Making A College Free For Everyone?

Andrew Kelly, a center director on Higher Education at the American Enterprise Institute, and other experts are not in favor of free community college. Their basic objection is that making completely free college could lead student not being motivated to complete a degree. Kelly argues that even though community colleges are free, still the rates of student success is low (57). The author’s point is that the voucher-based system (particular amount received by the government per year or semester) makes the community colleges free which would not increase the rate of graduation. Hence, removing this system would not make student motivated s as its just removing the obstacle of educational expense. Kelly concern is right because free community

In today’s generation many hear about the importance of getting a college education. Many believe that getting a certification or degree will lead you on the path to a better future. For a portion of the American population college is helped pay for by various grant and student loans. But what about the portion of Americans that don’t qualify for them? For these Americans college seems so far out of reach. Making community college free for all Americans will be very beneficial to those Americans that don’t get help with paying their tuition. It will also make sure that nobody gets left behind because of their lack of money. Through evidence I will provide good reasoning as to why community college should be provided free to all citizens of the United States.

During this year’s State of the Union address, President Obama reiterated his commitment to make two years of community college free for all Americans who are willing to work hard toward graduation. His vision was inspired by other programs in states like Tennessee and Chicago. His vision is being called “The American College Promise,” and would allow students to complete a certificate, an associate’s degree, or the first two years of a bachelor’s degree at no cost. That being said, a leader in Washington feel financial hardship also contributes to the dropout rates in colleges across the country.

In an article by The New York Times, by David Brooks, called, “Support Our students.” Brooks explains that instead of free college, maybe they should help college students with everyday needs. He said that college is already free for the working class and underpaid. (Brooks) He doesn’t believe that making community college free will help anymore with the debt, then it did before. In sum, I will discuss the argument that David Brooks portrays and explain why I agree with it. I will talk about three main points from Brooks’ article and discuss what it’s like in other countries that do have free college.

In the beginning of 2015, Obama gave his annual State of the Union address. Within the address, he discussed that he would like to see free community college for students. This means that all students wouldn’t have to pay for tuition for two years as long as they followed some guidelines, maintaining 2.5 grade point average and being at least a part time student. President Obama has proposed this because he said, “this plan is your chance to graduate ready for the economy, without a load of debt” (qtd. in Mason). Although the thought of free community college for students is awesome, it will have too many negative aspects that outweigh the good.

College is a very rewarding life choice for many people in the United States. It allows young adults to transition into adulthood with essential skills and knowledge to prosper in the work force. Giving the equal opportunity of secondary education to all Americans would be the most ideal situation. There would be an obvious increase of people educated adequately to make informed political, economical, and social decisions in our country. However, making college tuition completely free of cost is not a feasible strategy. Reasons that this plan is flawed is : Large increase of interest in students in applying to colleges, the value of a college degree would decrease,

If someone were to ask me if I wanted to go to college for free, I wouldn’t even think twice about my answer. In 2013, seven out of ten graduating seniors had student loans for non-profit colleges. An average of $28,400 for each graduate to have to worry about while trying to find a job (Thompson). Imagine if that number could be cut in half. President, Barack Obama, introduced a proposal to allow the first two years of college to be free for students who attend community college. Of course, the program will have requirements for students who want to waive the tuition costs such as maintaining a 2.5 GPA, make steady progress towards completion, and be enrolled at least half-time. Also for his plan to work, states must supply ¼ of the necessary funds as well (Dash). The project is predicted to cost about sixty billion dollars throughout the next ten years. The White House claims that the program could help nine million students a year. Whether the student is trying to transfer to a four year school or is a mom who wants a degree, the program has the potential to help anyone who meets the requirements.

“Student debt in America now famously exceeds credit-card debt, totaling more than $1 trillion” (Wiener 225). Tuition costs are extremely high; they are higher today than ever before.Deserving students all over the country cannot afford to pursue their dreams. At one time, the U.S. was the leader in college graduates, but today it ranks number twelve out of thirty-six other developed nations (“Free”). The price of education is rising, yet the quality is decreasing. This is an unfair phenomenon that needs to change. Free community college tuition should be the standard all across the United States in order to create positive changes for the future of the country.

College should not be free, but it should be less expensive than it is. I acknowledge the fact that things nowadays are more expensive than we’d like them to be, but college is a time for transition between high school and the work force. I believe this is the most crucial time because, within this period, a person decides what they want to do for the rest of their life and how to be proficient at it.

