four more years of high school I like that, and realistically, that is what will happen. More people will go to school, ending up costing a bit more, and the degrees received won't be valued in the labor market. There are people that claim the EU model of heavy heavy subsidies on education should be followed by the U.S. I agree, but the problem we face in the U.S. is that we have an unorganized system of qualifications and requirements that allows employers to sort of do whatever they want. "Oh we have to implement new electronic record systems because of a new healthcare law, but every hospital requires that anyone that can help implement these systems must have their masters." This would have just been given to IT or nursing graduates if implemented better by insurers and hospitals, but no state-run organizations will go that far to stop small things like that from happening. All the state does is audit and for whatever reason Congress thinks that suffices. And I know that wasn't an amazing example, but I mean it is one of many things that happen in the labor market that make it much more difficult for people to get jobs. Also, the problem isn't higher education in the U.S. It's all education. Vocational programs aren't valued in the job market, so why go there? But they have the potential to educate people into the skilled-labor market. If the labor market actually accepted normal certificates from vocational centers, universities sized down on skilled-labor programs and vocational centers expanded, practical work introduced in early high school years (as a requirement), the ACT/SAT was abolished, an actual test is required to get a high school diploma (adding practical value), and all levels of schooling were funded on a reactive basis of demand from each level (from kindergarden to phd). That means free school for everyone on any level on a basis of merit. Yeah, that means the governments going to have to do a lot of shit. (aw fuck, taxes :( ) But that's the only way I could see it fit if we went on with free education.