Contents

Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Free college is useless..................................................................................................................................3
High-cost country for educating..................................................................................................................3
Free colleges are FREE?...............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................5
Reference....................................................................................................................................................6
Introduction

Free education means that the government must pay for the tuition cost while students

pay for the other expenses such as room and board. There are 17 million students in

undergraduate programs in the United States. As the 2020 presidential election heats up, many

candidates are bringing free college in the show the national spotlight. At least 38 States have an

existing or proposed variation of free college programs. Some people argue that tuition-free

college will help decrease crippling student debt. If tuition is free, students will take on

significantly fewer students loan. Every year, tuition at American colleges and universities goes up,

but virtually no one seems to know why. In fact, the average cost of higher education in the United

States increases at twice the rate of inflation, and by going up 8 percent each year, the cost of tuition

doubles every nine years. (Samuels, 2013)

However, tuition-free college is not a free college, and the student will stay have a large

debt. Tuition is only one expense college student has to pay and accounts for about 40% of the

total average college cost. On the other hand, the taxpayer would spend billion to subsidize

tuition, while other costs remain high. People argue that it would be unfair because college

students would be giving a degree to increase their lifetime earnings on taxpayers' backs. Lastly,

even if taxpayers covered college tuition, college costs remain high for several reasons, including

fancy dorms, amenities like lazy rivers and climbing walls: student services access healthcare,

athletics and increase and administrative personnel. The tuition-free college will decrease

completion rates, leaving students without the benefits of a degree.

Free college is useless

We can argue about whether some of the benefits of college spillover to non-students,

what economists call "positive externalities,” might justify some public subsidy of higher

education. However, what is non-disputable is that a considerable part of the benefit of going to

college goes to the student. In large portion- and indeed, I would suggest that most college

students come from families with above-average incomes. Text pairs do not finance their fellow

citizens' financial investment, so why should they pay for their human capital investment? Even

if the qualifications are free and not the living expenses, a person may still claim a slew of

benefits and receive no incentive to ever get a job because he or she remains in the education

system for years and years. (Gritz, 2010) We provide an incentive for people to exploit their

potential, their talents, for gain. They had skin in the game, and, for the most part, throughout

most of history, they financed it on their own. I think to call it racist or classist, whatever that is,

to have to talk about skin in the game is somewhat dis-ingenious. I do not think it is fair to say

that all of the gains that low-income people attain do not come from going to college, nor do I

think we have. What about costs we associated with 40% of students who enter college not

graduating in 6 years, who go to a four-year college? What about those costs? If we lower the

price of going to college, we encourage more and more people who have been marginal

academically. If all education is free, then less thought is required, and students may waste years

of their life studying for qualifications that they do not need or even want. (Kamenetz, 2016)

High-cost country for educating

 The reality is, inter-college athletics subsidies are in the 5 to 10 billion dollars a year

magnitude, but they are not substantial. The real issue is it cost 25 to 30 thousand dollars to

educate college students in the United States, on average; in most of Europe and elsewhere

globally, it is ten or fifteen thousand, much less. We are a high-cost country for educating.

Intercollegiate athletics are part of it. The correlation between spending on college and reputation

is positive. That is, the more we spend, the better our reputation. Furthermore, many schools are

going for reputation, rightly or wrongly. Peoples are different. For some people, college is an

exciting experience, a significant experience, a transformative experience, an income creating

experience. Other students do not make it through college at all, and for whom? College today,

significantly if they borrow money to finance this less successful experience, is sometimes

misery. It is a risky investment. That is not to say we should not have college, nor does it say we

should publicly support the college. Nevertheless, it says we need to take this into account.  If

colleges and Universities were being fully funded by tax dollars, they would encourage students

to join with a whole host of silly and frivolous programs because the quality of education would

no longer matter or apply. (Fox, 2006).

Free colleges are FREE?

Free college is one way to combat student debt. When lawmakers say free college, but

they usually mean it is tuition-free. