Free College Tuition, Whats The Point? - Academic Paper

High school seniors all over the world are faced with the life-changing decision: college or workforce. It is the decision between striving to get higher education wise or striving to just go straight to work. Even though the workforce is the most chosen route, a college education is the better way. When considering college, tuition plays a major part, an expensive part nonetheless. Even though college is highly expensive and dependent on tuition, the college education should be free to everyone who wants it.

No matter how appealing free college is there will always be people against it, just like any other issues that exist. The free college itself, however, has loads of issues to go along with it. For example, professors would in result have to be paid less and obviously no one with that level of education will be paid any less then they think they are worth. As stated in the article, Maybe Tuition-Free Community College comes at too High a Price,” “Increased spending on tuition to make sure everyone gets a free ride would mean less money to hire more professors and less money to expand room in the most important classes so that students can get what he or she needs to graduate.” People see education, especially higher education like college, as being something to be preserved and kept traditional. With that alone brings things like students protesting and even people losing their jobs and/or education over what they see is wrong and standing up for what they believe in. Although these things may be true, a free college education is still seen as the best option for everyone.

Many students see college as inaccessible to an extent. College, to many people, seems to be so out of reach whether it be because of their backgrounds, their grades or even overall timing. As stated by the article, “Assessing the True Costs of College,” “Programs like Promise Programs make sure students get the money they need to go to college.” Overall the quote is really saying that those who strive to go to college can do that if they reach out and see what is available to them. “U.S. leaders hoped by 2025, 60 percent of the population would be college educated. So far it is closer to 30 percent” (“College Free For All?). Regardless of the fact that people have options to help them further any type of career they want to do, many won’t pursue that degree at all because of the cost of it. Making those options available at a low cost or even free manner would raise the number of people actually reaching out and getting those degrees.

The higher education you get, the more opportunities you have to do better stuff in your chosen career (“For Colleges “Free” is About More than Money”). Education has always been held at a great level of importance, especially higher level education like college. With the great level of importance, huge opportunities flood in like the Nile River for the chosen career. As stated in the article, “Pay It Forward,” “Calling the college promise plans “free” has more to do with giving hope to students who might otherwise think college is out of their reach, Kanter says, than actually reducing the cost of community colleges to zero.” Some students see college as unattainable, they think the same with the opportunities that come with it. If college was free, students would not only be open to so much more opportunities as a whole but would more than definitely benefit from them.

Americans owe over $1.48 trillion in student loan debt, spread among about 44 million borrowers. That’s about $620 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt (Student Loan Hero). College as a whole is just a very expensive version of high school. As said in the article, “Pay It Forward,” “The average cost of in-state tuition and fees at a public four-year, in-state university was $9,410 and $32,405 at private four-year colleges in 2015-16, according to The College Board.” Tuition itself makes up for almost more than half of the cost of college. If college was free or low cost per say, tuition would be the one thing that turns free first because of how much it affects the cost of college as a whole.

A college education should be free even though it is highly expensive because it would give people who never thought they had the chance to go to college. With a free college education, it makes it more accessible for the lower class. Some of the people in the lower class who barely thought about staying in high school can now think of striving for higher education. Even the opportunities are endless with a free/low-cost education that is so prestigious as college is portrayed to be. The college experience will be seen as being more attainable to the general public if it, at the very least, was low-cost. College education as a whole seems to feel so far away from being truly attainable, especially for those who fall victim to generational poverty.