STEVEN FRIEDMAN: Free tertiary education will escalate inequality
Public services can reach all who need them only if those who can pay their share, do
ONE of the ironies of our society is that a free pass for the wealthy has become a radical demand — to the dismay of many who it would benefit.Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s approval for university fee increases was denounced by supporters of free higher education, despite relief for students who cannot pay. This was no surprise: the demand that no one pay for higher university has become, for many radicals, an article of faith. And so, not for the first time, we are told that the most radical position is that those who can afford public services should not pay.Radicals are meant to believe that resources should be redistributed from those who have to those who are forced to go without. But free tertiary education, by enabling those who can afford much more to contribute nothing, would redistribute upwards, not downwards.Opponents of free higher education usually say it is unaffordable. This misses the point: money is available for free post-school education, but only if...
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