Persuasive Essay On Free College Education

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.

Imagine a store only sold two sizes of the new shirt you wanted. In today's society that is the perfectly painted picture on college education. College has become an option, a granted privilege, and no longer a necessity. Jobs such as small business owners, Web developers, and Wind Turbine Technician no longer require a college degree. College education is still worth it because college, ¨encourages students to think, ask questions, and explore new ideas, which allows for additional growth and development and provides college graduates with an edge in the job market over those who have not experienced a higher education¨ (McGuire). A college degree is an essential tool in an adult's life because of prominent health, labor market balance, and overall career success.

Wanting college to be cheaper is not a new idea. However, over the past couple of years, the conservation regarding the expensiveness of colleges, has slowly turned into a debate. The media aggregates this topic and it is no longer just an opinion. Now it is a political, economic, and social justice issue. For instance, the Democratic and Republican parties include the state of higher education in their political agenda. The Obama administration made it exceptionally clear that community college should be free, and at all costs. The Trump administration has swung the pendulum the other direction, under President Trump’s lead. Citing Rules Committee Print 115 Congress has increased the Pell Grant amount by $105 and reinstated summer Pell Grants. Yet, the Trump administration has made it painstakingly clear no attempt to decrease the expensiveness of college will be made any further. Even though Pell Grant amounts are at an all-time high, more support needs to be given to students. Ultimately the best thing schools, states, and the federal government could do to help students locked out of the middle class is to make public college tuition-free.

While it is well known that college tuition is on the rise, not enough people stop to uncover the foundational flaws in tuition assistance. For one, federal student aid relies too heavily on their parent’s income and taxes. That is, a student’s eligibility is dependent on possibly unrelated information that may not affect them. For instance, 2017 FAFSA asked for tax records from 2015; however, a lot can change in 2 years (i.e. job loss, marital status, sudden disability, insurance coverage, etc.). This is a trend that will be carried into the 2018-19 FAFSA. Any lack of funding from federal aid will directly result in an increase student loans. As a matter of fact, student loan debt in the U.S. capped $1 trillion in 2011, well surpassing national credit card debt in 2010 (Stephens). Moreover, students are having an increasingly difficult time managing these

I agree, community college should be free. This gives the option to students that can't afford a 4 year university, to still being able to go to college and hopefully after two years transferring out. Community college usually helps with coming up with a plan, once you enter a 4 year university, and I am more than positive that not having to worry about paying, would relieve a lot of stress for lower income students.

Introduction: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Only sixty-five percent of students graduating from High School will attend College.” That means six out of every ten of the students you went to high school with will continue their education to pursue a career. How many people in this class are currently paying for college themselves? Is anyone not sure how they are going to afford their classes next semester? Wouldn’t life be much more easier and make college a lot more appealing if it was free.

Some American people including Bernie Sanders, Vermont Senator and 2016 Presidential Candidate, are pro free college tuition. They are willing to fight, “to make sure that every American who studies hard in school can go to college regardless of how much money their parents make and without going deeply into debt” (Sanders, It’s Time to Make College Tuition Free and Debt Free). If the free college tuition plan were to pass the Federal funds would work in conjunction with state funds to make the first four years of college

The report shows that even though “state support for higher education increased by 13 percent from 1982 to 1998, tuition and fees increased by 107 percent over the same interval” (“Losing Ground”). At the federal level, while “more than fifty percent of federal financial aid was in the form of grants in 1982-1983, by 2002-2003 grants made up only forty percent of such aid,” Ronald Ehrenberg and Michael Rizzo state in “Financial Forces and the Future of American Higher Education,” which appeared in the July-August 2004 issue of Academe (Ehrenberg). They add that “during the mid-1970s, the average Pell Grant covered about 46 percent of the average costs, including room and board, of attending a public college or university. Last year, the average grant paid for less than 30 percent of the costs” (Ehrenberg). Low-income students are being squeezed out by middle- and upper- income students for available school

Imagine you are a high school student. You spend four years of your life taking advanced classes, volunteering, participating in extracurricular activities, and studying for hours and hours. You start applying for colleges and make it into the school of your choice. Once you’re in, you realize you cannot afford to pay for your food or textbooks. You soon realize you can’t continue going to college and drop out to get a job. All those years of work are wasted. Unfortunately, this is the reality for hundreds of students in America. Across the country, students are struggling to afford college and day to day expenses. They can’t handle the costs of books, supplies, food, housing, and transportation while also paying for their classes.

