College Might Not Seem As Important
If higher education at public schools becomes free, it might appear to devalue a college degree. It might also lead to students cutting more classes or not trying because they dont have to get their moneys worth when they arent paying for anything. The current price of college drives students to complete their schooling as quickly as possible so as to reduce debt. Without that financial drive, we might see more laziness and lackadaisical behavior from our students.
Con : Not Enough Jobs For College Graduates
One argument against free college is that it is a job requirement. Now that there arent enough jobs to accommodate every graduate, why offer free college education for everyone?
- True: Too many college graduates have diplomas that do not match job opportunities.
- True: At least 43% of US college graduates are underemployed in their first jobs.
- False: Many colleges prepare students for jobs that dont exist in the present, including robotics, artificial intelligence, and telemedicine.
- False: College education is not only about preparing for careers. Its also about learning communication, empathy, money management, and so on.
Takeaway: Aside from offering free college to all, there is a need to implement better job prediction, job-matching, and enrolment choice as well as to create a healthier economy that increases job opportunities.
Should College Be Free: What About Private Institutions
If all public colleges and universities are made tuition-free, we could see the decline of private vs. public schools. Since these schools rely on tuition, endowments, and alumni donations for a good portion of their funding, competing with free public schools could force many private schools to close. This would reduce the amounts of job opportunities for professors and could result in the death of many fantastic programs.
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A Free College Program Should Not Be Free Across The Board
Should College Be Free? Free for who? For everyone? Many think college should be free for everyone, and other think college should be free to no one. Still, others say that college should be free to students from low-income households, but students from households that can afford to pay, should pay. Of course, then it would have to be decided what afford means.
Budget Issues Could Reduce Quality
If government funds become spread too thin, the quality of colleges may suffer. This could express itself in any number of ways including a decrease in available programs. If more students start enrolling in college because it is free, costs will escalate. Unless more money is allocated by the public, the quality of the education will suffer. This could end up decreasing access to higher education rather than increasing it, say those who argue why college should not be free.
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Review: Why Public Higher Education Should Be Free: How To Decrease Cost And Increase Quality At American Universities By Robert Samuels
Peter N. Kirstein
Higher education is in a state of crisis. The mania affecting the academy is profit, slashing the price of labour, increasing class size, destroying the tenure system with full-time non-tenure track and adjunct-proletarian labour, and increasing the power and size of the administration-ruling class. Student tuition always increases even during prolonged economic stagnation. Student debt skyrockets as millions begin their occupational lives underwater in debt. Athletic programs drive the agenda with million-dollar babies as coaches and athletic directors while 34,000 with earned Ph.D.s are on food stamps to supplement subsistence wages.
Online courses and for-profit universities, although non-profits are becoming indistinguishable from for-profits, waltz through accreditation reviews despite their e-everything approach to higher education. While student-centered patois dominate websites and slick institutional advancement images, the reality is different. Robert Samuels serves as president of the University CouncilAmerican Federation of Teachers within the University of California system. In Why Public Education Should Be Free: How to Decrease Costs and Increase Quality at American Universities, he attempts with some success to describe and provide policy recommendations to reestablish undergraduate-student learning as the primary objective of postsecondary education in the United States.
Con : Education Will Be Devalued
Yet another argument is that offering free education to young people will be a waste of money because theyre less likely to take it seriously.
- True: Free tuition addresses the price of college attendance but does not improve teaching quality. In fact, free tuition without a budget to add resources to colleges with increased enrollment can lower education quality.
- True: Students who dont pay for college are not worried about the effects of skipping classes, not completing a course, or of dropping out of college.
- True: Free college can decrease persistence and success. In challenging or rigorous classes, many avoid failure by withdrawing, which requires payment to repeat a course. If tuition is free, theres no incentive to finish what they start.
- False: Degrees with guaranteed job placement have a high value.
Takeaway: Price is not the only value element of free college education, so its devaluation is unlikely. However, issues of education quality, persistence to completion, and job closures must be addressed.
