The Argument For Tuition Free College Hugh Ellison Analysis

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.

He makes a strong effort, aimed at creating a sentiment towards government, colleges, and student loans that will solicit change to the system in use today. Whether or not his endeavor worked is still yet to be seen 4 years later, as students today still struggle with the same problem featured in the article: vast amounts of student loan debt. Proposals of “free community college” by former President Obama, and “debt free public college” by Secretary Clinton, but America voted against such ideas. The question lingers whether or not the current administration will take

After reading about the historic court case of Robert Murphy, an unemployed 65-year-old man fighting to have over $200,000 in student loan debt dismissed through bankruptcy, I began to think “Have I been lied to about my investment in a college education”? Well, the answer is yes; we have all been lied to! Student loan debt is an invisible phantom that follows millions of Americans through their lives. We are told, however, that this invaluable investment is well worth the risk of living in financial destitution for the rest our lives. The truth is it creates even more hardships on Americans in the form of debt. I and millions of others are tired of the lies! If college is going to continuously be America’s golden standard for economic advancement, our next leader needs to fix the affordability of the higher education system and the debt that burdens Americans once and for all.

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.

In the recent debate regarding the implementation of free college tuition across the United States, Jon Wiener, a Los Angeles journalist for The Nation, and Kelly Field, chief Washington reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education who covers different federal education policies, discuss why college tuition should be abolished in the United States of America and the role of both Democratic and Republican parties on the debate. In the article, “It’s Time to End Tuition at Public Universities - and Abolish Student Debt,” published by the Nation in March 2015, Jon Wiener annotates the crippling debt that college

In the article titled “Should Community College be Free?” written by Joanne Jacobs, the author talks up the argument about whether Community College should be free and presents both sides being that Community College should in fact be free for the many students who cannot afford it which will increase, “the number of people with degrees”, according to past President Barack Obama. The other side argues that making Community College free will only help those whose parents make too much to afford Grants stating that those who can afford it will be taking advantage of the free cost and making the schools overcrowded.

Iris Palmer, the senior policy analyst with the Educational Policy program at New America, notes in her article The False Promise of “Free College” that there is no denying the appeal “free college” offers to students pursuing a college degree. In this article, Palmer discusses several reasons why presidential nominee Hillary Clintons’ plan for free college would not have been beneficial to the United States, or to students hoping to earn a college degree. Although the articles main focus is about the plan created by Clinton, it ultimately can be used to form an argument against the general plans for “free” college tuition as a whole. The article lists several reasons why “free” college tuition would not solve the problem of the lack of students

It is difficult to comprehend how third world countries have tuition-free colleges and America does not. How can economically underdeveloped countries offer free colleges with little problem, but America struggles? While politicians such as Bernie Sanders, President Obama, and Kate Brown talk about making colleges and community colleges tuition-free and eventually free altogether, they fail to see the bigger problem of economic disparity. Implementing a tuition-free program where everyone is eligible is not sustainable nor fair. If a student comes from a household that makes less than the average annual salary of $56,516, tuition should be completely free. College must be tuition-free because most first world countries already have free college, it is an investment that will benefit current and future generations, and people’s inability to repay back their student loans is negatively affecting the United State’s economy.

It is 2017, and the amount of the student debt in the United States is spiraling out of control. 1.4 trillion dollars, those mountains of money are currently owed by 44 million Americans in the federal student loan debt. Moreover, this type of debt looms large all over the auto debt, even more than all the credit card debt, according to the press release of Consumer Federation of America. That is a number that helps to imagine how huge it is. Consequently, many Americans are heavily in debt in their twenties because they strive to achieve a higher education, which leads to many downside effects on the whole country; however, an effective solution to solve this problem would be for the government to give free college to help people be debt-free.

College in general has been questionable for quite some time about whether it should be free or at least lowered in the tuition prices. In this discussion, only community college is in question on whether or not it should be free. Most states are even offering a program that allows high school students to earn college credits before ever even graduating. This is one of a few ways that they are trying to provide “low-cost or no-cost tuition for community colleges” (“Free Community College”). Throughout the “At Issue: Should community college tuition be free?” published in CQ Researcher, Walter G. Bumphus and Richard Vedder display their unique approaches on the issue of community college tuition. Bumphus argues that community college should

In this essay, I argue that community college tuition should be free or significantly less than it already is. The reasons why I support this argument is due to the strong points of the supporting premises for this argument. While the con side of the argument leans heavily on just one supporting thesis – essentially repeating that people should deserve and pay for a two year college as the same they do for a four year college –, the pro side supports in three different ways of why this is beneficial to America. It explains how this will provide the middle class of America a gateway to a better future that they wouldn't have before, how the investment into the America's College Promise plan is small with the payout being immeasurable, and to those who prove that they deserve this kind of benefit. The pro heavily outweighs the con in supporting premises.

Student loans disproportionately affects individuals from households with fewer financial resources, furthering economic inequality between different groups. Although the price of college has sharply increased, the average earnings for many people remain the same, which Hillman, a professor at Univ. of Wisconsin notes to be the one of the major reasons as to why student debt has risen in the recent years, data from the US Census Bureau shows that median family incomes have fallen each year since 2005. Due to this, there is a huge dependence on borrowing to cover the high costs of college since most can’t rely on such work income or savings. Existing structural inequalities in the labor market and great racial disparities in wealth distribution has led to minority students especially Blacks and Latinos needing more financial assistance to cover college. A recent Center for American Progress analysis on the impact of student debt on communities of

Student loan debt is responsible for $1.2 Trillion of the US 's national debt. Over the past several years, the youth of this country’s futures have been based off of social status and test scores. A student from the suburbs of a wealthy community is more likely to go on to a prosperous four year college than a colored male or female from the inner city. These are facts that should not be overlooked; by any means. This subject is not black and white or rich and poor but the battle between the state, and federal government against the youth. The US education system, state and federal are not working properly.

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.

Tricia Jenkins graduated from Alvin Community College in Alvin, Texas, with a certificate in court reporting and now earns $78,000 a year working for a law firm in Houston. She showed the success that can be achieved with a community college education; however, many students cannot afford this education. In the United States, 52% of students struggle or cannot afford community college with 83% of students struggling to afford a four-year college. This causes many students to start college, and then have to work jobs to pay for it, and in many cases drop out. Consequently, only 29% of students who enter two-year programs complete their degree within 3 years, and only 56% of students who enter a four-year program complete their degree within 6 years. This means that many students leave college and end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, sometimes without having even received a degree. The aforementioned point causes many careers to become unattainable for those that cannot afford to complete their degree. This has caused many people to advocate for free community college nationwide so that everyone has access to the resources necessary for success. Overall, the opposition for and against free college has caused the price and affordability of college to become a contentious issue in the United States.