The words “free college tuition” would 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 resonated extremely well within the student demographic. To forty million Americans, free tuition would eliminate 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 end up spending more financially, are less likely to graduate with a degree, and are subjected to more inequality and less exposure.
It is important to consider who truly benefits from free college tuition, as it is not low-income students. In fact, free college tuition creates a larger rift between the dollar values low-income students have in comparison to high-income students. According to a study from NPSAS (Chingos, 2012), a government-funded organization, rich students would receive 24% more in dollar value if free college tuition is established. As normal as it seems, free college requires a tradeoff; it would eliminate tuition but out-of-pocket costs for low-income families will increase to $17.8 billion dollars annually that cannot be covered by grants. Rich students would be able to pay off these costs because of that increase in dollar value. Therefore, it is impossible to ignore that low-income students truly would not benefit from free college tuition, as they do not have the same privileges as rich students do.
These analyses are not just hypothetical data, though. A test was conducted in Scotland that proved the gap between low-income students and high-income students (Blackburn, 2014). Scotland has no college tuition, The increase in a number of loans offered inevitably increased debt in a way that the highest amount of debt was given to the lowest-income student. This outcome means that these students have a smaller chance of receiving grants. Since
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.
Free college tuition is crucial for the millions of students across the country that either cannot afford an education or are struggling with enormous debts. Statistics show that the amount of
First, free college may not benefit those most in need. As Matt Bruenig, a writer who researches poverty and welfare systems, in his article “The Case Against Free College” argued, “The main problem with free college is that most students come from disproportionately well-off background and already enjoy disproportionately well-off futures, which makes them relatively uncoupling targets for public transfers…At public colleges, students from the poorest fourth of the population currently pay net tuition at either two-year or four-year institutions….Richer students currently receive much fewer tuition and living grant benefits”(113). Free college should benefit poorer students, but actually could end up helping wealthy students more. Low income
The prospect of attending college can be both exciting and disconcerting, particularly given the current cost of tuition. “Free college programs that cover students' tuition are a step toward addressing issues of the cost of higher education, but leave questions of quality unanswered” (Bayer). Which means free tuition for a student that doesn’t have financial aid assisting them. I believe college should be free within the United States. Although there are states with “free”college or some kind of program to assists students in ; I believe all the states should provide free college for students. This being said, college should be free for students; no matter their race, religion, or sex. They would only be responsible for utilities and whatever else they chose to buy. Tution would essentially be paid by taxpayers within the state. Students can’t afford tuition and expenses due to them not making enough money at their part time job while going to school full-time. Even if a student could afford the tuition they still would not have enough to cover their other expenses.
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.
“Even if it would help to get rid of the shackles of student debt, having free tuition colleges would deprive the students of things like learning how to balance their finances, which can lead to big problems in the future” (Suvannasankha). Having free tuition colleges could affect America in many ways, some good and some bad. One good thing that free college tuition would do for America is that it would bring a new skillful and better-educated workforce (Should College Be Free? Pros, Cons, and Alternatives). Even though having free college tuition would help America would having free college tuition be the best idea depending on the fact that nothing is really free, everything comes at a
Free colleges make the economy worse. We have to pay more in are taxes (9), and they are already high. Another thing about this is we would have to pay for a Harvard kid and a kid at a poor college. It's not fair to those kids to have to pay more for Harvard kid $60,659 (3) when they're at a $20,000 college. More and more kids will go to college since its
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
Feeling as if you are labeled with the status of what your family’s income is will no longer be the limitation that students face when coming from a lower-class family, and consequentially, education will not be limited to those coming from middle to upper-class families. Making tuition free for everyone will, without a doubt, allow lower-class students to have the opportunity to achieve their goals in life and not feel that they are being treated differently or not given the same chances as those who come from middle or upper-class families. “Not only is having a diverse class of students throughout college beneficial to the students, but also to the resources of the country allowing the workforce to become more equipped with the best of employers from all sorts of backgrounds (Alba, et al.).” The more diverse of a population that enters the workforce, the more insights could be offered and the more work could be
However due to the rising number of Americans willing to go college and the cost it represents to accommodate everyone—especially those students coming from low income families that are more dependent on student’s loans—the narratives of some lawmakers and political leaders have since quite changed.
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.
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.
Its proponents differentiate tuition-free college and debt-free college by noting that the debt-free college proposal would allow a federal grant that would cover the cost is unmet by university funds and family support. It wouldn’t eliminate the full cost of college, but rather the possibility of having to go into debt and risking other essential aspects of financial health. With this proposal, public college education becomes transformed into a low-risk investment that only involves the money that is used in order to cover the cost. Other than completely eliminating the possibility of student debt, another merit would be that the student dropout rates would be drastically lowered. Borrowers drop out of college at twice the rate of the regular dropout rate (Beginning Post Secondary Students, 2011). Because students will not require an unsustainable lifestyle in order to fund their education, they will have much more time to allocate into working on their degrees. As private debtors are mostly cut out of the structure of affordable higher education, the systematically regressive lending system can be abolished. The aspect of paying for college will no longer deter students from attending. Making college not free, but affordable for every student in the country would stop the advance of socioeconomic inequality in that much more low-income students would be able to
These analyses are not just hypothetical data, however. A test orchestrated in Scotland by Lucy H. Blackburn, the Head of Higher Education at the Scottish Government, proved the existing gap between low-income students and high-income students (Blackburn, 2014, p. 1-5). Scotland is one of the couple European countries that have no college tuition.The increase in a number of loans offered inevitably increased debt in a way that the
One of the American presidential nominees Bernie Sanders, proposed the idea of free tuition for public institutions for all students. This was a plan created to help the working class and low-income family. However, according to the article “How Free College Tuition Would Become a Giveaway to the Rich”, written by Michael Hiltzik a recent study in Brookings Institution showed that the biggest gain from the free tuition are the upper-income students. The study published by Matthew M. Chingos stated that "students from families in the top income quartile attend colleges that charge about $1,200, or 20 percent, more than the colleges attended by the typical student from the bottom income quartile. Students from the upper half of income distribution would receive $16.8 billion in tuition assistance, compared with $13.5 billion going to those in the lower-income brackets Students from the most affluent 25 percent of families represent 11% of students at public colleges, but would receive 18% of the benefits if tuition were eliminated"(see fig 1). Studies have stated that prosperous families are the only to obtain the benefit out of tuition becoming free, when the idea is suppose to pose to the low income