The Pros and Cons of Free Education Essay Sample

Stepping foot inside the welcoming college doors to start a journey of sculpting one's knowledge. Students will attain knowledge at an affordable price, but it's necessary to find one's identity. In addition, college education creates opportunities of a lifetime, going beyond the degree to reveal "valuable skills like self-motivation, independence, hard work, and collaboration" that one will receive while attending (Grace.edu).

THEME 1: College education in the past

Furthermore, let's go back in time to the oldest college in the United States of America, Harvard University, founded in 1638 (Harvard.edu). In this period, college was very affordable. Harvard University started off charging students 176 dollars on tuition way back in 1832. The tuition was so low that "students graduated without paying a cent, and by the mid-19th century, half of the school's students reviewed generous financial aid" (Foster). In other words, Foster is describing that by the 19th century, many students were able to get financial aid even though the tuition was extremely low. At this time, it increased from 176 dollars to a still affordable rate, 500 dollars. These inexpensive rates were not effective in the quality of education. Having low tuition rates back then "meant that little was available even at prestigious institutions for student financial aid," not only was little funding available to go towards scholarships and financial aid, Thelin also describes:

"There was little investment in administrative services that either could enhance student life or advance institutional resources through such offices as fundraising or development. Building and maintaining libraries, laboratories, and other facilities."

Therefore, meaning that little funding is available for additional services offered to students, that's why college wasn't a trendy idea to get into, even though from "1910 and 1940–education increased from 10 to over 50 percent" (Steinbaum). Back then, high school was the closest to higher education you could get to, so this was new to everyone, making businesses start to require higher education. Even though college was increasing with popularity and necessity, the 2000s demanded the need for college because "on average, college graduates make significantly more money over their lifetimes than those with only a high school education." Meaning that college is one of the best investments of all time, especially in the 2000s (Owen and Sawhill).

THEME 2: College education of the present

 Apart from the 1900s, college education has changed significantly. College has changed mainly their tuition rates, increasing from 176 dollars to a massive 59,337 dollars for just a bachelor's degree (Foster). Spending 59,337 dollars for four years will charge a student almost 15,000 dollars per year. Tuition rates have increased, but what has also increased is the need for college education in major career fields, including teaching, creative writing, or a medical degree. Besides the unaffordable rate, more and more college education can set a student up for a successful life full of wealth. An example of a successful college degree taking its course is a "person with a mechanical engineering degree, the expected earnings of the college graduate is a staggering $35,000 more than that of a typical high school graduate." This evidence provided proves that many will go further with a college education. Not only does college give significant benefits in the future, but it also increases one's well-being. College improves well-being such as trust, job satisfaction, and even marriage; not only that, but it also decreases crime rates. Indeed this brings up an essential question that many deals with in their daily lives, "Is college worth the expense," the tuition of college helps to increase the quality of the academic courses as well as the teachers teaching the class. Educational activities play a role in college expenses, but extracurricular activities and learning resources. But, "with tuition rising faster than family incomes, the typical college student is now more dependent than in the past on loans, creating serious risks for the individual student and perhaps for the system as a whole," (Owen & Sawhill). Hence the reason for fantastic scholarship opportunities, scholarships, student loans, grants, and much more can improve one's financial status and inspire more to attend college. 

THEME 3: Effects of college financing

College is like a dealer of roulette; the conclusion is debt. A stressed student breaks a sweat after gambling and gambling on their student loans until they drown in their debt. Like the saying, there is greener grass behind the white picket fence; this is entirely true. The green grass, in other words, means loans that a student doesn't have to pay back, such as scholarships. In contrast, scholarships aren't as common as being eligible for student loans, so "that has Americans owing $1.5 trillion in student loan debt" (Adams). Student loans have been here for centuries; it all started with how congress felt students were falling behind, so they decided to create the first student loan program. Congress also agreed to increase tuition to borrow more but get an education to make more money shortly (Adams). Sadly, the conclusion of student loan debt isn't just about affecting family or romantic relationships but also employment opportunities. An example of the adverse effects of life is with a guy named Rodney Spangler; the article written by Charles Lehman describes Rodney getting a degree "focusing on history, philosophy, and criminal justice." He soon tried to get employment in law enforcement, getting one of the highest test scores that they had ever received. Still, unfortunately, his credit history wasn't so good because he was in a deep ditch full of student debt. Rodney's story was an unfortunate event of student loan debt; it affected his family because Rodney had to rely on them and was too embarrassed to get into a serious relationship because of his debt. He couldn't get a decent job for which he even got a degree. Luckily, this doesn't have to be the case in every story of student debt because scholarships, grants, and other organizations can help pay the college tuition. Undoubtedly, these scholarships are for everyone, in which there are essays, photography, creative writing, sports, etc. Scholarships are a lot easier to get than centuries ago.

For one thing, colleges can also offer scholarships to students who don't need the funding either, lessening the chances of other students requiring financial aid. These scholarships are mainly merit scholarships. Foster explains in better detail that "there is too much bickering and dickering by families seeking a better deal, families who do not need the money, families who like the prestige of receiving a 'merit' scholarship." In other words, many like to get a scholarship primarily for their unique talents. 

On the other hand, many presidents tried to decrease the tuition of colleges and universities over the years, including Barack Obama. Former President Barack Obama warned, "Let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down." To add to this, Max Lublin also stated in NPR.org's article that "We endorsed Biden based on his free tuition plans, and we believe abandoning it would be a major liability in the midterms." In a brief context to better understand what Biden and the United States is trying to do is set up a free college plan that would give billions of dollars to states every year to eliminate the tuition and fees of community colleges (NPR). 

Consequently, this can always backfire and affect the rest of society, described in Fosters' article that not only will colleges benefit from low tuition rates, but it can consequently raise tax prices for the federal government to pay this amount of money to lower the tuition rates. So that being said, scholarships, student loans, grants, and potentially free college tuition can benefit students in the long run but risk the increase of tax prices, so is the college expense worth it, is it worth the investment in the long run? Again it is a massive necessity in life to be a middle-class citizen.