Should colleges be free in America? It is a question that is more relevant today than ever before. As education is one key factor that determines the nation’s fate going forward, this question is worth debating. Making free college education may sound good theoretically but requires herculean efforts to make it practically possible. The main question is whether such program be effective in the long run or not? If, yes how long will the government able to support these costs and from where? Are tuition costs only the concern that discourages students from attending colleges? There may arise several skepticisms that can withhold the idea of free colleges. As both colleges and students won’t be benefitted by such plans the college education should not be free. “Free public college is a great political talking point, but it is a flawed policy.” [Kelly,1] As mentioned by Andrew p. Kelly, tuition-free college merely shifts the cost of education from the group of taxpayers to all the taxpayers. Technically, free college isn’t really free. Someone does have to pay for it. The only option to cover tuition cost is to increase the tax rates or cut services for elsewhere. It is not fairer to cut other services just to make students pay for educations. Why would one pay more tax if they are rich? People who are rich did something to accomplish it. They were not innate wealthy. Most of the wealthy person have worked their way up and worked their entire lives to get where they are. Thus,
First of all, it is not actually free someone has to pay for it. If there were did have free tuition colleges, the state and federal government would have to make a few changes. The changes could include raising taxes, decreasing military budget, closing tax loopholes, increasing taxes more for the wealthy, new taxes on speculative Wall Street transactions, and diverting student financial aid to tuition free colleges (Should College Be Free? Pros, Cons, and Alternatives). It would affect the taxpayers of America the most, because they would have to be
It becomes a major controversy when the idea of something being “free” is brought up in this economy. Money is what operates the economical system and it’s the factor that leads colleges in providing resources for their students. President Obama’s idea of having community college be free leaves many skeptical on whether it can be beneficial, or in some ways hurtful. However, there are upsides to allowing community college to be free. Community College should be free because it will cause a diversity of students to attend, allow students to save money, and offer an opportunity for those who aspire to continue their education.
While researching this topic I came upon a very interesting article; Why tuition free College Makes Sense. The author, Lawrence S. Wittner, explains briefly the
With the shockingly high number of student debt in America, it is no wonder why people constantly look for alternatives to make education cheaper.Certainly, higher education is in need of reformation. However, it should not come at the expense of dollars from people who pay taxes. In theory, free college sounds fantastic, but it must be understood that this luxury is not free. The money would come from people who pay taxes, which is evidently twisted as a majority of people do not value higher education. They should not be forced to pay for something that is optional in one’s life. People will be paying for free college for the rest of their lives in taxes. Moreover, free college removes the incentive of valuing education in high school. There
According to USA Today, In 2017, the graduating class of colleges will come out with a four year degree and close to $30,000 of debt from student loans (“The Average Student Loan Debt in Every State”). The idea of free college was recently brought up in the 2017 presidential campaign by Bernie Sanders. He made it clear that if he became president, he would use the taxpayers money to make college free. College should be free to attend due to the fact that people who may be smarter than others may not be able to attend college because of their lack of income, U.S. tax dollars could fund tuition payments, and it will help our workforce by adding more people with degrees into it.
George Leef discusses several important points in his article “You Will Pay for “Free” College” (n.pag.). Leef first explains that college will never be completely free (n.pag.). In order to have one thing we must give up another and there is no way around that (Leef n.pag.). Leef clarifies with his readers that all the government can do about college tuition is transition the cost from students to taxpayers (n.pag.). George continues his argument with his point that free college tuition will influence colleges in a negative way (n.pag.). A move from students to taxpayers will not only result
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (Strauss). Free college tuition can be education funded through taxation or charitable organizations rather than tuition funding. There are other countries with free college such as; Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, and Slovenia; consequently, Norway has a higher graduation rate. The reason America does not have this system is because, they are having the debate on if the United States should have in or not due to the fact that if it is free, where will they get the money from, people do not want their taxes to be higher so someone else can have free schooling. Therefore while the debate continues, Americans are suffering. Even though many are against free higher education; subsequently it can help society by decreasing student debt, increasing education rates, and allowing students to have more freedom to choose their major.
