Free Tuition In Public Colleges

The issue of whether or not tuition in public colleges should be free in the United States has been the question to many politicians, students, parents, and people recently. Free tuition seems like a positive thing to most people, but what those individuals have not looked beyond the word “free”. Advocates such as Bernie Sanders have argued why tuition should be free, and have made plans for this change. Free colleges tuition to many people is very appealing, but the big picture of free colleges can have big effects on the economy, and public colleges across the United States. Concern about the cost of tuition for college students leads many of us to oppose that to attend college you should have to pay a tuition. We worry that if tuition

is free it will be too expensive for federal and state governments to maintain long-term, degrees will lose their value, and cause students to take college education less seriously.

Many of the people who believe that free college tuition in public universities will be the most beneficial have said that it would make college students debt free, students wouldn’t have to worry as much about costs, and they would be able to succeed more.

While these statements are all true for the most part, the bad outweighs the good in this situation. The overall effects that free tuition will have is bigger than college students being debt free. Having to pay for and worry about the costs of college is not necessarily a bad thing. “Students may not learn to become as financially literate or independent as they should be, choosing instead to stay dependent on government programs whenever possible. It is very possible for anyone that cannot afford college to seek grants, scholarships, and financial aid.” (Trade Schools). Many people also have argued that this plan will help low income families, which it will, but there are plenty of families that can afford to send their children to college. While I do agree that the cost of college tuition is very high and many people struggle to send their students to college for that reason, as most advocates of free college think, I do not agree that free college is the answer. More student aid and scholarships should have more funding in order to help resolve the

issue.

Many people hear the word free and focus solely on that, but what many people don’t understand is the effects that free tuition can have. Nothing is really ever free, somebody has to end up paying for the billions of dollars in costs that colleges require. What advocates of making college “free” do not see is that the state and federal government has to get that money from somewhere and where it will be coming from is your pockets. The cost for taxpayers will have to increase, because in reality the government cannot afford the nearly 750 billion dollars of cost for free tuition. “Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has called for free tuition at public institutions, which would cost taxpayers $70 billion a year” (The New York Times). People who do not even have children or someone they are responsible for helping go to college are having to pay for students to attend.

Not only are these expenses of college a factor in why college tuition should not be free, the value of something that is free is the the question to many people.

If college is easily accessible to so many people, that also means that the access to degrees will be easier. If everyone can be a lawyer, a doctor, or have a higher degree than high school for free then how can everyone be able to have a job in that specific field. “Many people see education as an investment to a better career, but it is unfortunate that the same employment could previously be obtained without such an expensive price tag” (The Crimson White). The point of college is to be able to pay for a higher education and in return you will be able to have a better career. If anyone can easily get a degree and more and more people are attending college as said in an article by Sarah Howard “a four-year degree will soon be too standard and it will take a master’s degree or higher to have a comfortable income”. Essentially if college is free for everyone it is defeating the purpose of college and reversing the effect because in the end it will take more time to graduate with a degree that will provide a comfortable income, and cost more because of living

expenses.

While the value of the degree decreases if free college were to exist, the value of going to college will decrease. Many students take college more seriously because they are aware of the expenses of college. An article by Belinda Luscombe, an Australians whose college degree was paid for, writes about what it is really like when your college tuition is paid for. In her article she says “Many people fear that not having to pay for college will make students take college less seriously. This is absolutely true. My fellow students and I did not take college very seriously”. If student get to attend college for free students will no longer value it as much. Students won't be losing anything, therefore they can take as long as they want to get a degree and not have to worry about how much money they are losing.
It is important to remember why a higher education is an expense. There have been many reasons to show for this, and many reasons to show what will happen if tuition is free in public colleges across America. While many people agree that tuition should be free and that it will help student it is only hurting students ultimately. The cost of zero tuition will cause an increase for taxpayers, and potentially another debt that America does not need. College will begin to lose it’s value and in order to get a degree with value and a comfortable income students will have to have a higher degree and pay more money for costs of living. Students will also lose their will to take college seriously and appreciate the value of college.