Advantages Of Lowering College Tuition

One often overlooked point about “free” college tuition is that it is not ever free. The money does not just appear out of nowhere. What people normally mean by the statement of “free” college, it means free college for students. If the students are not paying than who would have to pay? The only other option would be the federal government. Right now, Americans owe more than $875 billion dollars in student loans. If the cost of tuition continues to grow at the rate it is, that number is only going to grow. If the federal government were to pay this, it would only further the country in debt.

“Free public college is a great political talking point, but it is a flawed policy.” [Kelly,1] As mentioned by Andrew p. Kelly, tuition-free college merely shifts the cost of education from the group of taxpayers to all the taxpayers. Technically, free college isn’t really free. Someone does have to pay for it. The only option to cover tuition cost is to increase the tax rates or cut services for elsewhere. It is not fairer to cut other services just to make students pay for educations. Why would one pay more tax if they are rich? People who are rich did something to accomplish it. They were not innate wealthy. Most of the wealthy person have worked their way up and worked their entire lives to get where they are. Thus,

American students owe a total of 1.3 trillion dollars in student loans, and about 44.2 million students are in debt. Colleges all over the United States require a tuition for students to attend, which is detrimental to families with low incomes. As a result, students from low income families opt to not attend college. A solution for this problem would be to institute tuition free colleges. Advocates for free colleges state that it would enable students to achieve their dreams, regardless of their monetary situation. Proponents against free colleges say that the public would have to be taxed too much to cover the expenses. College should be free because it would help the country economically, allow students to be more focussed, and it would let students to pursue any career that they would like.

Just about everyone agrees that college should be more affordable. A century ago high school was becoming a necessity, not a luxury; today the same is happening to college. If college is essential for building a career and being a full participant in our democracy as high school once was, shouldn 't it be free, paid for by public dollars, and treated as a right of all members of our country? The average college graduate comes out of college with at least $60,000 in debt and if they went to an Ivy League should that shots up to upward of $100,000 all this debt before they even get their first real job (“Fast Facts”). This is the burden that students have to worry about and then they only have six months to find a job that can cover they loan payments, which can be as much as a couple thousand dollars a month and most working people can’t afford that. These days it is highly emphasized that the responsibility to educate the poor lies on the shoulders of the government. It should be, considering the significant hike in the tuition fees worldwide. In such circumstances, many intelligent and hardworking students miss out on studying in a university due to lack of funds. This not only demoralizes the student, but also has a negative impact on the society as it loses out on its future professionals.

College tuition is a subject that I am certain is on every college student's mind. The current cost of college has become so outrageously high and so students are graduating college with what you think is a feeling of excitement for their lives starting, when in reality they are entering a pool of stress due to high amounts of debt and no job guarantees. With that being said overly expensive College Tuition is merely taking away opportunities from potential students. According to Collegefactual.com, you will see that 20 years ago the average college tuition for a student at any University was around $6,285 for the room, board, and tuition. Today, according to Niche.com, the average tuition for almost any college is over $30,000 for those same things. Today, this isn't even offered for those same colleges, we don’t even know what is actually causing the raising tuition. At this point in time, we are paying for the name. Just like clothing, we pay more for the “high end” (a.k.a the college name) items. This is an issue that not only affects college students, but people who want a good education. College tuition should be lowered because the average student debt is too high, FAFSA results can be misleading and not high enough, and there is not enough access to college for deserving students.

Should the cost of earning a college degree be free? Some students,parents, and educators say that it is morally wrong for a child to spend their entire life going to public school for free and having them to just turn around and pay for college. The students, parents, and educators all would agree that the cost of obtaining a college degree should indeed be free. Those who are against this issue believe that the students themselves or their parents who are financially able should pay for some or all of the expense of attending college after all public school students are given a free ride from elementary to high school. Understanding and considering both sides of the issue, I strongly stand by the decision stating that the cost of attending college should be free.

Universities used to be a privilege for most academic students to attend and it was very affordable, but currently the price per year to attend college has drastically increased. For instance, in the “1970’s the average cost was 10,000 dollars a year and today the average cost is 30,000 dollars a year” (CQ Researcher). This is a triple increase in the price per year to attend college. Allowing this increase on college tuition has impacted the student’s attendance rate. This is a significant financial burden for college students and their family. Some believe that college shouldn’t be free because we are risking the value of college education, while others think it should be free because we are trying to avoid having our upcoming generation

