Benefits Of College Education Should Be Free

The government would have to spend 62.6 billion dollars annually in order to make public college tuition free. A recent movement to federally mandate college funding has struck the interest of the lower, impoverished members of society. However, if college tuition were free it would be unfair, unregulated, and cost-ineffective in the long run. What does free really mean? Does it include just tuition, or room, board and books? Also, would it be completely free? Someone has to pay something somewhere down the line. There is no way to make college completely free. It would be average tax payers that will end up paying. America is already 18 trillion dollars in debt. Just imagine how much more it would be if college was free. College should not be free because it effects the entire country, lowers the value of a college degree, and despite what some may think, does not make it more equal.

If college was free students would have to want to continue their education and get a degree. While free would make college affordable, those receiving the benefit would need to have stipulations for the free classes they are attending. Michael J. Petrilli is the president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. Petrilli states, “… just 40 percent of 12th graders are college-ready, even though nearly 70 percent already head straight into college.” He is correct that many high school graduates are not prepared to transition to college. Many don’t have the attention span to sit in longer classes. Students are used not study over a time period, but rather cram the night before the due assignment. Some stipulations would be; you have to finish and get a degree, you have to keep your GPA up, and if you drop out without a good reason you have to pay back the money you used.

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.

good career if college was free.The recent studies of tuition increases have proven that it is obvious college should be free.

I personally don't think that college should be free. Students who pay for their college are more motivated, hard working and independent. Many students would have poor motivation to finish school, because they can always come back. As a matter of fact students with ambitions to get university degree are learning much harder in high school than other, who thinks they don’t need an extra paper. There are many students that are so smart, and they will find the way to get money for school. With extra work and help from family students will be able to afford college tuitions. Students need to depend on themselves; otherwise every taxpayer will have to cover their education expenses. There are several reasons why

Imagine a world where college was completely free. Tuition is completely paid for, no book fees, housing fees, everything is one-hundred percent paid for by the government. Unfortunately, the only downfall to that is that the people fund the government. Taxpayers, which should be almost all of America, are the ones who give the government the money to do every day necessities. The government will not be able to afford to pay for every student to have free college on their own, all of that money will have to come from us, the people. This means that college really isn't free. The government should not pay for everyone's college because it is unfair to those who can easily afford it, taxes will go through the roof, and will inhibit a lesser education if it is free for everyone.

During one of his campaign programs, Presidential-candidate Bernie Sanders stood before a thousand applauding and cheering people. This man just announced, as hopeful future President of the United States, that he planned to make college free for every US citizen. Many young adults favor Bernie Sanders, and other political leaders, idea of free tuition because they believe that it will open more doors for them and allow them to not worry about the burden of student loans. However, there are many reasons that regulating free college education could hurt our society and economy that people don’t often realize. College education should not be free because it would raise taxes, it would devalue the worth of a college degree, and it would pave the way for more welfare dependency.

Should college be free? In “The Problem is That Free College Isn't Free,” Andrew P. Kelly argues that free college would cost more for the American taxpayer. On the other hand, in “Tennessee Is Showing How Free Tuition Community College Works,” Celeste Carruthers states having free college will give more incentive for students to go to college. It will also encourage them to try community college first. Although free college sounds great at first, it would be more practical to have programs for people who cannot simply afford it. College tuition shouldn’t be the American taxpayers’ responsibility.

