Answer

College Education Should Not Be Made Free

Supposing Benjamin Franklin was speaking today, he would have added student loans his list, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” (Bozeman 2).  Monthly, several Americans make student loan payments that are almost equal to the value of home mortgages or luxury car loans. In addition to children and home ownership, college/university education has presumed a particular space in the American culture as a component of the American Dream. Consequently, several people posit that since college and university education is necessary, it ought to be free. Nonetheless, as a college student, I hold a strong view that college education ought not to free since free college education would eventually cost taxpayers several U.S. dollars, waste time for learners who are unsuited or uninterested in college education,  and devalue college degree by forcing a minimization in standards (Feldman and Archibald n.p.). Using Luebke’s “Why Free College Tuition is a Bad Idea,” this paper responds to the notion that college should not be free due to several impending ramifications associated with the freeing. 

There are several reasons why college education ought not to be made free. First among the main ones is that freeing college education would cost American taxpayers billions of U.S. dollars to subsidize the cost of sustaining all American institutions (Chambless 3). Bernie Sanders, the 2020 U.S. presidential candidate, introduced his free college and university plan that would require states to pay 33% of the approximated $47 billion to run the free university and college education program (Patton 31). Dr. David Feldman and Dr. Robert Archibald, College of William & May’s economic professors, stated that the free college education program would require a rise in taxes, or compel states to shift the U.S. existing resources from other state priorities, such as prisons, roads, healthcare, and K-12 education, into higher education (Singletary n.p.). According to Feldman and Archibald, states could lose up to U.S. billion dollars in tuition proceeds from their state colleges and universities (n.p.). For example, California could lose about $5 billion and Wyoming $77 million. In addition, according to the plan, states would have to pay between $15 thousand and $55 million as would be determined by the total number of public colleges and universities in each American state to help subsidize the costs of running the schools (Chambless 2). Neal McCluskey, the director Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, further reasoned that subsidized free university studies would cost each taxpayer in America about $1,360 yearly (Walsh n.p.). Thus, freeing college and university studies would be economically injurious on American taxpayers and should, therefore, not be embraced.

Secondly, as advanced by Luebke’s “Why Free College Tuition is a Bad Idea,” free college education is bad since many leaners who are better suited for other things and talented variedly would feel unnecessary pressure to attend such studies even if they uninterested in or unprepared for  college studies. Currently, there are several lucrative careers that have no need for a college/university degree, yet still demand heavy time investment to complete their training and earn on-the-job skills and experience (Feldman and Archibald n.p.). As opposed to wasting about four years in free college education, learners who are best fitted for trade, like electrical, plumbing, carpentry, sports, or welding, could make use of those years to earn valuable skills and experience and certifications needed (Singletary n.p.). By attending the free college education, these learners lose both time and the resources they would have obtained on the job (Feldman and Archibald n.p.). Similarly, learners who are not certain about their career paths, according to Chambless (1), could hurt by attending the free university education. While studies have shown earnings premiums for a number of college graduates, the case is not true for all majors.

Thirdly, standards for acquiring a college degree would be minimized with a resulting minimization in the worth of the college degree by freeing college education. Statistics has it that about 16.8 million learners in America were pursuing college degree in 2017 (Camera 35).  The American population aged between 18 and 24 years was more than 40 million. Assuming that all the 40 million+ go to college under the free college plan, the U.S.’s enrollment rate would rise to 138% (Cooper 1). Whereas a more learned American population is appropriate and necessary in concept, universities and colleges were never designed to accommodate or educate to that huge number of learners. Currently, U.S. colleges and universities have acceptance rate based upon several factors, and one such is the number of students the college can support. Cooper reasons that a free college education plan would not mystically or supernaturally create new professors and classrooms notwithstanding government subsidies (1). Consequently, universities and colleges would be compelled to accommodate students beyond their capacities and that they can educate reasonably (Bozeman 1). With universities and colleges taking more than three times their capacities, colleges and universities would have to expand dramatically their class sizes, minimize time-intensive written examinations in favour of computer-graded exams, minimize faculty-learner interaction, and ration right of entry to computer centres, workshops, and laboratories, which would cumulatively hurt the quality of learning and instruction (Walsh n.p.). Students would eventually get diplomas or degrees, yet the degrees and diplomas would not be commensurate to the worth of resources pumped into the free college and university plan (Singletary n.p.). Similarly, even if colleges and universities try to uphold quality and standards, with large numbers of uninterested or unprepared learners, large numbers would drop out or fail (Feldman and Archibald n.p.). Resultantly, massive political pressure would be created upon universities and colleges to lower quality or standards to minimize attrition of poor learners. Professors’ work would, thus, be made difficult since they would not have liberty to plan themselves in accordance with what they think is worthwhile and important.

