College is a very expensive cost for students. There are many different points that contribute to whether college should be free or not. Because of this, there are many different arguments for and against free college. College should not be free for students because it would result in more problems, just because it is considered free does not mean it is free, and because professionals agree.
First, if college were free, it would only cause more problems than it would solve. There are expenses other than just college that students have to pay. For example, books, supplies, food, a place to live, etc. are also expenses (Redd “Should college be free? Pros, cons, and alternatives”). While making college free would cut back on some of the high
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First of all, colleges can only hold a certain number of students. Once the student number passes that line, they have to make a cut (Redd “Should college be free? Pros, cons, and alternatives”). Because students would have to be cut, free college would only hurt students more than benefit them because of being rejected. Second, because students pay for their own education, they value it more (Redd “Should college be free? Pros, cons, and alternatives”). They are more likely to use it later in life if they pay for it themselves because they know the value of it. They had to save the money and manage the costs, so they know what it is worth. However, if college were paid for for them, they would not know what it is truly worth. Third, if college were free, students would go to college to stay with the trend. They would go because everyone else is, not because they need an education. They would later realize that going to college to “stay cool” is not the real reason to go, and they would be hurt emotionally. As shown, to save students from the emotional trauma of making college free, students need to pay for their own …show more content…
Mary Scott Hunter, President Pro Tem of the Alabama Department of Education stated, “While I don’t believe that college should be free, I do believe that state leaders would be wise to make it very affordable for their citizens” (Kiernan “Should college be free? Experts pick sides”). Making college free is not the right choice, as stated by Mary Scott Hunter. However, making college costs more affordable would be a great alternative option. Also, Gregory J. Cizek, Ph.D., Guy B. Phillips Distinguished Professor of Educational Measurement and Evaluation from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill stated, “There’s no evidence that cheapening college yields anything other than a cheapened college experience. Imperfect, to be sure, but market forces currently provide information about the value of a college education” (Kiernan “Should college be free? Experts pick sides”). If college were made free, then the education would not be worth as much as it would if the students paid for it themselves. Last, Carrie B. Kisker, Ph.D., Director of the Center for the Study of Community Colleges stated, "Advocates of 'college for free' often couch their arguments in social justice terms, arguing that until the most disadvantaged in our society have the same access to college as the most advantaged, equality is not possible. While I agree with this sentiment, making college free works against this
While most people want college to be free, the U.S. should not make tuition free for all citizens. There are a number of reasons like taxing families who already have it hard, quality in education, rationing, and if people see that they do not have to pay it may lower the value in which they won 't take school seriously. Tuition free college is impossible because at the end of the day someone will have to pay for all those students attending. For example, “In college I was invested, I was paying,” The former student said, “Once it entails a cost, it’s not easy to just say, Oh, let’s not go to class today. You’re just hurting yourself” (qtd, in Make College Affordable, but Not Free). Student who barely made it
In our American society it is the role of the president to devise plans that will benefit our society as a whole. He might suggest that he has this plan to solve global warming our maybe he has concerns with the way a certain policy should be. Like presidents of the past president Obama has concerns and changes of his own he would like to put into place. Community colleges offer a wide range of degrees for cutting edge technical careers in today 's industries that help bridge opportunities to higher economic class. President Obama hopes to put into action policy that would make community college free to productive members of our American society this is an issue that merits a careful evaluation at both sides of the argument.
According to Trade Schools, Colleges and Universities “Many of America's top-performing high school students never apply to the most challenging colleges and universities even though they have the ability to succeed at them. They often come from minority and low-income households and end up pursuing more affordable, less-selective schools instead.” College can be a burden to many students in a variety of different ways, but the most common reason is due to funds. Making college free for students will help this problem by increasing jobs in the work industry that require degrees, they should be affordable to all people at all cost, as well as the funds should be completely cut off because it would increase jobs and help America's economy grow.
As people attend college, fees build up and students loan money and possibly be in debt. Not only that, some may say college isn’t worth it, but it is. Getting a degree pays off at the end, going towards your career path, making twice as much as you would work at a regular job. Students who have received a degree are slowly declining. To make adjustments, college should be free for everyone.
