on skills, they teach books, I had to actually go out and work jobs to get hands on experience for the most part.

Of course more people would complete college. Turn the question around to see. If there were no public education of any kind, would just as many people graduate from high school having to pay their way through? Would the USA be better off or worse with a flood of poorly educated people forming what would amount to a permanent underclass? Thomas Jefferson was the father of modern public education. His notes reveal that he wanted public education through college, but knew he couldn't see that to conservatives of his day.

I don't know. When I wasn't paying for college, I partied - hard. When I returned & payed my own way, I had a 4.0.

Sure it would FOR A WHILE - on the margin. Then there would be more people competing for fewer jobs, there would be job requirement inflation where everyone needed a degree to get a job, salaries would go down because more highly qualified people would be available, the next higher degree would become the elite degree and then we'd just go through this whole cycle once again.