A Study on the US Provision of Free Tuition for Exemplary Students

Getting a college degree is not only to get a good job, education makes life better and allows you to think smarter. Also, getting an education changes a whole person by taking more advantages, and having more opportunities. Nowadays, the demand of higher education has increased. After a 20th century, we have improved our way of living because most of our people got educated. Graduated students have a greater chance to get a better job than the once without graduate. Education helps students to build opinions and have points of view on things in life.

Parents have only wish to see their children getting higher education at top university but they worried about tuition cost. Therefore, the government should provide free higher education at the point of use.

​ The world needs smarter leaders now, and only the students could provide the knowledge. The population of the every nation increases every year, and we need intelligent leaders as well as people to understand the situation and find the solution.

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Education would not only help individual, but beneficial for a nation too; it would help both private and public benefits. Education affected as one of the biggest factors that will determine the nation's fate going forward. After all, today's jobs needs knowledge-based and advanced technical skills. So a better-educated workforce would help fill many of the skills that help to grow America’s economy faster. A better educated population could lead to faster progress in solving our most difficult challenges by making smarter decisions at every level of society.

If we see education as powerful investment, then we would get the best result in future. Education can offer student a great opportunity to learn skills that help them to rebuilt their societies. For example, there are some developing countries which has better economy than some developed countries, and the education is the reason. Harry Anthony Patrinos, a manager at the World Bank’s education sector, has mentioned very well that how education is powerful investment for the nation’s economy.

“Education is truly one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality and it sets the foundation for sustained economic growth”(Anthony Patrinos).

Many top-performing high school students never apply to most challenging university or colleges even though they can succeed at them; they would choose less selective school instead. Free education affects many poor students because rich students don’t really care about fees. Many poor students afraid to go to college because they cannot afford it and only poor students know the real value of getting an education; it means a lot to them. Even students from middle-class families are leaving college without a degree, often with loans they cannot repay. Some of them experiencing hunger, even homelessness, and many are giving up on their hopes and career plans because they simply can’t afford the education to get them there. Surviving in this world gives them loads of tension including higher education. Since, these students wish themselves to get a degree, then the government should provide them all the comforts, so they can reach their goals. Moreover, the government can encourage them to continue on to higher education by providing them free tuition. Therefore, free tuition policy will give equality to all students. Federal Reserve data show that more students take loans and the average size of those loans is growing and repayment rates have slowed. Jon Weiner, an American historian and journalist, talks about higher student loans which is unnecessary. “ The purpose of education is not just to enable people to increase their lifetime incomes; it’s to help them understand the world, to stimulate the imagination and inspire creativity in all fields. A good society provides opportunities for everyone. We need educated people. And we should be willing to pay to educate them”(Jon Weiner).

In addition, President Barack Obama explained very well in “Obama proposal”that, giving all students diploma is nation’s first priority and all students should complete their diploma without dropping. Every American should get more than high school education because country needs talent of each Americans. In “Obama Plan Would Help Many Go to Community College Free,” he said, “I would propose a government program to make community college tuition-free for millions of students, an ambitious plan that would expand educational opportunities across the United States.” He also said, education should become equal right for every student in the United States because they will get a degree not for themselves, they will get it for a nation because country needs their knowledge to achieve all success. Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University, totally agree with the President. She says that civilians already familiar with this because they pay cost for free library, public roads, fire departments and K-12 schools, then why can’t they pay for student’s education; as it is kind of investment which benefits us all in future. She mentioned that the problem issued in financial aid which hasn’t been significantly changed since past half century.

“It’s time for a new approach. America became great in part because it decided to offer elementary and secondary school to the masses, propelling innovation and economic growth. It simply needs to remember and reinvest in that smart decision, this time including public higher education”(Sara Goldrick-Rab).

