I think we can see that our society is certainally heading towards the abolishment of the middle class, with each reform we seem to be increasing the gap between rich and poor and making it harder to move between the two. Tertiary education should be for those who want to go and can get the marks.
It works perfectly alright in countries around the world, so I'll be damned if I can understand (and I'm not an eco student, don't enjoy reading all g'vt policies, am just a concerned student here) why it can't work here. Let's take england for example, where the student pays for uni, however only a small amount. The government is still managing it there hey, and Newbie is right - the only way this world can ever hope for peace is if we cut down on the money being drained from the taxpayers straight into building up mass weaponary to fight...wait a sec, who's enemy number one now, i forget? which 'ism' have the us moved ono now, we've had comunism, terroism, fucked if i know.
they seem to be overlooking the need for educated people in our society, more open minded etc (that sentence was badly written and may not have made sense, but i'm tired so sod off).
the latest plans in the pipe line (this is coming from a senator, the one who organised the rally at uts a little while ago that i was suppossed to be speaking at but couldn't get out of a workshop) are for a 30% hecs increase, and for full fee paying places tp be up to 50%, and for people to only be allowed hecs for five years.
so great, so i can't get into combined law because obviously with a uai of 99.6 for 75% of places it will go to like 100 for 50%, yet my parents aren't rich enough to pay full fee for the last two years of my law degree if i do it post-grad. great.
look, it just seems farily fucking obvious that this g'vt prefers private schooling, upper-class etc. not that i'm against private schooling - as they get 70% of the federal education budget therefore are able to pay for far superior facilities, i kinda fall into the 'use it while it's there' mindset (but i go to a state school, and my sis is at private only coz she got a scholarship). argh argh argh, this g'vts whole views on education seem fairly fucked to me, yet you're right - what's the alternative at the moment?!
there, you can take that sweeping statement and shove it up your arse if you think i'm completely wrong, that's just what i think.