Currently, there are already a number of ways of minimizing tuition cost and even allowing students to universities or colleges free. There are financial aid programs and thousands of scholarships that allow learners to minimize or lighten the tuition cost (Poser 40). For instance, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) scholarship pays students’ full tuition fees for the duration of their university career and after graduation allows students to serve five years in the U.S. military (Finkel 19). Apart from scholarships, the cost of college and university fees can be minimized by allowing students to live at their homes and enroll in community colleges for two years at comparatively low tuition rates before proceeding to complete degree on-campus at a costlier college or university (Cooper 1). Students can enroll in dual credit education plans in which they have opportunities of taking classes that count both for college and high school credits at their local community colleges. High school learners who finish the dual enrollment classes have a lighter class weight when they enter colleges and may have the ability of graduating early and saving time, on-campus expenses, and tuition (Singletary n.p.). Similarly, Bozeman notes that a number of employers have tuition aid programs that help their workers in paying for their books and tuition fees for weekend and evening classes (1).

Apart from tuition, college costs can be dealt with in various ways. First is conduct research on required textbooks. Zalaznick posits that new college and university textbooks are costly; renting a textbook from schools’ bookstores can cost a minimum of $100 (17). Nonetheless, there are currently several websites from which students can rent textbooks at low prices, like Cengage, Amazon, and Chegg. Some websites also have textbooks’ PDF copies available for free. An internship, a part-time job, or co-op experience during university/college can equally assist with student loans and college costs (Walsh n.p.). Most colleges also enlist jobs on their websites that can allow students to earn something to finance their education while some colleges and universities are located conveniently near towns and cities where businesses routinely hire university or college students and are flexible regarding class plans (Poser 40). As opposed to making college fees, there are many options for learners to discard some or all college education fees.

Nonetheless, many hold the view that college education should be made free for various reasons. First, they opine that free college education would decrease substantially, if not entirely eliminate, the student loan disaster or crisis (Bozeman 2). The free college education would see learners graduate without the burden of student loans and would be capable of beginning their adult lives with extra monetary liberty (Patton 32). Currently, student loans in the U.S. stand at above $1.5 trillion, with at least 44 million American university and college graduates still owing their student loan debts (and about 10.9% of the 44 million are in default). According to Walsh, student loan borrowers who did graduate from colleges and universities in 2016 on average were $37,185 in debt, and since 2008, the U.S. student loans have risen to 130% (n.p.). Clearly, college and university students hardly have the opportunity of starting their careers and lives with monetary freedom as a result of their crippling student loan debts.

To conclude, it is worth affirming that the notion that “there is nothing like a free lunch” directly applies to colleges and universities. Through the free college education program, colleges would actually not be free, but would instead create several issues. The program would be counterproductive in the sense that it would cost a lot of money, take away from students, institutions, and taxpayers their financial freedom, as well as case extra challenges than it would solve. For now, Luebke’s “Why Free College Tuition is a Bad Idea” holds and tuition fees ought to remain in place. However, there ought to be ways of making it somewhat less costly so that learners who do not qualify for monetary support from any place and also do not possess the means of affording the full cost of university or college education can graduate without student loan.