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A university education should be free
Should university education be free in the United States
Should higher education be free in the USA
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Education reform has been an ongoing debate in the United States for many years. The latest argument that many politicians, teachers and even students have debated is whether or not four-year public universities should be free. Even Barack Obama pushed for a plan that would make two-year community college free for everyone. In addition to this, Bernie Sanders has made free higher education one of his main political platforms in his presidential candidacy. According to "How America 's Colleges Could Be Tuition Free," student college debt has passed the one trillion dollar mark (collegerank.net). This number is unreasonably high. With all the hype, most people’s initial reaction would be to agree with free higher education. Knowledge and education …show more content…
Looking on the positive side, college students will no longer be thousands of dollars in debt. They will have a higher quality of life by having more money to spend on themselves. This money would also go back into the economy, as their overall spending would increase. While all students would be saving money, free higher education would actually be more beneficial to wealthy families. According to “The Case Against Free College,” there is a positive correlation between the income of parents and the likelihood to attend college. Rich students would be receiving more money than the poor (Bruenig). The families that are sending their students to college can already afford to do so. Meanwhile, the smaller populations of poorer students that decide to attend college already receive enough financial aid and government subsidies to cover the cost. People that obtain a Bachelor’s degree earn more money and therefore are able to pay off their student loans. We don’t need to provide free education to families that can already afford it. Another effect on students is that students will take longer to graduate. Having to pay for your own education is a huge motivator to aim for success in school, as most of us don’t want our money to go to waste. Without that motivation, students’ efforts will significantly decrease. At public universities around 60% of students take …show more content…
Since many who did not have the opportunity to go to college will start to attend, professors will have a much larger population to try to educate. It is believed that a smaller classroom size increases academic success. With a much larger population, professors will be forced to accommodate extremely large classroom sizes, in which it would be more difficult to both teach and to learn in. Since the government would control schools more, professors would lose their academic freedom of what they want to teach. They will most likely be told what to teach to their students just like secondary school teachers are told to do. Professors will probably have to keep up with many more standards, instead of them being able to teach what they need and want to
College graduates are already experiencing difficulty finding well-paying jobs and careers today. Free tuition does nothing to help grow the job market but just adds competition through degree inflation. This could cause degrees to be less meaningful and a rise in unemployment with college graduates aiming for better jobs. While we can acknowledge that these programs may be utilized in other countries with some success, many of these cultures have static labor markets, strict entrance requirements for their universities, and have other cultural limitations that prevent pursuit of degree by average or slightly above average students. A student who has only been academically focused without work experience, may not be the best candidate for a job as someone with less education and more experience. In fact, Germany, a country that offers free college based on merit, actually graduates fewer college
One of the hot topics of debate going on in the U.S. today that presidential candidates are talking about is college tuition. Some have revealed their proposals to American citizens on how they would tackle the issue of tuition. The question is which one of the many proposals will work and limit the amount of people who don’t go to college and give them a reason to go. The tuition issue is not a case by case problem, but a national problem. While there are some who have the opportunity to attend college others are not as fortunate. But everyone can have a part in shaping the future for many generations to come. The objective is to find a way to make what some would call “college free”to everyone. How were we able to find a way to make public
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.”
First and foremost, Trade Schools, Colleges and Universities states, “After all, more and more of today's jobs are knowledge-based or require advanced technical skills. So a better-educated workforce would help fill many of the skills gaps that prevent America's economy from growing faster.” If more people attended college then there would be more jobs to fill in America’s economy. There have been droughts in America’s economy, but with free college tuition, droughts would decrease. It would not be fair that someone who could be successful at the job would not be granted the ability to get the job because they don’t have a piece of paper with a signature on it compared to someone who does average or mediocre at the job and had the opportunity to go to college. Making college free also comes with consequences. So graduation numbers might drop, or the people who do graduate might not be as well prepared for the workforce. Also, with more people choosing to attend public colleges because of their tuition-free status, many schools might have to create wait lists or expand the ones they already have. State budgets could become strained, which might lead to cuts and decreased access to the programs that students want to take. Here is the weakness, although it benefits many students, the nation's existing
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
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.
Their claim might be that in having free-tuition colleges and universities the education system will lose its value on students. Whereas, knowing that students are paying for class course they are more focused and determined. They don 't want their money to be a waste. And I agree, however there are other ways to approach this. In Germany one still has to pay for their education, but with a small tuition fee and their own living expenses. In fact, international students at Germany have to pay an annual of approximately $6,300 in tuition and living expenses where 90 percent goes to paying one’s living expenses and the other 10 percent goes into university fees. After all in the U.S, the average annual cost for attending college is about $35,000 where about only 30 percent of that money goes to living expenses; compare that to the 90 percent in Germany. We should consider lowering the prices of tuition where students still feel the need to focus since after all they are still paying for the college classes. The ultimate goal is not to be free-tuition but to lower it just enough that individuals who want to pursue a career will be
This makes students pushed harder to focus on any college that will be offered free. Thus, it wouldn’t take them longer than the average 4 years, due to them working full time as well as schooling. With fees out the way, parents don’t have to worry about not making enough savings for their child to be able to attend college. Students will be more focused on any subject in school as they strive for their degrees.
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
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
The recent desire from president Barack Obama has sparked a campaign for students to ask that college be free for everyone. The question remains however, how do we accomplish this goal free college and pay off our current student debt? Student participating in this million student march movement have provided the idea the top 1% of the wealthiest people pay for it. According to Neil Cavuto lead anchor on the FOX Business network “ The math doesn't add up even if we do combine their wealth it does not cover it”(Cavuto) During this interview Cavuto continues to argue with one of the
It would ruin our economy. College should not be free because Taxes would skyrocket, private college would have a hard time getting funding, and your college degree would lose value. Who would pay for the free tuition. Most people think that the government would pay for it. In reality home owners will pay for the free tuition of college students.
... Or we could also look at “Implementing new taxes on speculative Wall Street transactions” (Redd) as famously advocated by Senator Bernie Sanders and lastly “Cracking down on wasteful government spending” (Redd). All the mentioned solutions could bring about free higher education at no cost to the American taxpayer. Ultimately, the United States should bring forth a free, government-subsidized, higher education, because of its benefits to the economy, creation of equal opportunity, and the resolution of the student loan crisis. Even though it will require funding, there are certainly innocuous alternatives that could provide this, rather than putting the extra stress on average American taxpayers.
Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. President Obama made a proposal during his State of the union address to promise two years of tuition free community college. While this may sound too good to be true Obama has added a few conditions such as, students will have to attend school half or full time, make some type of progress towards degree plan, and also have at least 2.5 grade point average. Although, president Obama’s proposal is a great way to give a student a better future, some naysayers believe students have enough help from the government with financial aid and will also drain our economy. Despite, Americans views towards the president’s proposal, congress should support his idea because it can help better the life’s of students qualify for a well-paying and stable career and also help students who struggle paying college tuition.
Independent.Leadership.Equality. All of these are three characteristics as to what free university education can provide to citizens.Higher education should be free of charge for the citizens of the United States.In the US the average cost for colleges per year is $8,893. Many middle class and under class people cannot afford such costs. It is true that the government will give you grants but most of the time students never get funding from them (Emmons 3). Most people of today can hardly afford a car let alone the fees and tuition of college. Also, it could provide equality to all people. Allowing everyone an equal opportunity to go to college and make something of themselves. It provides a way for poorer families to break free from their social strata that they have been put into (“This House Believes University Education Should Be Free” 4). This is why it is important to make university education free.In the end citizens of the US would benefit from university free education.