While US students wallow in debt that exceeds $1 trillion, according to Forbes, Germany is now offering a tuition-free future for upcoming generations.
No, it's not a far-fetched idea for the government to invest in a country's intellectual capacity by financing advanced education. The more students who have access to the university, the greater the contribution to a nation's growth and well-being, particularly in this age of advanced technology and scientific knowledge. Instead of allowing its students to be burdened by lifelong debt - or not going to college at all because of the costs - Germany sees that it benefits the country to subsidize debt-free higher education.
A September Times of London article headlined, "German universities scrap all tuition fees," also alludes to the economic justice aspect of the policy:
All German universities will be free of charge when term starts next week after fees were abandoned in Lower Saxony, the last of seven states to charge.
"Tuition fees are socially unjust," said Dorothee Stapelfeldt, senator for science in Hamburg, which scrapped charges in 2012. "They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany."
In the United States, unless you are the offspring of extremely wealthy parents, you are likely to be saddled with debt - even if you attend a public university. There are many people and institutions that profit off of student indebtedness, including banks, highly paid university administrators and even the federal government, which administers the majority of loans.
As Sen. Elizabeth Warren has pointed out in the past, corporations and financial institutions in the United States do not "make it on their own."
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/comm ... in-germany