Is education a public good? Focus on whether it meets the two criteria for being a public good

First, consider the nonrivalry-in-consumption characteristics. You may be in an economics class at a large university with several hundred students consuming the same lecture. Is this equivalent to a class with 30 students in which you get the same benefits? Perhaps, but what if we consider a class with several hundred first-graders. Would we expect the same learning to occur as in a smaller class? Education has some nonrivalry-in-consumption characteristics, but these appear limited, especially at lower educational levels. Is it difficult or costly to exclude nonpayers? Even if you attend a large university, nonpayers are still effectively excluded from transcripts and degrees, the benefits most students seek. At lower educational levels, exclusion could be as simple as a guard at the door.