There are rich people too and making college education free for everyone would almost certainly mean giving far more money to students from richer families than from poorer ones.” If we want to make college education accessible and affordable to low and moderate income families then stronger need based financial policies and well-structured borrowing are a far better strategy” (Hill). Education might be made less expensive but can never be made free. “I’m lucky that I’m receiving such an amazing education and at a state-level cost. But if we stop paying tuition, who picks up the burden? It is not possible to rely on donations, so will the state of Virginia then foot the bill? Or will the federal government pay? Neither the federal nor state government is in any financial shape to add the debt of abolishing just one school’s tuition, never mind all of the public institutions. To do so would only hurt us, the young students, in the long run because we would be seeing the effects of this debt later in life when our taxes raised exponentially as we try and pay off loans, start families, and buy cars and houses”.(

College tuition is an expensive entity to pay for and not many people have the luxury of having college being completely paid for, however, so many people that have previous experience like teachers, counselors, and parents, want students to pursue this expensive entity so their future is brighter. Why is being a college student becoming a luxury that fewer people can afford and attend to? Factors like the actual cost for college tuition, costs for higher education, the working class and their difficulties of paying for other things in addition to tuition, proposals from our government, and tuition remission, is when we begin to see how big of a problem tuition costs actually are. School is an important opportunity that I have taken like many of my teachers, parents, and government have told me to take, but I still struggle paying for it; if school is a value that people should be taking advantage of, tuition needs to be more affordable in order to do so.

Free tuition for colleges is a topic that has come up a lot lately in the United States. Especially in the beginning of this year, when the democratic race was in place, Bernie Sanders started making tuition-free colleges one of his campaign points. While there are some that seem to neglect the idea of free tuition, the majority will agree that if not free at least it should be affordable. This topic is a very interesting one because it provides fascinating facts on both sides of the spectrum. One thing people argue against free tuition is that the United States has around 300 million people in population and it could not possibly keep up with the increase in college attendance and cost. On the other hand free tuition in colleges is relative common in almost every first world country around the world and even second and third world countries. Which leaves us to determine that it is not only possible for government to be responsible for education but it seems to be the norm around the world except in the United States. I think that colleges should be tuition free. Community colleges should be funded by the government and the government should not only be responsible in providing free tuition to its citizens but take pride that its citizens have access to free education, making its society an educated one.

The hot topic amongst people entering college is student loan debt. With the average debt at tens of thousands of dollars, many people shy away from college, or at least do not get a full degree. As a result, many politicians have preached plans to make college free, and thus bring an end to student loan debt. However, those on the other end of the spectrum find themselves hindered in jumping aboard the free college mania, because, after all, nothing is free, everything comes at a price. And as they soon learned, what a price indeed. In fact, in order for the universities to pay staff and accommodate the student body without tuition being on the shoulders of the students, state taxes would have to be increased on the entire taxpaying population.

Making College tuition free would over-all result in a more educated society. “We have made K-12 education free because it is good for the individual and for society. The same is true for higher education” (Page).

My proposal for altering an area of the United States government is by lowering tuition rates for incoming college students by centralising the fixed rate for tuition. College tuition has caused an inflation to 500% in cost since 1985 (Granderson), and the average cost for college tuition in this state, Texas is "$3,951[not including room or board]" per semester (Dolan). this isn't including the tuition rate for out of state students which doubles the cost. I believe by lowering the tuition rates would help students financially after and during college and would create less stress for the students. Sure, students would appreciate an education more if they were paying for it, but the payment for college causes discouragement, especially

Higher education costs have been increasing at a rapid pace, faster than inflation for the economy as a whole, for the past fifty years. It started in the 1960’s when the federal government passed the Higher Education Act to increase the amount of people able to afford and attend college. Regardless of the Unites States Government efforts to increase the affordability of college, federal aid programs have not risen to expectations due to the ever-increasing college prices. To lower the price of college, the government needs to cut back on student financial spending to go only to the lowest income families and create tax incentives for families to start saving up on their own.

Should the United States develop a system for free college tuition? Free college tuition would benefit many college students and people interested in getting a higher education because as of the moment the education system is built around money and having to get student loans or scholarships if you cannot come up with tuition up front. It would also take a lot of money out of the economy for the first 10 years or so, mainly because it would take people being able to graduate with a degree for a higher salary for the United States to be able to charge more on taxes to make up for the money lost going to pay for the faculty salary and the student textbook fees. Many are for a free college tuition system but many are also against it because nobody wants to pay even more on taxes but once the people who are against it would see the amount of money begin put back into the economy from the raised taxes there would be able to see the goal of the whole idea. The United States needs to develop a system for free college to give students the ability to get an education they never would have been able to get before and would allow for more money to be brought into the economy from more Americans getting higher paying jobs and make the U.S. a more prosperous nation.