Free tuition and why it is unreasonable

Dear Future President,

Imagine a world where everyone’s education was free. America is overall more educated. People who cannot afford education can get a good education. More jobs are created, and generally we as a whole are smarter. It sounds great, doesn’t it? But you have to think about all of the negative things that come with it. Some of the things to think about are how it raises people’s taxes, competition is drastically different, and your degree is worth less.

A lot of people don’t pay their taxes now. Imagine if more people stopped paying their taxes, because it will cost more for taxpayers. Then, those people would get evicted, and the government gets fewer tax dollars from non-college graduates than from college graduates who have higher wages.”Students who drop out during the first year of college cost states $1.3 billion and the federal government $300 million per year in wasted student grant programs and government appropriations for colleges. Even though it doesn’t sound like it would cost a lot of money it would. On average college costs people about $40,000 for 4 years. If 10 million people cannot afford college who would like to attend, it would cost the United States government $400 billion”.(College Education)

Think about how hard that some people work to get into college. People have many jobs to pay for it, they get superb grades in school, but then someone comes along and says that college is free. The competition element determines where people get into college, and shows how much people want to go to school. Also, some people might not take school as seriously if they don’t put everything that they have into it. “Many people fear that not having to pay for college will make students take college less seriously. This is absolutely true.”(Luscombe) “Private schools follow the same principles of an open market wherein competition is necessary for efficient and cost-effective results. Hence we can recognize why there is a disparity between the education offered at public versus private high schools.” (@BCheights)

If a lot of people can go to college tuition free for four years, then chances are they are working for their bachelor’s degree. People who already have their bachelor’s degree are more likely to get a job than someone without one. “Now there’s no need for this philosophical questioning of the purpose of our actions, but the value of a degree is equated to its price. If the whole purpose of schooling is to get the best paycheck possible, then the price one pays to go to a Harvard or Princeton is worth it. Spending so much truly gets you what you paid for—the best faculty, the best facilities and prestige.Making college free will also essentially be making the degrees we spend years earning as pointless as a gold star on your high school paper on the revolution of salt.” (Bhardwaj)

In conclusion, I don’t think that free tuition is a good idea. It is a lot of money, and is very unrealistic for our economy. It is too complicated to separate between who can, and who cannot have it. I believe that there are other ways to get a relatively cheap education. Thank you for letting me give my input.

Sincerely, Caroline Hafner

Works Cited

"College Education - ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Luscombe, Belinda. "This Is What Happens to Students When They Go to College for Free." Time. Time, 2 Nov. 2015. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

@BCheights. "Miotti: Why We Shouldn't Have Free Tuition." The Heights. N.p., 20 Mar. 2016. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Bhardwaj, By Rishu. "Free Tuition Means Worthless Education." Free Tuition Means Worthless Education. N.p., 3 Oct. 2016. Web. 04 Nov. 2016