The Debate Over Free Community College
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. Although the suggestion of community college being free for everybody sounds like something that everyone would be all to willing to agree with there are many people who oppose the idea for several reasons. For Republicans this plan going into action would be too expensive for the United States to afford (Glum, 2015). In the graph (see Figure 1) provided by Archibald and Feldman (2014), 2 economists at the College of William and Mary the amount of money per state to make community college free is very expensive. Not only are states going to have to deal with this financial burden, the federal government has a greater portion to pay for this proposal if this were to become
College is a head turner, eye catcher, and attention grabber. From making the decision to even attend to selecting the perfect school, the whole experience turns out to be incredibly stressful and multiple aspects go into what seems simple at first glance. The cost of attending college is on the rise. Parents and students anxiously await scholarship letters to help with these rising costs of education. State schools usually offer a financial advantage, but a new “law” is being proposed - free in-state college tuition to those students with a 3.5 GPA or higher. Few benefits are available and numerous disadvantages are present when it comes to this recently produced regulation. A few negative factors in this situation will be covered and the explanations will go into depth to prove that this idea is too good to be true. Even though the conception of free college is enticing, the cons outweigh the pros.
The second reason why community colleges should not give out free tuition is because this could actually lower the rates of students becoming successful. According to Andrew P. Kelly from the article “Should Community College be Free”, he said in an interview that “Free community college could actually lower rates of student success; the literature suggests that is less selective than they are academically qualified to attend reduces students’ chances of graduating” (Kelly) (2). Furthermore, this article also shows student’s performances are weaker in free colleges than normal colleges. This means that by giving out free tuition to students will also make them more laid back and not focus on studying as much as they should be. This is a little
Since Obama’s announcement of his idea to provide free community college an uproar of an argument has arose with two distinct sides: community college should be free and community college should not be free. The idea behind free community college is to help individuals reach towards a college degree just as people are easily set forth to reach for a high school degree. The hope is that by deleting the financial barrier that comes with community college more people are willing to aim for an associates degree and possibly higher. There are states that have decided to take the matter into their own hands and are planning to implement this idea. However, the idea of having free community college implemented throughout all states is still questionable
Community college which is usually paid off by the government through grant and fee waivers for for low-income students is a way of continuing your growth after high school, although these institutions aren’t the very best type of education you can get it is a start. The type of students that usually go to community colleges are either low income and can't afford to pay for any other schools(without help from financial aid) or people who simply didn’t get the best grades in high school but still chose to continue their path of education. In the article “As He Promotes It, Some Question Obama’s Free Community College Idea.” Joanne Jacobs explains to us some of the pros and cons about having free community college. With the cons weighing out the pros, in my opinion, community college should not be free because it would take away the significance of going to college. I highly doubt that college students would want to slack off in classes that they are paying for. It works sort of as like an incentive since money isn't easily earned, so by allowing students to attend college for free would make community college more of a continuation of high school.
One of the most highly debated proposals from President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address is a new government program that would cover the cost of community college. The “American College Promise” would provide free tuition to students who enroll in a community college for at least half-time, maintain a 2.5 Grade Point Average (GPA), make steady progress towards completing an associate’s degree and cannot have an adjusted gross income of above two hundred thousand dollars. Obama has stated that the new proposal will benefit roughly nine million students each year by earning them an associate’s degree at no cost. Although the new proposal can be seen as a panacea for all incoming college students, the opposition is true due to the fact that community college is affordable, exclusive, and will hurt the economy by causing the current United States debt to increase.