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Con : The Government Cannot Afford It
Another argument against offering free college nationwide is that it will require a huge amount of money that the government doesnt have.
- True: Eliminating tuition at all public colleges and universities would cost at least $79 billion a year, according to a Department of Education report, and taxpayers would need to foot the bill.
- True: America must meet repayment schedules for its foreign debt, such as $1.18 trillion to China, $1.03 trillion to Japan, Brazil, Ireland, the U.K., and others.
- False: Only 5.4% of Americas GDP goes to education. The US public education budget is more than $700 billion or about $11,825.89 per student.
- False: Theres money set aside for higher education every year. For 2020, the US government already allocated approximately $8.12 trillion for higher education.
Takeaway: The government has the money to fund tuition-free college for all.
Con : The Higher Education System Cannot Be Changed
Still another argument against free college is that the higher education system is a bastion of stability in a constantly changing world. This consistent resistance to new ideas means the system wont change and offer free tuition for all.
- True. In colleges and universities, implementing change can be slow, difficult, or even impossible. Much value is given to tradition as well as established systems and processes.
- True. Due to conflicts of interest, real change is not expected from the higher education system, not by the dozens of higher college education groups in Washington, D. C., nor by college or university presidents or boards of trustees.
- True. And change certainly cannot be expected from student loan providers. They have too much to lose.
- False: The US higher education system can be reformed by teachers who care, students who pay, and employers who need them.
Takeaway: The US tertiary education system can be changed, not by those who have much to lose, but by those who have more to gain.
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Pros And Cons Of Paying College Athletes Get Paid
The problem is the lawsuits that are holding the NCAA back from doing so and they also make arguments of paying college athletes pointless. Most people agree that if college athletes did get paid it wouldnt be a total shock but it is just not that easy. These kids should just go through college like the alumni did and it will all payoff when they get their first major job paycheck. The point of college is to get you ready for the real world and if college athletes get paid while in college it totally defeats the purpose of college. Previous alumni didnt get paid to play sports at their college so what makes the new athletes special.
Benefits Of College Bound Scholarship
For example, a parent may worry it’s their fault for holding their children back, but since college bound is here, their anxiety can be reduced. This will help students prepare for college instead of preparing for nothing. In my opinion, college bound scholarship was a genius idea. I state this because of many reasons, First of all, this reduces anxiety a parent might have. Like I said before, a parent might feel responsible that their children is not going to college and feel like it’s unacceptable and work maybe 2 jobs to get the money.
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Pro : It Can Jumpstart The Economy
One argument in favor of free college at the national level is that forgiving all student loans can revitalize the economy. The $1.6 trillion federal student loan debt is about twice the current budget for the Defense Department and around 22 times the budget for the Education Department, says an NPR report.
- True: Improving economic performance is a key reason why countries use tax revenues to pay for basic education. College-educated workers have advanced literacy and critical thinking skills.
- True: In the long term, it can also by creating up to 1.5 million jobs a year and increase Americas GDP by up to $108 billion a year.
- False: Cancelling the student loan debt of all 45 million borrowers can motivate students to borrow more knowing that it will be wiped clean by the government or give them potentially higher leverage.
- False: In the next 10 years, the five fastest-growing jobs in the USA will earn an average of $24,000 a year and will not require four-year college diplomas: solar panel installers, wind turbine technicians, home health aides, personal care aides, and occupational therapy assistants.
Takeaway: Forgiving all college student loan debts can jumpstart the economy. At the same time, there are other high wage-earning options that do not require four-year college degrees.
Persuasive Essay On Community College
Having free tuition for college means that more people who cannot afford it now, would end up going. This is a good thing in terms that more people are getting a good education and continuing their educational careers to hopefully obtain good job, but it also decrease the value of a college education. If more people are able to earn degrees, it devalues them. Finding jobs even with their qualifications would be difficult . This idea would also apply to the students, mainly student-athletes, that work for multiple years to try to perfect their skill and obtain full or half scholarship.
