Should community college tuition be free? Walter G. Bumphus, the President/CEO, American Association of Community Colleges, believes so. According to him, “The Obama administration's proposed America's College Promise plan stands to increase access to these educational opportunities and is a crucial investment not only in the future of these students, but in the country's future… America's College Promise proposal for “free” community college is not a handout. Rather, it is an investment in education and would have substantial economic and social benefits.” Bumphus states the cost for investing in this proposal would be less than 10 percent of the Department of Education annual budget, and “less than 3 percent of all annual federal expenditures”. …show more content…
One of his reasons is college tuition is never free because someone [taxpayers] will have to foot the bill. He also brings up the point “Students from moderately affluent middle-class families attending community college can usually afford the generally modest tuition. Why should a sophomore who is attending a four-year college have to pay tuition, but a similar second-year student at a community college not have to?” He argues “The three-year graduation rate of full-time students is 31 percent; that figure may be understated because of data limitations, but the true dropout rate is almost certainly greater than the graduation rate.” He suggests that if community colleges already have such a high dropout rate, why should it be funded, it would be a waste of taxpayer’s money. Furthermore, according to The New York Federal Reserve Bank and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, as well as utilizing data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Vedder says, “Half of four-year college graduates are underemployed — doing jobs requiring only a high school diploma.” Lastly, “Very-low-income students currently have no major obstacle attending community college — indeed, Pell Grants often will cover the entire tuition”, says …show more content…
No, I wasn’t. First off with Bumphus, he does not bring up a counterargument. He should have addressed Pell Grants, and how they are already helping students who wouldn’t normally be able to afford college, but, aren’t helping enough. His article was not fully developed, and I think this is because the America's College Promise is still its brainstorming phase. There is no hard evidence showing that free tuition will benefit the economy. For the most part, all Bumphus has to work with is speculation, and as we know, speculation does not win an argument. Vedder, on the other hand, is on the winning side because he has the evidence to show how community colleges are not doing well. However, he never goes into as to why this is happening to community colleges. Instead, he sets up his article by stating his reasons, then follows up with a question. Vedder claim, reasons, and evidence are not strong enough to do this, largely in part because he hasn’t back himself with strong reasons and solid evidence. An example of this is what he says in his first paragraph, “Students from moderately affluent middle-class families attending community college can usually afford the generally modest tuition. Why should a sophomore who is attending a four-year college have to pay tuition, but a similar second-year student at a community college not have to?”. That’s all the reasoning Vedder’s gives to support himself and then he moves on, and he
Dale Stephens argues that college isn’t right for everyone. He acknowledges that he left college because he believed that higher education isn’t everything. Dale clarifies that college is expensive. He refers to College Board Policy Center because tuition is about 3.6 times higher today than it was 30 years ago. He brings up good points but bases his ideas off his own opinions not facts. This is a strong argument because when the tuition is higher, it will be harder for and more people to pay for it. This encourages others to look for an alternative path to follow.