According to the article Is College Worth it? Clearly, New Data say by David Leonhardt, Labor Department statistics by the Economic Policy Institution in Washington released that the “Americans with four-year college degree made 98 percent more an hour” on average than “people without a degree” (1). However, this claim automatically assumes that the degree caused the higher earnings and failed to consider the fact that those who complete college are already more likely to be financially successful whether they attend university or not. In “Alternative Funding Resources for Higher Education”, Nicolas Barr responds to Leonhardt’s assumption of lower or free college tuition increase productivity by providing his research that shows that first, “education beyond a basic level does not increase productivity” and second, “that firms seek high-ability workers but unable to distinguish them from those with low-ability” (719). He explains that the assumption that higher education increases productivity is false. That does not mean that higher education is not associated with an increase in productivity, it simply means that there are more influences like “natural ability and family background” on the productivity of a student (720). Furthermore, Critics such as Leonhardt claim that “college degree is worth $1 million over the lifetime of a worker” (2). However, he failed to calculate the worth of each major. There are so many other factors to consider such as unemployment rate, the demand, and the salary of each job. For example, it assumes that a Bachelor of Arts in art history has the same outcome than a Bachelor of Science in quantum

In the 2016 presidential campaign free college tuition was highly debated. President Obama briefly talked about it as well. Tuition is one of the most expensive pieces of obtaining a higher education. US citizens deserve higher education. The people of America are ready for a change. College tuition should be free, so that more Americans can attend higher education and make something of themselves.

In the fall of 2017 about 3.6 million students were expected to graduate from high school in the United States. In the same year, 20.4 million adults in the United States were expected to attend an american college or university (NCES fast facts tool). Almost five times the amount of students expected to graduate high school were attending a source of higher education. From these statistics I came to the understanding that there are many people who don’t go to college right after high school or who are going back to college after a break. A big reason behind taking some time between highschool to college or not going at all can be due to the high price for higher education, “For the 2015–16 academic year, the average annual price for undergraduate tuition, fees, room, and board was $16,757 at public institutions, $43,065 at private nonprofit institutions” (NCES fast facts tool). For some this may not be difficult to afford, however the national average income for Americans was $43,642.15 in that same year (2016)(Sue Kunkel). Consider a family of five who makes the national average of $48,640, trying to put three kids through college at the same time. It would be difficult to successfully put all three kids through unless they were given scholarships or financial aid. I think that it is misguiding to reward only successful high schoolers with higher education opportunities because then we aren’t making education a priority

According to “Trades Schools, Colleges, and Universities”, it states “If a lot more people are able to earn college degrees, then the value of those degrees could decrease. And that could lead to a rising number of workers who are underemployed based on their qualifications.” This citation shows how the competition that currently occurs between people based on their degree or if they attended college would vanish. Everyone would be on an equal playing field and there would not be anything to separate the extremely intelligent to the average. Since everyone is at the same level, it makes it more difficult to get hired for a job once college is over. Students must do activities outside of school to make up for their loss. As a result, students may be in the mindset of why go to college if it won’t impact them later on, so free college would have no purpose what so ever. There should be some type of payment in order to attend

Over the years, college fees have gradually risen for high school graduates. It’s been said that most jobs with a college degree earn almost double of what a high school graduate would earn. Many people all over the country have been unable to go to college because of these high fees for education. Some people think that your future shouldn’t be controlled by the amount of money you pay. If these fees continue to increase, then no one will be able to attend college. Higher education for free will increase productivity within students because they can get a good job, college is now a prerequisite, and college worthy jobs have great salaries.

Although, looking from a different perspective free college tuition will allow colleges to keep their standards and be just as selective. Students who have a free higher education will help the students to strive academic prosperity and maintain it.

For my introductory reason, free college education would help poor students get educated. Indeed, some people are very poor. There are so many parents in the world that are poor, so that makes children unable to get education easily. According to my pro article, “They see it as both a private and public benefit. “ This quote means that it will benefit private and public schools. Poor children usually have to move to public schools, considering that they are free. If college is free, poor children would be able to get a job they want, because they can be educated on the job that they want to take part in. Some parents do not have any money, and they don't have jobs. They would not be able to earn enough money for their child to get educated. Free college will help solve this issue if they are old enough for college. It can make some parents thrilled, that their child is finally getting an education. Additionally, to quote trade-schools.net, it says “A better-educated population could result in smarter decision-making at every level of society, which could lead to faster progress in solving our most difficult,