I like to believe community college is a privilege not an advantage that helps students not get themselves into debt their first years in college and later transfer to a higher college. Michele Siqueriors, president of The Campaign for College Opportunity supports those who are against making community college free because in the article he claims a promise to free tuition could make the problem even more worse by drawing extra students to an already crowded community college. The matter of creating community college free does not help if a student can not get into the right class or find help regarding which classes he or she will have to take. President Barack Obama hopes creating community college free will increase the amount of students with degrees but that could not be done if students from low income families struggle to pay for tuition once in university. Bezerra states he does not know how he will be able to afford to finish his bachelor’s degree because it is too
First of all, the money issue is the big problem to the government. Taxpayers are one of the treasury account for government to withdraw the money and provided the fund to school. I know that all the taxpayers will burden out the amount of money they have to deducted on their check. They obviously not agree with what the government doing, so they have to rejected free community college tuition opinion. But if they take a step back and think about their children, whose go to school and need to pay the tuition for the school. So the tuition fee will still a burden to all the parents
“There’s something about free that’s very clear to everyone.” (Joanne Jacobs) says Halley Potter a Century Foundation fellow, and everyone can agree with this statement. In the article “As He Promotes It, Some Question Obama’s Free Community College Idea,” by Joanne Jacobs, it explain how a student from Rio Hondo College (community college near LA) are “uncertain about President Barack Obama’s free college plan,” (Jacobs, 1). Free community college is a bad idea because community college is already almost free as it is with all the grants you can receive and financial aid or even scholarships. It is also a bad idea because even though it can be a powerful impact on lower income students it won’t be as beneficial because the colleges will become overpopulated and they would have to make waiting lists for you to get in and that will waste your time and you might get behind on graduating.
In the article “As he promotes it, some question Obama’s free community college idea” it demonstrated if people should go to a community college for free. In conclusion, there was many argument about should community college be free or not. President Barack Obama want students to be able to get an degree in something that you want to do. I believe that it should be free and I have many reasons to explain why it should.
Today, many people seek higher education for a better advantage in finding a job and getting a better life. Even though many people think going to a four year college directly from high school is a good idea; they are wrong. Starting out at a two year community college is more affordable. Also, it helps people explore careers and prepare people to do better in four years college later down the road.
Although I believe the first two years of community college should be free to all; many people would disagree. One of the biggest controversies surrounding the issue of free community college is the enormous cost it comes with and how it will be funded. According to Emily Deruy, the author of the article The Debate over Free Community College, “The chances of community colleges nationwide becoming free are slim. The White House has said it would cost the federal
Community college should be free for all students who want to attend school. There should be a set of rules applied to those that would take advantage of this privilege. In the United States, there are not very many programs that offer the opportunity for students to attend free colleges like other countries have. Some examples of the countries are Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany and France. The U.S. does have some programs that offer free tuition. For example Tennessee offers free tuition to students. The Tennessee Promise is a scholarship program that pays for your community college so you can go there tuition free. Another program is the Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) in New York at the City University of New York. Community colleges should be free because it would not only attract more students, but would help students to focus more on school rather than thinking about how they are going to pay for their education. However, we need guidelines for applicants to attend such as maintaining a high GPA, giving back through community services hours, and other rules and guidelines to attract students that would continue to excel in their education and not waste the opportunity given to them to work towards a good career and give back.
It’s an idea that pops up every now and then. Every year many young people work hard to pass their school-leaving exams and enter a college. However, for many of them acquiring good marks is not the only worry. Unlike the lucky minority from wealthy families, they must also think about the ways of getting money to pay for their education. For a half century, federal funding has flowed to students in the form of vouchers, and students have had the power to choose from an array of providers--public, private, and for-profit. Making education free can stretch from an array of getting rid of student debts/loans to decreasing the amount of unqualified jobs with the help of President Obama 's idea of making community colleges "free." The government claims that free education is impossible, as there is no possibility to subsidize the universities and colleges with the budget funds. Moreover, when education is fully supported financially by the state, colleges lose their independence and the spirit of democracy and freedom. .
Imagine a world where college was completely free. Tuition is completely paid for, no book fees, housing fees, everything is one-hundred percent paid for by the government. Unfortunately, the only downfall to that is that the people fund the government. Taxpayers, which should be almost all of America, are the ones who give the government the money to do every day necessities. The government will not be able to afford to pay for every student to have free college on their own, all of that money will have to come from us, the people. This means that college really isn't free. The government should not pay for everyone's college because it is unfair to those who can easily afford it, taxes will go through the roof, and will inhibit a lesser education if it is free for everyone.
In every nation, education has an important influence on the improvement of its economy and politics. For the United States of American, community college becomes one of the main factors to determine how the country moves forward. Using table 101.20 from Digest of Education Statistics of the National center for Education Statistics, from 2000 to 2014, the increase in college enrollment has been contributed by increases in the traditional college-age population and rising enrollment rates. But increasing costs of tuition and different expenses each year have become huge obstacles for students to focus and maintain their education status and achievements. This issue brings up the controversy about whether community college education should