Should College Tuition Should Be Free For Everyone?

Many students don’t get the chance to further their academic career after high school. Some aren’t able because child care is too expensive or they have to work to support themselves. Everyone should get money for school if they need it. Some parents can’t afford to help the students pay for college, while others can. Money should be given for need rather than want. But I believe there should be stipulations to getting the free schooling. College should be free to those who want to get a degree and need the funding.

Should college be free? A current universal problem poses this question. In today’s world, full of public education standards that hold students maybe too high and in a generation bogged down by student debt, this issue qualifies as a problem more than many are maybe even willing to admit. While the prospect of free college proposes excellent ideals such as a stronger and smarter generation, no student loan problems, and a higher educated society, the truth may actually lie in the reality that making college free would do more hindrance than good and is not the answer to these problems. Free college would increase economic problems, according to Andrew P. Kelly, who says it would only shifts the cost to someone else. As well, it would also hinder our education system. Michael J. Petrilli writes that making college free would “probably shift billions of dollars a year from programs that help talented poor kids access higher education and improve our schools”. Although the concept of free higher education is becoming appealing to the general population, it ultimately would create more problems than it solved and do virtually nothing of huge significance to increase the level of intelligence in modern 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. Proponents of free college education believe that it

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.

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.

How could it possibly be squeezed into the government’s budget? Do they have a secret fund for things like this, or would taxes increase to cover the costs? Free college is now brought up as a debate whether or not students should receive free college tuition while attending college. Some individuals would like this idea, but I am definite the taxpayers would not like it or support it. If the government cannot afford what they are in debt with now, I am quiet uncertain how adding free college would help the debt go down. I am sure that the government would find some way to get their money back from allowing free tuition, or twice the amount the payed by increasing taxes on everything from taxpayers to sales tax. Although it would be extremely pleasant to have free tuition, the tax increase would most likely hurt the taxpayers worse than paying college tuition. I am very much so against providing free college to everyone that graduates high school. Free college would be setting the government up to continue in recession. My biggest concern about offering free college, is how the students who already have student loans be forgiven for the loan amount and have free tuition and debt free as everyone else would be. While more people would have reliable jobs, college should not be free to society because the government budget could not stretch to allow it, more people would take advantage of college because it is free, and taxes would raise on the population.

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

With the upcoming elections, third-party candidate Bernie Sanders has been one of the most talked about candidates because of his belief that tuition and cost of living at public colleges and universities should be free. Free college has become one of the most talked about policy proposals on the campaign trail, but questions surround the policy, such as how it would work, how much it would cost and how it would affect students (Rhatican).

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

As many young millennials rally behind Bernie Sanders and his outlandish claims of free public college for all, others sigh and shake their heads in disapproval. Are these college students really entitled to free higher education? Is it every American’s unalienable right to have a college education? Despite the recent push for free college in the United States, the economic burden and drop in personal responsibility it would create proves that colleges should maintain their current tuitions.

Higher education should, without a doubt, be free and available for all. Imagine if you were a high school student with good grades and you weren’t able to go to college because of the high expenses; how would you feel? The costs have just gotten out of hand for students. Some kids have had no other choice but to enter the work field making little money. When this happens, people are unable to support themselves and are living paycheck-to-paycheck. To avoid situations like poverty,

With the development of society and the improvement of technology, our need for high educated people and high-tech talents is growing. President Obama proposes making community college tuition-free for responsible students, in order to let more students receive the bachelor’s degree and earn skills that meet employer needs. The starting point of the proposal is good, because more students can have the chance to get the higher education, especially for students who are from low income families. While free tuition proposal engages more students to go to college or the university, I consider it is not a right solution.

According to the article “Should higher education really be free for all?” , Ben Ullman states that “free education isn’t free!” Graduates are obviously good for the economy and society and there is some mileage in suggesting that Universities and individual degrees should be government subsidized. But the money has to come from somewhere and do we really think it’s fair to ask the majority of general taxpayers who didn’t directly benefit from Higher Education to completely pay for those who did. To a large extent I would agree in the sense that the question of where would the money come from is a huge issue. If it was just taxes budgeted by the government, then we really run the risk of over spending the budget, which in turn would mean reducing the salaries of teachers, reducing the quality of education like the value of a degree.

Each year graduating high school seniors are faced with the decision of whether or not they want to further their education. Out of all the students who do continue their education, nearly half attend community college. Some may say that community college should be free to anyone, while others oppose this idea. College tuition should not be free because there are more flaws with having free community college, that outweigh the benefits of having free community college.