Free community college for everyone? We can all be Aric Hall!

[Yanji]

My wife (a Canuck) says that college is pretty expensive in Canada. She also says that salaries tend to be higher in Canada which makes paying for an education easier. Her nursing program in Canada would have cost her easily over $40,000 and it will cost her in the US around $13,000. It really depends, but from visiting Canada, EVERYTHING is more expensive there. An 18 pack of beer will cost you $50.00.

I'm also a Canadian citizen and while I lived most of my life in Britain, I know that tuition at public institutions (private institutions are practically non-existent), undergraduate tuition is usually under $8k/yr, which is somewhat lower than in-state tuition at most public schools in the US, and significantly lower than many flagship state schools. Of course, you're right that salaries are somewhat higher in Canada and everything is also more expensive, but Canadian community colleges tend to charge similar tuition as universities, which is a big difference from the US. So while it is impossible to easily compare the two systems, my point was that looking at the 34 OECD countries as a proxy for the developed world, the country that happens to have the most educated adult population happens to be one that does not have free higher education, under the assumption that graduation rates are a good proxy for accessibility.

If I had to pick an education system to have the most technically skilled workforce, I think the German system is more of a model than the Canadian system. I guess it depends on what balance a country wants to have between using education to increase economic productivity and enlightening the citizenry.