In the state of California, I remember the time when kindergarten - through the efforts of Rob "Meathead" Reiner (and I suspect someone younger would think I was including that epithet as an insult, having never seen the TV program of the 70's, "All in the Family") - became mandatory for children at the age of five. This was a great boon for working parents, since it meant they could stop paying money to private preschools for day care and instead have that expense transferred to the state to provide. For free. Okay, not really for free since anything a state - or the federal government, for that matter - provides "for free" is paid for by working Americans. Because, the government is run by taxpayers' money, a fact which bears repeating since that seems to be lost on a lot of the hordes "occupying" Wall Street and other public parks across the United States (which will need to be cleaned by tax dollars, too).
One of the demands in the manifesto du jour of the Wall Street Occupiers (less occupiers and more squatters, actually) is a demand for college education as a "human right." Accordingly, this would mean (a) everyone gets into college and (b) no one pays for it.
What happens then? As it is right now, to matriculate into a university, you have to demonstrate that you have the scholastic aptitude. Mind you, that aptitude could be defined as having the smarts (academic standing), having the skills (athletic standing), or having the skin (racial/ethnic standing). Even better, a combination of two or three. Certainly, any one of these alone might get you into college, but chances are only the first will actually keep you enrolled with time. In any case, you must demonstrate that you have a special status.
But if everyone gets in, then everyone is special and, of course, that means no one is. In short, entry into a really top notch college - say, Harvard or Yale - loses its prestige because it will become the right of that kid who sat next to your in homeroom and never excelled at anything but Auto Shop class to join you in those ivied halls.
And why wouldn't he? After all, it would also be free since the government is paying for it. Paying for it? Hell, take it a step further and expect to follow the European model, where college students are provided living stipends by the government. Wait, I can demand entrance into the college of my choice, kick back with Womyns Herstory courses and seminars in Marxist Influence on Hollywood Musicals and get paid? Sign me up! For those that complain that the less-than-rigorous currcula of today's college is not so far removed from those seen in high school, if college becomes a "human right", expect it to regress further. In short, college becomes the day care at which young adults will park themselves. The new kindergarten. At the taxpayers' expense.
On Saturday I had a nice lunch with a fellow student from my University of Tennessee extension course ar a restaurant in Market Square, in downtown Knoxville. While she was using the rest room, I got into conversation with our waiter, a fellow in his early to mid-20's. I remarked about the number of people milling about in orange clothing - it was a game day, after all (if you don't know, orange is the team color of the University of Tennessee Vols). He told me he was in his fifth year at UT. I asked him what was his major and he said "History." I asked him then what time frame interested him the most and he said - with a straight face - that he was a student of "contemporary history, you know, American diplomacy and interventionism, stuff like that."
Don't quit that day job, son - you'll be needing it for awhile.
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