“Calling something free doesn’t make it free, it’s simply a matter of who pays the costs” (Leukbe). College can’t be possible without someone paying the expenses. Yes, making college free for students will spare them lots of struggle. But then, the money will still need to be made up for one way or another. If we make college free, states will struggle to pay and Taxpayers will be forced to pay for what the students don’t. “We will come into a situation where, just like in any downtown there will be problems for the states to keep up the funding for the universities, or raise it”, as Professor Woessmann clearly states, free tuitions could also mean the downfall of of our country’s economy. A perfect example of a situation like this would be in the state of California, where college costs were decreased drastically, and as a result ended up putting the state in debt. Unable to raise incomes, the colleges were forced to turn away more 600,000 students
Barack Obama’s idea of free-tuition college will indeed help millions of people attend college and many doors will open for those that could not afford college before. In addition to the article “Savvier middle- and upper-middle-class students could be competing for spots with low-income students,” student named Sequeiros said, “One population ends up pushing out another.” in other words it will limit the incoming amount of students enrolling in college. If college is free, than colleges needs to be free to all and
Should college be free or is it good the way it is? This is one of the most debatable questions of this generation. Like every other thing it would also have its pros and cons. Many say that it would greatly help a country while others say that nothing is truly free and someone must pay for it. However the growth of a country’s economy over the long run is miles more than the loose in the short term. So in my opinion College should be free for everyone.
Nobody enjoys paying for college. No one thinks about college and gets excited about all the money they might spend, but now people are actually thinking of ways to fix that. Currently colleges are very expensive, especially private colleges. However, with the current presidential election going on, the possibility of free public college is being brought up. This concept would be greatly beneficial to today’s youth and help them graduate college debt free. Each year, college tuitions increase exponentially. This has raised many concerns as to exactly how people will manage to pay for their education. Unfortunately, there haven’t been many solutions brought up about how future college students could potentially graduate without loans or debt. All of the ideas proposed to solve this issue include some form of increased taxes, but would college really be considered free if people still have to pay for it through taxes? Whether college is paid for directly or paid for through government taxes, money is still being lost. Right now, taxes could only cover public college tuition. What if someone decides to go to a private college? That person would not only have to pay the tuition for a private college, but they would already be paying the tuition for a public college through taxes, a public college that that person doesn’t even plan on attending. No one wants to pay for one college tuition, let alone two, which is why college tuition shouldn’t be made
College is, no doubt, not an option if someone wants to succeed in this thriving world today. Free tuition would be great, but free tuition would mean the government would have to pay. Instead of students paying for tuition, tax payers would be paying, so technically the federal government does not pay for free tuition. College should not be completely free because college is a privilege not a right, taxes would go up, and previous students would want to be paid back.
The amount of money that would be put into the colleges would be detrimental to the United States economy. Free college is a controversial subject because some people think it will help the economy and so think it won’t. Free college would be horrible to have in the United States people would suffer a lot more, hurt economy and we don’t want that. College should not be free because taxes would be higher, students would take it for granted, and debt will increase.
After high school, there are plenty of routes for people to go to enhance their future. Some go into the work force, a few serve in the military, and plenty go to college. College is a choice many people make to get a higher education. It is an opportunity to take an extra step in life and become whatever they want to be in life. Students cannot do that if the prices of going to school is too high for them.
College tuition has been on the rise as the demand for higher education has increased each year. Politicians debate whether public college should be made free through regulation by the government or to let the institutions set their prices themselves. A problem to this proposal is that private universities would still set their own high prices for tuition. Free college tuition does not ensure that a student will finish college or receive a great education because it is up to them on what they do with the education at the university. It is not possible for public college to be tuition free because of the amount of money the government will have to spend and that it will not result in better educated people.