Free college sounds like a great opportunity for most individuals, but only few have come to realize the true cost of college. College is education given to students who want it, and the tuition isn’t as high for those who work for it. College is a privilege for individuals, not a given opportunity. Although eliminating college tuition would allow more students the opportunity to attend college, it doesn’t change the fact that students may actually attend college and support programs become available to help students pay the tuition without the need to make college free.

The community college has been considered the cheaper alternative for graduating high schools to finish their prerequisites before transferring off to a 4 year university. Students initially take this route due to the high cost of tuition at a 4 year institution and the fact that these classes come at a lower cost (Lu, 2014, para. 1-2). But that doesn’t mean the community can still be a bit costly for some families in the range of the lower social economic class. Loans and interest rates to meet the rising cost of school in general build up over time and present an economic barrier to a certain class range of students. This past year, President Obama recently announced plans to make the first two years of community college free for incoming students. According to the White House Blog, The requirements are for students attend community at least partially and maintain an average GPA of a 2.5 (Hudson, 2015, The requirements, para. 1). This is an excellent decision on the president’s part and could help improve education in this country in general. The positives of this initiative would include the fact that free community college is an inevitability, Student enrollment would increase, and the states in general would be more persuaded to spend on higher education.

A college degree increases lifetime earnings substantially by about $1,000,000 and provides better and greater employment opportunities. Although, individuals are not the only ones who profit from college, the country as a whole, and the states that compose it, do benefit from a more skilled and educated workforce Education, in today’s world, is the path to the American dream. So, understanding what college does for society, why wouldn’t we strive to allow all people to attend college? College students today are automatically put behind the 8-ball when it comes to college and paying for it. The graduating undergrad college class from 2016 is in debt at an average of $37,172 throughout the country according to Newamerica.org, which when the average salary for a college graduate is $50,556, which is 73% of their annual income. An avid supporter of a free-college system, is Bernie Sanders. Sanders once said, “Fifty years ago, great schools like the University of California and the City University of New York - as well as many state colleges - were tuition free. Today college is unaffordable for many working class families. For the sake of our economy and millions of Americans, we must make higher education more affordable.”(Sanders) With the high cost of tuition and student loans it seems as if having a tuition free country would be very beneficial to higher education in the United States, but with every good side there is a

“Ensuring quality higher education is one of the most important things we can do for future generations.” – Ron Lewis. When we hear this quote, many people would agree with it’s importance. Higher education is not crucial to one’s success. Quality higher education is crucial to one’s success. When we look at higher education costs’ today, we can see it is insane. Americans today owe over 1.45 Trillion dollars in student loan debts. $1,450,000,000,000 spread across 44 million students. That comes out to about $32,000 in debt per student. This grand total is actually hundreds of billions of dollars MORE than the whole US National Credit Card Debt. It is also over TWICE the amount of the whole federal military expense expense. This will be important to remember. However, the Student Loan Debt is not debatable about how serious a crisis it is. College is expensive. With such a serious topic at hand, there is no doubt people are trying to find a solution. One idea–make college free.

Per a May 2015 poll conducted by Edward Jones, 83 % of Americans are not able to afford to go to college. This is not acceptable in a place where everyone is supposed to have the same opportunities. Each year more and more jobs require some form of higher education. This means that people that can’t afford to go to college will not be able to have good paying jobs. This makes it so that the people will have to take out high loans to attend college graduating with huge debt. According to Make Lemonade there are more than 44 million borrowers with $1.3 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. alone. The average student in the Class of 2016 has $37,172 in student loan debt.

Community college has traditionally been the cheaper route for students who cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars for a university or private college. Journalist, senators, and recent president Barak Obama are taking it one step further by proposing the first two years of community college be free. The positives, of course, being able to provide more of an opportunity for those financially struggling to earn a degree. In today’s world, most good-paying careers require more than just a high school diploma and the rise of college tuition is making it difficult to obtain the education for these occupations (Biden, Garcetti). The downside, community college wouldn’t really be “free”. These students would pay for postsecondary education in the taxes that the rest of the country already pays for our K-12 system. This would make community college look like an extension of high school instead of a difficult higher education system (Reim). They should not make community college free to not only save us from taxes increasing, but to keep the value earned by obtaining a college degree.