The rate of unemployment will reduce if students keep getting a college degree. In today’s world, a student’s chances of getting a better paying job depends on his or her achievement. In the same manner, the chances of getting a job is only depends on higher degree, and if mostly students could get higher degree then the unemployment rate would reduce by itself. If that would happen, the government get more chances to worry about other problems than unemployment. However, unemployment became the biggest problem for nation because it connected to its economy. Also, this problem became cyclical. Last year, TriNet SMBeat, the company explained data about how higher education impacts higher education. They said,

“High school graduates had an unemployment rate of 7.5%. People with a bachelor’s degree had an unemployment rate of 4%, people with a master’s degree had a 3.4% unemployment rate and those with a professional degree had a 2.3% unemployment rate”(TriNet SMbeat).

If every student get college degree, doesn’t mean they all will have better job, or they will get a job which they wanted since beginning. Based on data, not all the companies requires only associate degree. Nowadays, companies expecting students to have more degrees than just associate. The competition has increased, a person is nothing without a degree.

Technically, free college isn't really free. Someone does have to pay for it. In the case of free public colleges, that means civilians who pay taxes, but some economists believe that every student could go to college for free if the federal and state governments made a few reasonable changes. Their ideas are to increase taxes of America's wealthiest millionaires and billionaires. They plan to close corporate tax loopholes which allow companies to legally avoid paying their full share of taxes, and decreasing the military budget. Also, they plan to crack down on wasteful government spending. Moreover, opponents of free college believe that it would be expensive for federal and state government to keep this long term. They concern that the quality of education would enter in danger zone if the demand of free college increases. Senators mention that we can make it sound free if taxpayers would contribute paying the tuition. They concern about civilians too that why would they pay more taxes; so the question is “who pay the cost”. Some opponents argued about President Obama’s proposal because federal would pay only two-third, State have to pay the rest of it which means civilians have to pay for it. President Obama have explained the opponents to think about the students careers and the nation’s benefits. Annie Holmquist, a research associate with intellectual takeout, explained that free college is bad for students.

“Free college doesn’t appear to increase the prospects of young people as much as we’ve thought; in fact, it may actually diminish their chance at future success”(Annie Holmquist).

Vince Norton, worker in higher education administration, totally disagree on free tuition policy. He says

“Meanwhile, is the “free college” really free? Of course not. Public education is funded primarily by property tax. So taxes will go up and all property owners – whether they have college-age children or not – will, in fact, pay for the free college. No, let me reword that. They will pay for the free tuition while soon-to-be college dropouts use student loans. Then, when the students attending “free” college default on their student loan, the taxpayer will once again shoulder the burden”(Vince Nordon).

He believes that letting government pay for the entire tuition would be disaster for civilians. Similarly, free education is way too expensive for some states. This outcome might change the education system. More students would attend colleges and the government would have to provide more like more books, more professors, more staff members, more new buildings, etc. There could be the prediction too that the students take turn and go to private schools because of quality of the education. Then, private institution would lower their cost to encourage students to be part of their universities. In fact, students may like the free colleges, but in the long run the over creation of resources would become less useful. Some opponents say that only twenty percent of full time students earn associate's degrees or certificates at public two-year colleges within three years of starting. Also, only some percent of them go on to earn bachelor's degrees within six years. Richard Vedder, professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University, talks about the problem of free tuition policy. Vedder states,

“To make community colleges free could have some negative consequences for non-traditional students who often benefit from attending private colleges or vocational schools. So far, there has been three problems: the poor academic track record of community college attendees, the potentially very negative economic growth implications from financing so-called free college, and even some fairness issues. The most recent National Student Clearinghouse data shows that 47% of community college enrollees drop out of school, far more than the 27% who graduate. Other research shows that completion rates fall the less students pay towards the cost, hinting that free tuition might raise already scandalously high dropout rates”(Richard Vedder).

At the end, there are positive and negative effects, the government have to pick one. Free education is really beneficial for students and nation both but the only question comes that “where would the money come from?” If an american student graduates with less than $10000, they would considered lucky as other countries students. However, two opposite sides will always exist and they both have valid states prove their points. A positive step in the direction of eliminating cost as a barrier to access and success. Free tuition would become the problem for now, but it will give you the best result in future as lower unemployment rate, educated society and strong economy. We all need revolution someday to make life better, so people should vote for free education.