Graduate Tax?

Predictably, the proposal of a Graduate Tax has caused some controversy.  The idea has some good points in theory (like Communism) but the FT outlines four flaws which might be a problem in practice.

I certainly don’t like the idea that having a degree could see me paying extra tax for life.  Neither do I like the idea that this extra tax could be funding thousands of Media Studies students and their binge drinking habits. 

Forgive the flippancy in that last sentence, but I think that the Labour target of 50% of people going to University is ridiculous, and attaches a stigma to those who don’t.  I might have been able to scrape my way through a Physics degree, but I can’t do anything practical to save my life.  We’re all different.  I’d much rather see investment in useful non-academic qualifications than University places for the sake of meeting targets which sound good.

I understand that there is a need to review funding for the education system.  But I have worked hard for my qualifications, and as I look out of my window at the many truant kids on my street and think about the fact that taxes pay for their housing and their Sky TV, I can think of better ways of fixing the financial problems than ‘Graduate Taxation.’