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Education Is A Right?

How would you categorize education?

  • It is a basic American right.

    Votes: 15 46.9%

  • It is a privilege.

    Votes: 11 34.4%

  • Other

    Votes: 6 18.8%
  • Total voters
    32
Zyphlin said:
In essense....no person should be legally barred from learning, from reading a book, from trying to go to a school, from listening to a lecture, etc. People have a right to seek out knowledge. However the government is not required to pay for your education, for your book, for your lecture. The fact they do, and make it easy for you, is a privledge.
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Philosophically whether or not a public education is a "right" is very debatable. However, for all intents and purposes, it is a right in the United States that any legal resident or citizen has access to a public education from 1st through 12th grade. The government is legally compelled to provide for that right. To make it simply a privilege, the law would have to be changed.
 
Cilogy said:
What do you think?
Is an education (in general, public schooling, grade school, college, etc.) a basic right for Americans or is it a privilege for Americans?
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It is something you have because the state gives it to you -- thus a privilege.
 
Ikari said:
It's not a right. But it is a necessity to the health and longevity of the Republic.
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I agree. Its not a right of the individual, but an obligation of a free-society that wishes to perpetuate itself. There is no bigger threat to our nation than an uneducated electorate. We are already seeing some evidence of that threat now.
 
Goobieman said:
It is something you have because the state gives it to you -- thus a privilege.
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Isn't it a law that children under a certain age (maybe 16?) must attend school in some form or another?
 
winston53660 said:
Isn't it a law that children under a certain age (maybe 16?) must attend school in some form or another?
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Depends on the state.

And, that's just further evidence that education is not a right -- if you have the right to something, you can choose to NOT exercise that right to that something.

Unless, of course, you agree that the government can compell you to vote or own a gun or go to a church (of your choice).
 
Goobieman said:
Depends on the state.

And, that's just further evidence that education is not a right -- if you have the right to something, you can choose to NOT exercise that right to that something.

Unless, of course, you agree that the government can compell you to vote or own a gun or go to a church (of your choice).
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So it is neither really a right nor a privilege but rather a requirement.
 
When we talk about education we are generally talking about being able to walk into a school building(which costs money to build), be taught by a teacher(who commands a salary and benefits), using books, lab equipment, computers and other resources to teach subject material.

This is once again a confusion on the part of people assuming a right, when discussing a resource. Education is a resource, that costs time and money to provide. Rights don't cost money to provide. It does not cost the tax payer one penny for people to have the right to free speech, practice of religion, or bear arms. It does cost tax payers to provide education/healthcare/etc...

Now, is it in the best interest of a government to provide access to education? Yes, I believe so. Having an educated populace is more beneficial than an uneducated, or sparsely educated population. However, I believe that education should remain a state issue, rather than a federal issue.
 
winston53660 said:
So it is neither really a right nor a privilege but rather a requirement.
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Free access to education, in terms of equal protection is a right, but, like marriage, the issue there is the right to equal protection, not the education itself. People cannot be denied the education offered by a state based on their gender, race, religion, etc.

State-supplied/sponsored education, like K-12 thru state schools, is a privilege, in that the state provides it to you. It need not do so; that you have it only because the state gives it to you means it is a privilege.

State-sponsnored secondary education, like 2/4 year colleges, is a privilege as well.

The state requires you to have an education consistent with its curriculum; it does not require you to obtain that education from any specific source.
 
I disagree SD. Education, in the U.S. at this point, in regards to schools is a privledge that the government chooses to provide and theoritically could, at any time, stop providing it if it so wished. So long as it does provide it though, due to other laws, it must administer it universally.

However, even if laws changed and public education ceased to be offered by the government, the right to education would still be present because people could still strive to individually learn new information.

Public Education in the United States is a federally mandated/funded privledge, not a right.
 
Cilogy said:
So we have the right to bear arms in formation of a militia (which I am not against), but not to arm ourselves with education?
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The pen is mightier than the sword.
I could not resist such a large opening for this adage.
Yes, I agree that education is a right in our advanced society; for those still in the stone age, there are no rights, except to have a stone..
 
Cilogy said:
So we have the right to bear arms....
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...period.

The "right" involved in education is equal protection.

If the state gives it to you - that is, you only have it because the state gives it to you - then it is a privilege.
 
I think education is a right and an opportunity. It is your right to learn, but whether you learn anything or not is up to you. Better educated people lead to a better workforce and stronger economy. Education is a privilege I think many kids take for granted. Regardless, we have a right to learn and be educated, to go further I think it's almost a duty that we be educated.
 
I voted yes because not only is education essential to all individuals in our society, It's also what makes us become more competitive globally.

Also saying that it's only a right from K-12 is being a bit unfair to those who can't really afford to get 2/4 years of college education because financial aid isn't something that is going to be given out to everyone. Like Public Education refering to K-12, there should be a few universities in some districts that are publicly funded to give those who can't afford to pay a fair shot at getting at least 2/4 years of college to pursue their careers.
 
Zyphlin said:
I disagree SD. Education, in the U.S. at this point, in regards to schools is a privledge that the government chooses to provide and theoritically could, at any time, stop providing it if it so wished. So long as it does provide it though, due to other laws, it must administer it universally.

However, even if laws changed and public education ceased to be offered by the government, the right to education would still be present because people could still strive to individually learn new information.

Public Education in the United States is a federally mandated/funded privledge, not a right.
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This is an argument over semantics. What you are calling a privilege, is from a civics perspective a right of citizenship. Different nations have different rights of citizenship. In the United States, one of the rights that we have under social contract is the right to a public education. The government cannot simply choose to quit providing for public schools, the actual laws that require the government to do so would have to change.
 
SouthernDemocrat said:
The government cannot simply choose to quit providing for public schools, the actual laws that require the government to do so would have to change.
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In that, education is an entitlement, and in that, it is necessarily a provilege,
 
Providing education to a child is a duty of the parent.
That is where I stand.

I would give everything I have to completely abolish both Federal and State involvement in childhood education.
 
You have a right to educate yourself.

You have a right to seek and/or purchase an education.

You DO NOT have a right to force others to provide an education.
 
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