My son asked me whether I think that education should be free. This prompted a discussion about being precise in asking questions.
Premise: Education is not free. Teachers need a salary, books and materials need to be printed and buildings need to be rented and maintained.
We can be more precise as to who receives said education. My son’s question was in relation to k-12 education.
A more precise question would be: Should the government bear the cost of education for k-12 students?
Premise: The government doesn’t have money of its own. ~95% of education costs are funded via taxation.
An even more precise question should be: Should the government tax people in order to pay for the k-12 education of children of other people?
Note that I’m not offering an answer. There are valid arguments to be made on both sides. I’m trying to state the precise question. There are a multitude of other questions in regards to education (examples: is it beneficial for a country to have an educated populace? Is k-12 really required for that goal? etc.) but they do not have to do with the question of the source of the funding of education.
I am not following why you interpret the original question as the question on taxes/government funding
Why is that more accurate than the other questions you brought up in the last message
It works!
It works!
It works!
It works!
It’s about being precise in asking the question. The questions I brought up in the last paragraph are not specifying the original question. The original question asked whether education should be free - it is an abstract question that does not present the real trade off. Everyone would want free education but it does not exist in the same way that free lunches do not.
If my son would ask: “Do you think everyone should go to school?” the the process of asking a more precise question would have led us somewhere else.
I wasn't there for your conversation with your son so I don't have the context of what he wanted to ask. I think your interpretation of what he meant to get to the precise question is subjective.
If you look at the question whether education should be free. It can be "precised" by asking other questions, Not just government/taxes question
When considering whether K- 12 education should be free, we should also consider the benefit to society and not only whether it's fair to pay for someone else's education.
How else would you make it more precise?
To make it more precise we need to know question intent. Your position is that the asker intended to ask about the financial involvement of government. I would ask a different question. Maybe one of the following: what are the economic benefits and trade-offs of providing free education to the entire population? What are the competing values for and against providing free education?
The fault in your formulation is that it still includes the words "free education" which is misleading. It's not free - it is provided at no cost. I also think my formulation had an issue because "should" is amorphic and maybe exacting it also deals with the trade off: Is it just for a government to tax people in order to provide k-12 education of other people children at no cost?
Asking is it "just" opens the conversation about justifications. Liberty-max people can say that since this violates the right for property it is not just. Other people, who claim that there's a "right for education" and that it is more important that the "right for property" will answer otherwise.
I'm trying to be very careful not to start that discussion. My point is that interpreting the original question is a question about government and tax is just one interpretation
I accept your point about using "free education" in my question is inaccurate and you can replace it with "education at no cost to the end user". my main point is still valid - there could be a few more accurate ways to interpret the original question and they all depend on the questionnaire intent
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