Currently, there is a debate going on between many when it comes to answering the question: should college be free or should students pay for it themselves. Many authors seem to think that free college is a nuisance to taxpayers and those that are actually funding it, while on the other hand some authors believe that it is a great thing for our nation. In “Obama’s “Free” Community College Scheme,” Michael LaFerrara argues that Obama’s plan for free education is “immoral and destructive” (LaFerrara line 4) because he is funding this program with taxpayers’ money that could be used differently if those taxpayers could keep their earnings. In Celeste Carruthers article “Tennessee Is Showing How Free Tuition Community College Works” and she is attempting to persuade her audience that the Tennessee Promise is effective because it convinces more students to attend college because of the lack of payment, and if they can be this successful in Tennessee, so can other states if they establish a similar program. There is also Michael J. Petrilli and his work titled “Free Tuition Is a Needless Windfall for Affluent Voters and State Institutions,” where he suggests that politicians should be working to improve schools to make sure that students are more prepared to go to college, rather than providing them with free community college. Meanwhile, there are authors like Deborah Santiago and her article “Free Tuition Can Boost Latinos College Access and Completion Rates” and Bernie

Making college tuition free in Mississippi can help to fight poverty, to decrease the unemployment rates, and to aid the state economically. If Mississippi made college tuition free people, who are in the streets, can go to college and gain an education. Those people can go out and obtain a job from the college education and aid in decreasing unemployment rates. Free tuition will mean that more people can go to college and obtain better jobs which helps the economy. By having those people, who may be in poverty, get jobs they are getting out of poverty.

Many see it as simply shifting the burden of tuition costs from students to taxpayers or cutting programs elsewhere. It doesn’t solve the problem, it only shifts the problem onto another part of the population. A national plan for tuition-free college would stretch budgets even further; leading to shortages rather than increased access. Adding to the current shortage of teachers and public education funds. One example being in the state of Nevada, which does not have enough teachers. If every graduate from Nevada’s teacher preparation programs were hired on the spot, the state still expected to be short . According to Andrew Kelly from The New York Times, another argument against free tuition is that, “free college plans assume that tuition prices are the main obstacle to student success, looking past problems of educational quality and college readiness. Take community colleges, where federal grants cover the price of tuition for the average low-income student. Despite free tuition, just one-third of students from the bottom income quartile who started at a community college in 2003 finished a degree or certificate by 2009. Two-year students from the top income quartile didn’t do much better (42 percent)” . To summarize an article by The Federalist which listed 10 reasons on why free college is a bad idea, the list included that: it’s unfair for taxpayers, creates free-riders, will decrease quality of education and increase prices, we should improve our existing public education first, community colleges are already affordable (with all the available scholarships/grants, and working over the summer), and that we have a huge national debt, currently over 19 trillion dollars, which continues to grow

The words “free college tuition” spark interest in any college student with accumulating debt. In fact, this topic is so incredibly supported that Bernie Sanders implemented it as a core interest in his 2016 campaign. Once Hillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee, she decided to take it on herself with an extensive plan that guaranteed students free tuition. Unsurprisingly, free tuition resonates extremely well within the student demographic. To forty million Americans, free tuition eliminates the largest problem for students: debt (Hess, 2017). However, free college tuition generates the inverse of what these low-income and middle-income students believe. In fact, free college cripples them from multiple perspectives; students will end up spending more financially, will be less likely to graduate with a degree, and will be subjected to more inequality and less exposure.

Having an education is the prime key to becoming successful in life and having a high school diploma is just not enough. Majority of the jobs in society today require individuals to obtain a college degree or trade. It is not easy trying to receive a degree or trade because of the expenses. Those who do not have a degree or trade have to settle for minimum wage paying jobs and others simply cannot find jobs at all. A convenient solution to this is that the federal government should offer free tuition to all students seeking a two-year college education with at least a 2.5 GPA.

Education plays a huge role in today’s society. The only downfall about education is not being able to afford it. Education eats your bank account and costing people to lose thousands so they are able to do something they love or just get a degree. People always question one another asking why people do not go to college. Why are people not taking advantage of something that will pay well after it is completed? Most of the answers for that is that they cannot afford to pay for schooling or they have to work to provide for their family and school is not a number one priority right now. If education was tuition free students would only be able to focus on studying and passing college then looking for money to pay for their schooling and that would help them perform better at school if they do not have to worry about finding a way to pay for it. Education should be free because it would help lower the homeless population, dropout rates, and stop student debt after they graduate college.