people agree with the state that Liz borrows from Thomas Jefferson, "Everybody should have an education proportional to their life,"(Addison 256). Unfortunately, the average income between rich and poor in America is not accurate, everyone supposed to become somebody in life; college gives opportunity to everyone who wants to do so, to become whatever they want, and at any age with a low cost. as much as the income level between rich and poor in America stays unbalanced; college will always be there to gives opportunity to people who want to learn, but cannot afford to attend university. Liz Addison points out an example in the article. It describes “a college application essay workshop for low-income students” (Addison 256). This is suitable for low-income students, but it doesn’t mention an education at universities. People who go to community college have a lot trouble to find jobs which can allow them to pay their debt after graduate. However, in university you are more likely to find and job and be able to pay your
While most people want college to be free, the U.S. should not make tuition free for all citizens. There are a number of reasons like taxing families who already have it hard, quality in education, rationing, and if people see that they do not have to pay it may lower the value in which they won 't take school seriously. Tuition free college is impossible because at the end of the day someone will have to pay for all those students attending. For example, “In college I was invested, I was paying,” The former student said, “Once it entails a cost, it’s not easy to just say, Oh, let’s not go to class today. You’re just hurting yourself” (qtd, in Make College Affordable, but Not Free). Student who barely made it
As Bernie Sanders, a presidential candidate for the 2016 presidential elections, claims he can make college free, the subject of tuition for secondary schooling has become a “hot” topic. The New York Times, on January 20th, released a “Room for Debate” titled “Should College be Free?” where many journalists such as Andrew P. Kelly and Sara Goldrick-Rab voiced their opinions on college tuition. “Just one-third of students from the bottom income quartile, who started at a community college in 2003 finished with a degree or certificate by 2009,” wrote Kelly, showing that the poorer find it hard to finish college with a degree. He believed that indigent students would likely not graduate with a degree due to college cost and because they are not motivated enough to get through six years of college. Although it is unpractical to create an educational system where college is absolutely free, creating organizations dedicated to encouraging the needy to get through
Students who they themselves attend community college pondered on the idea of their tuition being free; one particular student Felipe Bezerra, from the article “As He Promotes It, Some Question Obama’s Free Community College Idea,” stated that the tuition of community colleges isn’t worth being free, financially needy students get the money they need and the other students barely even have to pay $2,000 every year. Students like Bezerra are more concerned about their education following community college, he knows he won’t be able to pay for tuition in university and would rather “all this
"Parents with incomes below $40,000 were much more likely to say they couldn 't afford college compared to those with higher incomes. The unsettling aspect of this poll is that in all likelihood, these parents ' perceptions mirror reality," says Tamara Draut, author of "Strapped”. She talks about how most middle class families can 't afford to put their children into college. The highest education they can get is a high school diploma, which we all know in this modern world it cant get you a lucrative job to maintain your whole life. Most American don 't get the chance to develop their full capabilities through higher schooling due to lack of resources like funds to enable them see their full potential. People will say that education is meant for people who can afford to go. And already the government has made schooling from pre-k to high school free for all public school, so making community colleges free will cost the state about 60 billion dollars as said by the white house spokesman Eric Schultz . Education must not be limited to only privilege people,it should be universal for anybody willing to educate themselves to make their life better and help grow Americas economy reducing
I’m currently enrolled in Montgomery College, located in Maryland. Montgomery College is a community college. Community colleges are different in comparison to four-year universities. I had a choice of either getting a job or going to college. There are many reasons why I choose to go to Montgomery College. I chose to go to college because I want to pursue a degree in Psychology. When choosing a college, there are a lot of decisions to make and you have to choose what’s best in your interest. In today’s society, community colleges take up a lot of the students going to pursue their education. President Obama has proposed to make all community colleges free for all Americans and I agree with this statement. People have different perspectives
The price of colleges in America; whether it is a four-year school or community college, has been viewed as a major issue to millions of citizens. Numerous people have argued that an education should not cost thousands of dollars. Some have even stated that college in general should be free. Although this may seem like an amazing idea, it could actually have negative effects that people may not have thoroughly considered. As simple as an education may seem, students and parents in America must pay their way through college; for nothing is free in life. In order to keep this country functioning in a proper way, community colleges in America should not be free.
