Why College Should be Free Essay Example

đź“ŚCategory: Education, Higher Education, Life, Personal finance
đź“ŚWords: 1319
đź“ŚPages: 5
đź“ŚPublished: 08 May 2021

When I was growing up, people always talked about how expensive college was and I did not believe them until like junior year of high school. For me, and for tons of people around the world, it can be expensive but is not in their plans now because it is hard to dish out thousands of dollars out. College can be extremely necessary but at the same time extremely unaffordable for some people. Currently, Bernie Sanders addresses the problem of college not being currently free for Americans by passing a bill that will clear all former and future student debt and invest in HBCUs. These current methods seem effective for people who may not be able to pay for college and those who may not be able to pay off their student debt that has accumulated over the years. College should be free for students in this country because most people are less fortunate and may not be able to afford the full tuition of the next level of education. College being free would relieve the stress of families that may struggle with the financial obstacles of college. Free college would allow for fewer people to go into debt, for more people to go out and obtain a high-standing job, and it would allow students to enjoy their high school and college years without having to worry financially.  

Free college would allow for fewer people to go into student debt. The main problem with students coming out of college is that they have an overwhelming weight on their shoulders, which is debt, without even having a job yet. This plan was to be brought to life and had many people following the idea such as, “Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is touting his plan for free four-year public college on the primary trail; Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren called for “debt-free college” in a high-profile speech; and former senator and U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton has proposed her own plans for tuition-free community college and “no-loan” tuition at four-year public colleges.” With that plan, students wouldn’t have loads of stress on them to pay for the tuition, books, and other necessities. They can use their hard work to look for a job that is in their best interest and will cause more jobs and more job opportunities for other job-seeking students. Like everything in the world, there are always pros and cons. In this case, I believe the pros will outweigh the cons and would be beneficial to the economy with all the graduates looking for employment. The large debt that some students may face will lead more students to work while in college to pay off their tuition and is supported with, “Skyrocketing tuition and reliance on interest carrying loans force some students to forgo college altogether, while others drop out or delay graduation because they sacrificed the time for their studies in order to work. An inadequate financial system that forces students to work long hours affects grades, choice of courses, grant awards, and their chances for graduating. Fifty-three percent of low-income freshman who work more than 35 hours per week drop out and do not receive a degree” College can be very difficult at times and will require very long hours of hard work and dedication and that may be hard to provide for some people because that student may have to provide for their family or work an extra job to help pay for their college tuition. It also places a great deal of pressure on those who work to keep their house functioning.  

The workforce is constantly expanding with new and up-and-coming businesses; yet if college was free, more people would go to college to obtain a better job without going years into debt. With, this would lower the unemployment rate exponentially because more and more people will be going out and receiving jobs with their higher-level of education. With more students going to and completing college it would open a variety of jobs and opportunities for millions of students. With more jobs comes more circulation of money within the world and more circulation of money will better help the people working and will just continue an endless cycle. An important aspect of the economy comes from college-level skilled workers who can upstand those higher-level jobs that keep the economy up and running. The problem is that there are not enough people working these jobs which can be detrimental to the country’s economy and unemployment rate. We, as a country, would see a rapid decrease in the rate of unemployment and people out working as we have never seen before if college tuition was free.  

Free college would allow kids to enjoy their high school and college years without having to worry about being financially in debt for years. Some families struggle with keeping up with their financial responsibilities and with their children’s higher education being free would relieve a huge burden on them. According to Robert Samuels in his book, Why Public Higher Education Should Be Free: How to Decrease Cost and Increase Quality at American Universities, he explains, “According to Pasi Sahlberg’s Finnish Lessons, there were five major components to Finland’s success: (1) all education became public and free; (2) teachers became well compensated and highly trained; (3) education became interactive and experienced based; (4) students at an early age received individual attention; and (5) in high school, students were able to choose if they wanted to pursue a vocational track or an academic track.” Barea College has been tuition-free since 1892 and the college has been successful and would obtain the same degree as someone who would attend a different public, private, or community college. If students can enjoy high school/college like they are supposed to without the continuous building of stress weighing on them, they would pursue much better grades because that’s where their focus and priorities would be without worrying about what is going on outside of school.  

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton often take for granted that people may raise the question of how colleges will bring in money for themselves if nobody is paying tuition to attend, but the solution of free college may only work in cases such as taxing people more and raising the price of goods a little bit more. The people who do support free college do not understand is that it would be completed by raising the taxes for each American to be able to help pay the cost for the colleges in their country. Another way to help institutions throughout states is the Federal matching grant and could help by explaining, “This would provide Federal funds to public institutions in states that commit to making college tuition-free.” Another problem of free college would be that students may not take it seriously, because it is free and will not really hurt them financially, as if a student dropped out of higher education in today’s world. Some people view higher education as not as important as it was some time ago. People also raised questions on how the lower to middle class people will feel about paying for college for a child that they might not even have. So, they are paying colleges for other people to go to. 

The main reason people should follow the trail and support the ideas of free college is that it is going to open the world up to many different ideas and is going to expand the horizons and outlook for people wanting to go to college. Their dream might be blocked because the cost of college and the fear of falling into the hole of student debt. The main goal for students is to do well in school to earn themselves a commendable job and be able to support themselves after college. If college was free, the children and their families would feel way better about allowing their children to attend college and obtaining a career they are interested in without having to stress about debt and all the financial stabilities that come with college. Along with that, there would be so many new job opportunities around the world and could eventually lead to more and more enjoyable ideas to come. David J. Deming from econflip.org states, “... higher education is still the best investment a young person can make.”, which goes to show how substantial college can be to a person’s life, but those four years are going to waste because of an exponential investment that is unnecessary.

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