An Alternative to Expensive Colleges and Universities

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Recommended: Why public college should be free

The costs of a college education have been soaring at a faster rate than the costs of healthcare in the past few decades. These rising costs have negatively impacted our national debt and student loan debt currently sits at over 1 trillion dollars. The solution to this growing problem is to make all public higher education free. Student goals of developing their minds and learning for the sake of being educated are being undermined by high costs of tuition. It is important for our nation to be educated, and a compromise is not hard to find to allow as many students as possible to reach their goals of higher education.
In Robert Samuels article, “For Public Colleges, the Best Tuition is No Tuition,” his main goal is clearly stated; public college tuition should be free. In this piece, Samuels offers many attainable solutions to this currently outstanding problem. Samuels states the cost of making all public universities free would be around $97 billion and $33 billion for community college, based on what the federal and state governments already spend on Pell Grants and financial aid. By using current resources in a more effective manner, Samuels explains his ultimate goal. He proves his point that by making public education free, our taxation systems, tax revenue, and national debt will all decrease.
In 1947, it was recommended to then-President Harry Truman that education ought to be both free and universal through all levels of education, as a way to extend affordability to higher education. The commission report stated “It is obvious, that free and universal access to education, in terms of the interest, ability, and need of the student, must be a major goal in American education. The time has come to make education through th...

... middle of paper ...

...ovement will only present itself if students, parents, and any sensible Americans unite to demand it now.

Works Cited

Block, Gene D. "Public Higher Education: Too Big -- and Far Too Important -- to Fail." The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Apr. 2012. Web.
Cauchon, Dennis. "Student Loans Outstanding Will Exceed $1 Trillion This Year." usatoday.com. N.p., 25 Oct. 2011. Web.
Lake, Frank. "Weekly World News." Weekly World News. N.p., 28 Oct. 2012. Web.
Samuels, Robert. "For Public Colleges, the Best Tuition Is No Tuition." The Chronicle of
Higher Education. N.p., 5 Aug. 2013. Web.
"End Student Debt!" The Nation. N.p., 2 May 2012. Web.
"Student Loan Fairness Act." Congresswoman Karen Bass. Bass.house.gov, 21 Mar. 2013.
Web.
"Weekly Address: Calling on Congress to Prevent Student Interest Rates from Doubling."
YouTube. YouTube, 21 Apr. 2012. Web.

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