I think two years of vocational/trade school or two years of core college courses (economics, civics, history, etc.) should be funded as we do now through high school – but not just by property taxes alone, but paid for nevertheless.
In other words, extend public education by two years for those who want it – and perhaps meets qualifying criteria.
Seems to me everyone benefits in the long run. The US needs to remain competitive, needs to raise its skill levels.
There would be minimal excuse in the future to be stuck in a minimum wage job.
I posted this idea on Facebook and here is sample of the reaction I received from people identifying themselves as “on the right.”
Nobody paid for my education. I’m not paying for anybody else’s.
I believe my parents paid taxes to educate us and long after we all graduated and got good jobs. Previous comment is absolutely correct , government forgiveness shifts the burden of failed choices to others. The banks lose the potential income people signed contracts to pay them , so there are losers in the Democrats plan , which we all will ultimately have to make up thru rates they charge us.
Are you really serious? You pay for it, get your friends to pay
Sounds a little like redistribution of wealth
Absurd as usual… see how the majority survived…
…Look at how the Current system is stealing $ from us to buy votes. Illegal..
These points of view seem a bit short-sighted in my opinion.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
“There would be minimal excuse in the future to be stuck in a minimum wage job.”
Fallacy of composition…
“The fallacy of composition is an informal fallacy that arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole.”
Example: If a runner runs faster, that runner can win the race. Therefore, if all the runners run faster, they can all win the race.
My go to example, “Anyone can grow up to be President, but everyone can’t grow up to be President.”
If twenty percent of available jobs are minimum wage, twenty percent will still earn minimum wage, even if everyone had a college degree.
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interesting, your Fallacy of Composition sounds like common sense to me. I suspect minimum wage jobs for many are nor forever one begins there and moves onward and upward.
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I think your logic has an error. I said “stuck” While 20% may be in minimum wage jobs, it does not have to be the same peoole year after year. The probability of escaping rises with skills and education does it not?
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No, not the same twenty percent, according to Statista about 44 percent of workers 16 to 24 earn minimum wage or less. 25 to 34 only about 20 percent, but from 35 to 64, a constant 10 percent are still low wage jobs.
Roughly half of my immediate family worked in assembly line or janitorial or service (waitress) jobs at or near minimum wage, retired on SS only.
There just aren’t enough higher paying jobs to go around.
Yes, the probability of escaping rises with education, but there just aren’t enough higher paying jobs for everybody who “wants” one.
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Don’t know where those numbers come from but according to the BLS The percentage of hourly paid workers earning the prevailing federal minimum wage or less was 1.1 percent in 2023
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Mea culpa…
https://www.statista.com/statistics/298866/percentage-of-low-wage-workers-in-the-us-by-age/
Perhaps technically not minimum wage, I’m thinking of people who took entry level, unskilled jobs and stayed there. Where I come from, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a few.*
It’s not unusual, especially in a two income household in rural Illinois.
*Not literally.
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free (who is paying???) tuition for what one should have learned in the 12+ years of public education-don’t dare mention educational reform as the lefties and their teacher-union friends will have conniptions–more money for education with the largest % going to salaries which are then debited for union dues and sent to the Dems so they can lobby for even more $ in a few years.
And those comments from the great unwashed deplorable red hat wearing Maga folks–maybe the electrician, plumber, or HVAC person showing up at your fancy living quarters is that person–no quotes by lefties?
Vouchers and charter schools a much better solution to educate young people in grades 1-12–let the money follow the child–if you get food stamps you can attend Kroger–Piggly Wiggly–Safeway–Wegman’s–nobody tells you where you can use your taxpayer money. Same with Medicare and or Medicaid–I assume every hospital takes these patients although not every doctor takes Medicare/Medicaid.
Vocational schools are a great idea–should be part of the public school system. Graduates of vocational tech schools can make excellent salaries. I know a young master plumber who only works, with his father, in Greenwich and a few surrounding towns in CT. They have done exceptionally well over the years. The young man trained with the best–his Dad. But vocational schools are a good alternative to the college campus of today.
Georgia is one of a number of states doing well by high school grads with grants and scholarships.
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I can understand the feeling of these people who say enough is enough but the free tuition for tech school and junior college has merit. In fact, the state tech schools in Georgia have very low cost of attendance. The problem is encouraging people who should be going to them rather than be channeled into more expensive four year colleges. The quality of instruction may be a problem in many technical areas.
I see so many news stories every April and May of high school principals touting the high percentage of their graduates going to college. Far more are going to college than are prepared for it. This is true even after the kids have been exposed to 13 years of the classroom and many were in pre-K, so that is 14 and some were in 3 year old urograms prior to that.
The minimum wage jobs will always be there, it doesn’t mean someone has to be stuck in one forever.
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