@Irene-
Thank you so much for your comment!
If education were free, somebody will still have to fund it? Teachers and writers and publishers and institutions will not work without paying expenses, so how should it be paid for? Somebody in the chain of education will need to fund everything; the question just seems if it should be at the point of the end-user (student) or the government.
I am not sure about education being a basic need, though even if so, should every need be paid for by anybody other than the person who has the need?
Just wondering . . .
Jeffrey