First, free college can encourage students to go to college to get a degree which leads to a high paying career. It can fulfill those students that are having a hard time financially, and fewer students will be in debt. Second, with free college, colleges will be more likely to help students that need the guidance to stay on track and get a diploma. Clayton and Bailey mention, "If we want to significantly improve educational outcomes, we need to make college more affordable so more students can enroll, and make the reforms needed to en-sure community college students can succeed in their courses, complete their program, and grad-uate within reasonable amount of time" (Clayton and Bailey). Finally, free college can help the U.S. catch up to the rest of the countries with higher education. For example, it can help the United States surpass Russia, where more than half of adults have a diploma. Frohlich explains, “More Than 53% of Russian adults between the ages of 25 and 64 had some form of higher edu-cation in 2012, more than in any other country reviewed by OECD” (Frohlich). Although free college is an attractive idea, it will leave the United States in a bigger debt which will be hard to recover from and more students will be unmotivated to
As Bernie Sanders, a presidential candidate for the 2016 presidential elections, claims he can make college free, the subject of tuition for secondary schooling has become a “hot” topic. The New York Times, on January 20th, released a “Room for Debate” titled “Should College be Free?” where many journalists such as Andrew P. Kelly and Sara Goldrick-Rab voiced their opinions on college tuition. “Just one-third of students from the bottom income quartile, who started at a community college in 2003 finished with a degree or certificate by 2009,” wrote Kelly, showing that the poorer find it hard to finish college with a degree. He believed that indigent students would likely not graduate with a degree due to college cost and because they are not motivated enough to get through six years of college. Although it is unpractical to create an educational system where college is absolutely free, creating organizations dedicated to encouraging the needy to get through
When hearing the words “free” and “college” in the same sentence, that is exciting to anyone who is interested in not paying those thousands of dollars for their pursued education. However, when it comes to Obama’s free community college idea, for the first two years, many people skip over the many factors that go into this issue. Some may agree with President Obama’s plan fighting for a fair chance for all student to get a degree and not go into debt receiving an education, and others argue that community college already being inexpensive will only make the system difficult to work with. While making community college free for everyone is considerate, the students with low incomes already get the aid they need without this program and the
Calling a college education “free” is a contradiction because nothing in life is truly free. Someone will be responsible for paying for this education, even if it is not the person receiving it. To support this flood of hopeful college students, the American Government will have to heavily tax the working and upper classes. Taxes will have to be inflated to compensate for the price of college, and in some cases, may become outrageously high. If the upper class becomes constantly taxed, what keeps them from dropping down a class? What keeps the middle class from becoming the lower class? In an extreme situation, if the middle and upper classes were constantly taxed, there risks a problem of creating a bigger class divide. Maybe the plan to pay for college education starts out with only the rich being taxed. In America, there are roughly 324 million people. This number increases every eight seconds, so there is a constant increase of citizens. Imagine if half of that number decides to go to college. College education is free for them, but their tuition is paid for by the upper class. Now, average college tuition runs for about $9,410 for State Universities, and around $32,405 for out of state students. This amount of money, per student, is paid for by the upper class’s taxes. Taxes are raised higher and higher to pay for all these students until they cannot be raised any further. The upper
Community colleges have been tool used by many American students and families as a means of affordable education for better life for themselves and their children. Community colleges has played a big role in helping middle and lower income families who can 't afford to go to 4 years colleges ,the chance to educate themselves and their children. Community college was created in order to give basic liberal , technical and vocational education to all willing to be educated.
There is no doubt that college is expensive, price tags for some universities go over a quarter of a million for just a bachelors degree! (That’s if you graduate in four too). The extravagant price for college is no doubt crazy. Trying to better yourself and your future shouldn’t cost $250,000 plus. If public universities were to be free a plethora of problems could be solved instantly. According to Forbes the National student loan debt has surpassed 1.2 trillion dollars (Denhart )! This number is growing exponentially as more students enroll in to college. Why question then whether college should be free? Well, this number is the total amount of student loan debt from all students that have exited college. Some of these students are freshly graduated while some are aged with the wisdom trying to pay their loans back. If public universities were to be free and funded by our federal government, our government would pay this amount within ten years. Relatively a short amount of time considering that the student loan debt is an accumulation debt from students that have graduated more than ten year ago, also this also greatly increase with the following years as well.
“If a college education has value, why give it away?” (Luebke). Most everyone wants to have higher education because it has value in this day and age. It opens up more career options, and lets them have more freedom to pick the career they want. With higher education being tuition-free, students might take their college education less seriously because they don’t have to pay for it (Should College Be Free? Pros, Cons, and Alternatives). Because of this, graduation numbers might drop, or the people who do graduate may not be as well prepared for the workforce. Yes, there are still entry requirements that limit the amount of students allowed into the school, but much of the drive for the students comes from the fact that they are paying a lot of money to be there. Also, giving away college education would almost certainly do the opposite of what people want it to do, which is give more money to students from richer families than from poorer ones. It isn’t that they want to necessarily take money from the richer families, but they want to give poorer families more opportunities to get money. “Without a dramatic overhaul of how we understand student benefits, making college more or entirely free would most likely boost the wealth of college attendees without securing any important egalitarian gains.” (Bruenig). This is because students from well-off families already enjoy a disproportionately successful future than students from poor families,
Over the past few years, a debate has emerged on whether or not the United States of America should provide free college education for its citizens. This topic is very controversial; however, the issues that some people see in free higher education actually have solutions, and the benefits of free college clearly outweigh its risks.
For most young Americans, college has always been preached to them as being a vital part to their success in the adult world; but as they reach this educative rite of passage many find they must take out inflated loans, work part time jobs, or even become dissuaded entirely due to the exorbitant costs of higher education. We must forsake this current antiquated system in favor of government subsidized tuition. Therefore, college education must be free because of its benefit to the economy, creation of equal opportunity, and the resolution of the student loan crisis.
While the idea of free college is often seen as beneficial only to the wealthy, college should be free for everyone because going to college could once again be seen as a choice instead of a financial problem for many households, people could also better understand others that come from different backgrounds, and there are more
A college education is necessary today in society. Students can focus on their academics and try to get a high score. The cost of education for each student has become more difficult to afford. Thus, many students and teachers wonder if free college tuition must be granted. Free education must be responsible and funded by the U.S. government because it will help students focus on their studies, and encourage them to work harder in school. Even thought many people think that education must be free, it is very important for many reasons such as the economy, quality of education, and value of a college degree.