One
of the major topics of the 2016 presidential election was concern towards the
affordability of college education. Former President Barrack Obama tried to put
forward a plan that would see community colleges offer free tuition to eligible
students. Bernie Sanders went one step further and proposed he would try and
make all public colleges tuition free, and Hilary Clinton at least touched on
the issue saying she would try and make it affordable to those who needed the
help, a vaguer approach, but probably the most realistic. They seem to all
believe going in the direction of eventually trying to make all public colleges
tuition free, but is this even a good idea?
Like most complex issues regarding so many different
people and institutes, there are pros and cons. However, in regard to free
tuition it seems the cons outweigh the pros. One of the main pros people claim
when talking about free tuition is that more people, especially those with low
income, will enroll in higher education. This however can very quickly become a
con. According to an
article by the Fraser Institute, in the 1990s England’s free tuition
brought their universities to a state of crisis. The number of students had
increased like most people had predicted while budgets did not. If public
colleges were to adopt a tuition free system where would the money come from?
The most likely answer is taxes. Although the uncertainty of exactly who will
get taxed and how much it will be would understandably make people nervous.
According to an
article by College Raptor, 66% of existing jobs in the U.S. require
you to have some type of college degree. Many people take issue with the fact
that obtaining said education is gated by a huge pay wall. A pay wall that many
people have to go deep in debt to be able to afford. Free tuition may introduce
a completely different yet equally frustrating wall of its own. If a free
tuition system is introduced, it is no stretch of the imagination to assume
that enrollment will skyrocket. With no tuitions being paid and more students
than ever, the government and schools would have no choice but to put a limit
on enrollment across the board, creating an entirely new wall, the waitlist
wall.
Student loans are the first big financial obstacle
most young students run into, and it teaches them how to budget money
correctly, a very important life skill they will continue to use for the rest
of their lives. Starting their young lives tens of thousands of dollars in debt
may be a bit too hard of a lesson, however. Like most complex issues there are
pros and cons to each side of the argument, and the answer most likely lies
somewhere in the middle. Perhaps an income dependent system is the way to go. A
way to maintain all the pros tuitions offer, while diverting many of the cons
the tuition free system brings with it.
Sources:
https://www.collegeraptor.com/find-colleges/articles/college-news-trends/important-ever-college-degree/
