Free education is something difficult to be applied without the state policy. As a teacher, I sometimes feel sad seeing some children that could not go to school because they could not pay the school fee.
By the way, in my country the school is free until junior school. It is 9 years of education. When children enter the age of senior school students, they have to pay the school fee. Most poor children are not able to continue their education in senior school.
At the age of 14-15 those poor children become un-schooled children. Some of them become young workers or live on the streets. That is very bad situation because some children who live on the street will be trapped in free living like sex, drug abuse and other crimes.
RE: How A Reformed Educational System Can Remove Poverty