Compulsory Education
Posted: Tue May 18, 2010 2:05 am
In most (if not all) countries in the developed world, there seems to be at present a consensus that not only is there a "right to education," but that education is required. So ingrained has this idea become in our culture that the question about whether it is the government's place to mandate education is hardly even controversial.
That is exactly the question at hand.
Topic:
Should the government require that certain levels of education be provided to its citizens (primarily children)? To what levels of education, and to what fields, should this mandate stretch? Assuming the government does mandate education, how should the government define it?
A bonus question: Taking local/national (or, for the Americans out there, State/Federal) governments into account, which level of government should deal with this issue?
Below are resources you can (but are by no means required to) use. Feel free to introduce others into the topic, or PM me if you find some more useful ones; I'll make sure to include them in this post and credit you.
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Recommended reading (feel free to cite!):
Murray Rothbard's "Education: Free and Compulsory" []:A comprehensive look at the rare view that education should be neither "free" nor compulsory from an austrian/libertarian standpoint. Fair warning: this view is extreme and even those who believe education should not be compulsory may only agree in part. Also, this article is long so feel free to skim it if you feel inclined to read it at all.
I'll find a fitting pro-compulsory article later, but they are hard to find considering that compulsory education is the status quo.
That is exactly the question at hand.
Topic:
Should the government require that certain levels of education be provided to its citizens (primarily children)? To what levels of education, and to what fields, should this mandate stretch? Assuming the government does mandate education, how should the government define it?
A bonus question: Taking local/national (or, for the Americans out there, State/Federal) governments into account, which level of government should deal with this issue?
Below are resources you can (but are by no means required to) use. Feel free to introduce others into the topic, or PM me if you find some more useful ones; I'll make sure to include them in this post and credit you.
------------------------------------------
Recommended reading (feel free to cite!):
Murray Rothbard's "Education: Free and Compulsory" []:A comprehensive look at the rare view that education should be neither "free" nor compulsory from an austrian/libertarian standpoint. Fair warning: this view is extreme and even those who believe education should not be compulsory may only agree in part. Also, this article is long so feel free to skim it if you feel inclined to read it at all.
I'll find a fitting pro-compulsory article later, but they are hard to find considering that compulsory education is the status quo.