dropout, due to lack of effort, B. finish with an associate’s degree and limit their choices in a job compared, or C. continue after a community college and further their degree at a university. Yet, the third reason is the reason that makes the proposal questionable as to whether it is really a need or if it’s a want by the people that want money handed to them to help their future. If people can afford two more years of college after a community college, or they have scholarships to help them pay for the following two years, then why can they not afford a community college that can be less than a thousand dollars to attend to? The proposal seems to be something that is not totally needed to be one more thing that raises taxes, as there are scholarships for various cases and made to be affordable to further an education after high
“If a college education has value, why give it away?” (Luebke). Most everyone wants to have higher education because it has value in this day and age. It opens up more career options, and lets them have more freedom to pick the career they want. With higher education being tuition-free, students might take their college education less seriously because they don’t have to pay for it (Should College Be Free? Pros, Cons, and Alternatives). Because of this, graduation numbers might drop, or the people who do graduate may not be as well prepared for the workforce. Yes, there are still entry requirements that limit the amount of students allowed into the school, but much of the drive for the students comes from the fact that they are paying a lot of money to be there. Also, giving away college education would almost certainly do the opposite of what people want it to do, which is give more money to students from richer families than from poorer ones. It isn’t that they want to necessarily take money from the richer families, but they want to give poorer families more opportunities to get money. “Without a dramatic overhaul of how we understand student benefits, making college more or entirely free would most likely boost the wealth of college attendees without securing any important egalitarian gains.” (Bruenig). This is because students from well-off families already enjoy a disproportionately successful future than students from poor families,
According to College Board “Between 2011-12 and 2016-17 tuition rose by 11% at public two-year colleges. So each year the tuition cost goes up at all colleges and will get more expense throughout time. According to Foster from “The Huffington Post” student loan debt in the US was estimated to be over $1.3 trillion dollars. Students having all these bills to pay can be super stressful for them and can make life difficult if they don't have the right job that they wanted. With havin free community college students can save a lot of money instead of gambling it with getting a college education. Even if life doesn't go the right path for some students that got the degree they wanted, but have no job won't be stuck with having to pay thousands of dollars for the school loans they would have to pay
David Wood once said, “College is the best time of your life. When else are your parents going to spend several thousand dollars a year just for you to go to a strange town and get drunk every night?” The costs of college are escalating at an all time high, which is why Richard Vedder went out and looked for a reason as to why this is and what, if any, solutions to this ongoing problem could be. Vedder talks about four main reasons why tuition continues to rise: third party providers and the amount of funding and spending that goes on, there is no market discipline when it comes to universities, price competition, and also government regulation. However, in order to combat these rising prices, Vedder came up with a number of solutions that could be used to control the cost of tuition, despite some problems with these ideas, his idea of using a voucher system is the best solution that he presents.
College education is a highly talked about subject among the presidents. For many years college education was not highly sought after or looked for, then when people who did go to college started getting better paying jobs than everyone else more and more people started to go to college. Since college is such a hot commodity these days the price of a college education is on a steady rise. Some experts have a very strong opinion as to why college education is on a rise and some believe that that it is not on the rise.
Fact Sheet, a website article, discussed President Obama’s plan to put forth to congress a possible bill related to free community college: " Earlier this year, the President unveiled his America’s College Promise proposal to make two years of community college free so students can earn critical workforce skills and the first half of a bachelor’s degree at no cost, as well as a new American Technical Training Fund to expand innovative, high-quality technical training programs" (Fact Sheet). This plan would allow students to continue their education beyond high school for those who may not be interested in acquiring a four year degree. This would allow them to attend a technical and vocational school to earn the necessary work skills to cement a position in the work force. Offering two years of community college would certainly increase the employment rate among Americans and it would give college students the chance to earn an associate’s degree. Giving college students the opportunity to earn a higher degree would promote economic efficiency and help reduce unemployment by a large amount. Hillary Clinton has been outspoken as of late on having young college students enter community college free of charge throughout her 2016 presidential campaign: “Clinton
Why don’t all colleges make free tuition option for low income students? Some colleges are expensive, but they have a free tuition option. Some people say that if colleges are free, colleges will end up bankrupt. Others say that is not true because they earn money from different directions, such as from the state government, federal government, nonprofit organizations and other governmental and non-governmental institutions. A well-educated people can change the world. So everyone has to be accountable, especially organizations or governors of higher education institutions. They have to be responsible for providing equivalent education for all students who are able to pay or not. Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, in “What these colleges are doing on tuition is better than Stanford” says, “Stanford University has received a lot of attention for offering free tuition to students whose families make less than $125,000- throwing in free room and board for those earning less than $65,000” Stanford University is a good example that announced free tuition for students who cannot afford to pay for their education (Douglas-Gabriel). Stanford’s offer is a big opportunity, for the students to place themselves on a good future path. These kinds of offers would be a great assistance for the students who are not able to pay college tuition. However, these few colleges are not enough to fulfill the number of students who need free tuition. As we know, more students need more colleges with free tuition. Stanford University is a good model to inspire other colleges. Therefore, more colleges should create a free tuition option for students who are not able to pay for their tuition.