Tennessee makes Community College free.

Military service, working at the library, working at town hall, road work, etc.. Things like that.

Why would those be more of a public service than getting a higher paying job and paying more income taxes?

Because at the time you're in school, you currently don't have that job and there's no guarantee you will get that higher paying job. If you want "free" education, you should earn it.

Military service is a Federal issue, not a state issue, and ideally is something that the Federal government should handle, not a state government. As for working at town hall, there's only a limited number of positions available, once those are filled, then what? I don't know about the rest of the US, but in TN most road construction is handled by private corporations who bid on the project, with state and local government employees doing very little. Are you suggesting that TN stop hiring private contractors to do road work? I also noticed that you failed to mention anything about how this would be paid for. Additionally, are you expecting people who work at the library, town hall, etc, to do so without collecting a paycheck from those jobs? Or do you think that they should be paid, in addition to getting their college educational expenses covered?

Maybe not on a case by case basis, but on the whole, it's pretty much a certainty that people will get higher paying jobs and thus pay more income taxes...that being the case, the education would more than pay for its self. It's win win.

That's like telling a fetus if they want the "right" to be born, they should "earn" it.

I'm not opposed to the lottery paying for it if it's handled properly. As for them getting paid, perhaps they get a stipend and maybe it's only part time. Also, I envision it as paying for tuition only, they would be responsible for books, food and housing.

Nobody has a right to higher education.

Yeah, but it's not about rights. It's about self interest. It's in people's self interest to earn more money, and it's in the State's self interest to have it's people earning more money.

Again, I'm not opposed to the lottery paying for it either, it's a good alternative. I would also propose my plan for citizenship. If someone is here illegally, I don't have a problem exchanging citizenship for service.

You'd think "everyone" knows a lot of things, but experience shows it just ain't so. And some people throw the word "free" around so casually, or confidently, or repeatedly, it's best to be sure everyone's on the same page.

And how do you define "properly"? Given that you already think that the state can't do this correctly since they're funding it via the lottery, I'm curious as to what makes you think that they could do it a different way correctly, considering that the funds would come from the same source.

"Maybe"??? Yeah, that don't work. Either you know or you don't. Which is it?

Back in '09, I lucked up on an "Obama scholarship grant." They picked up the tab for me to go to school, plus paid for some of my textbooks. I "only" had to cover the cost of the remaining textbooks, my food, and my living expenses. This was while the only job I could get (despite 7 years of college and 4 years of trade school) was working at Wallyworld. Do you have any idea of how hard it is to go to school full time while working full time when you're over 40? Mind you, I'm single with no kids, so I didn't have the worries about dealing with a family, but it damned near killed me. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a single parent, at around my age, attempting to do the same thing. Hell, the 18-year-old me had more buying power with his minimum wage job back in '88, than I did with my slightly better than minimum wage job, some 30 years later. And this program isn't aimed solely at recent high school grads, like the current program is, but at every Tennessean who lacks a post-high school degree. Bear in mind that the TN educational system is comparable to that in Guyana. We're not exactly talking great here.

I'm on my phone so I'm not going to quote each point. As for the state not handling things properly, often times, from what I've seen, whenever lottery money goes to education, it gets lumped in and never truly goes towards education. TN's plan seems legit, so we'll see.

I say maybe because it's a hypothetical plan, I'm not a politician. If I were, it wouldn't be a maybe, it would be written into legislation.

Third point, it's hard, but not impossible.

Why not?

Tuition-free K-12 education has been generally accepted for decades. And an associate's degree today is more or less what a high school diploma was 40 years ago. So why should our educational system not change with the times?

So change it legislatively. Many of us believed gay marriage should be a right, just because you believe that, doesn't make it so.

What the fuck are you talking about?

They did change it legislatively.

Yes and if you believe higher education is a right, change the law.

We absolutely do not need anyone "forced" to work for the government because government paid for their schooling.

And everyone in the state should sign up for college. It's free after all.

Change what law?

Seriously, is this just a knee-jerk response that you type reflexively whenever the word "right" is mentioned? Because changing the law is exactly what the Tennessee legislature did.

Instead why don't we revamp K-12?

Because really what good is an associate's degree if the system has failed K-12?

At the college level it's too late.

I'm talking generally.

This. Maybe get rid of common core?

Generally?

Do you even have the slightest idea what you're talking about?

Jesus, I'm talking about a right you seem to believe exists. If you believe that, then vote for people who share that view. So far, it's not a right, nationally.

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Are you saying that something is only a right if the government chooses to make it one? That's a surprising view.

That explains nothing. Just because you say it would be "written into legislation" is meaningless. The Republican governor of TN pushed for Medicare expansion in this state, but the Republican legislature blocked it.

Given your logic, since I was born and raised in the state which has produced more astronauts than any other (Ohio), it should be a shoe-in for me to be an astronaut. The reality is that because of various circumstances, the odds of my becoming a NASA astronaut are effectively nil.

Common Core only recently went into effect in certain states, and wasn't a Federal program AFAIK.

And many of the things that people think are in Common Core, actually aren't.