Dude, Your "51% of low income Americans gets a college education" sounds like a totally made up claim. You would not have "low income" if half it's people completed a college education.
and couple other points where you are entirely wrong:
* the number of Germans studying full time abroad and getting a degree abroad is incredibly small , so small they hardly appear in any statistic. The totally overwhelming majority of people (and I mean 98% or more) who attend university do so in Germany.
* None of the vocational programs cause Germany to stay at or near the top. What an utter nonsense. In fact those on the job educational programs are a huge cost to companies, especially "Mittelstand" midsized family owned companies but also the likes of Volkswagen and BMW as well. It is the superior productivity, design capabilities, and willingness to innovate that keep many of the large but especially nitch corporations in Germany at or near the top.
* There are NEVER limited admission slots in Germany. You make up bullshit. Admission to for many subjects us completely unregulated while admission to high in demand subjects like law, engineering , medicine, architecture is regulated by your GPA from high school. If you have a lower GPA and want to study medicine at university X but others with high GPAs also want to study medicine there then you have to either choose a different university that is in less demand or a different subject and switch later or you wait a year and through that move up in the waiting list.
* University education in Germany is virtually free of charge. The country can't do more than that. If the lowest income decile (most among which are immigrants) choose to forgo a higher education then that's their choice. It's certainly not for lack of availability.
* Maybe a lower rate among European countries and that for good reason: Germany is taking in more political and economic refugees than any other European nation. And certainly more than the US today, percentage wise.
Please don't talk out of your ass without knowing the facts.
I agree with you. As pointed out in my earlier posts on the other thread, many high school students are steered in Germany to vocational training programs. One of these (in 1960) was my father-in-law who became a machinist. I am sure that many of these vocational students could have easily handled college, but there are a lack of available university admission slots in Germany (which actually causes a good number of German students to go abroad).
I am a strong supporter of vocational programs, and Germany does an excellent job with them. Most of the vocational programs last from 6 months to 2 years over there. These programs help Germany remain a top country in high-quality manufacturing and other areas.
However, nobody can make a case that Germany is somehow superior in providing opportunity for low income students to get a four year education. Under 10% of low income students in Germany go on to a four year education - one of the lowest rates of any western country.
Edit Update --> Most areas in the U.S. have very solid two year community college programs which are low-cost. Most of these schools have strong corporate involvement. This is our equivalent of "vocational training". We need to steer more young people into these programs with scholarship help... and provide a pathway to jobs. This means we collectively need to increase our investment in these schools.