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Support For Higher Education In The Fiscal Year 2017 Budget
The 2017 budget continues on the path of helping to ensure that students can attain a postsecondary credential without taking on more debt than they and their families can afford. It also supports an ongoing shift toward focusing on student outcomes in higher education, and, in particular, completion, so that both students and the nation can thrive in the global economy. As a result, the 2017 budget includes proposals to address college access, affordability, and completion:
We Are Wasting Some Of Our Best Resources
High school students with the best grades, particularly when they come from low-income households, are not necessarily the ones who go to the best schools. Even though some might have been the most successful students in high school, they often see little choice but to go to lower-rated, more affordable colleges. Thats if they are able to go to college at all. We are wasting Americas brainpower, brains that could be contributing to medical breakthroughs, economic advances, and leadership in all fields.
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Why College Should Not Be Free For Everybody
Opponents of free college tend to believe that such an idea would simply be too expensive for the federal and state governments to maintain long-term. As a result, Americans may have to start paying much higher taxes. And that, they say, could hurt the economy since people might have less to spend or invest.
In addition, countries like the U.S., Canada, South Korea, and Japan have already proven that free higher education isn’t necessary for building some of the world’s most educated workforces. And free public college, by itself, would likely not be enough to promote the big improvements in social mobility that are needed throughout America. That’s especially true when you consider the responsibilities of adult and non-traditional learners who often have challenges that aren’t just strictly financial in nature.
Many opponents of free college are especially against the idea of making community colleges tuition-free. They point to national statistics indicating that public community colleges are often dead ends for students. For example, only about 25 percent of first-time, full-time students at public two-year colleges earn associate degrees, diplomas, or certificates within three years of starting. And only 16 percent of them go on to earn bachelor’s degrees within six years. Those numbers come from the NCES.
Here are a few other reasons why some people oppose free college for everyone:
Reasons Why College Should Be Free
Should College be Free?
Considering jobs nowadays are increasingly requiring degrees, most would argue that a college education is an integral part of society and the economy. However, as college costs are exponentially increasing, many are now either taking on massive amounts of debt or opting out of higher education altogether. Its an enigma that all eventually face, making the prospect of free education marvelously attractive, especially those that otherwise cant afford it.
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The Advantages Of Online University
With technological advances, online universities are proliferating. Online universities require less overhead costs. Therefore, they are almost always cheaper than traditional schools. However, there are even some that are totally tuition-free.
Founded in 2009, Shai Reshef started the University of the People with the mission to offer an affordable and quality education to anyone around the world. Students from over 200 countries and territories have been in attendance of the online programs.
We have degree programs in Computer Science, Health Science, Education, and Business Administration.
Thanks to a wide network of volunteers and professors from renowned institutions around the world, the education offered parallels that of a traditional American university and is accredited as such.
Why Should College Be Free For Everyone
Proponents of free college believe that it would benefit the entire nation, not just the individual students who take advantage of it. They see it as both a private and public benefit. 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.
Plus, since more people would be able to attain employer-desired credentials, more people would be able to take the good-paying jobs that often go unfilled. And that could result in billions of additional dollars circulating throughout the economy since people tend to spend more money when they have higher incomes and little or no debt. It could also mean that the government would take in a lot of extra tax revenues, which could go a long way toward paying for free public colleges.
But the issue of why college should be free isn’t just an economic one. It’s also a moral and philosophical one. Do we want every American, regardless of social standing, to have an equal opportunity to reach his or her potential? That’s what this country is supposed to be about, yet social mobility has been eroding for the poor and middle class. And without easy and affordable access to quality higher education for everyone, the collective intelligence and goodwill of the nation could also erode. America might become even more socially divided.
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What’s The Best Way Forward For Students Right Now
Like other students, you might have a lot of options available to you. But the longer you wait to begin your post-secondary education, the more opportunities you may be missing out on. So even though “Should college be free?” is a question worth debating, the best action to take right now is probably to investigate the many helpful possibilities that already exist.
Why not check out some of the career-driven programs in your area just to see how you might benefit from them? Generate a list of nearby schools right now by putting your zip code into the following search tool!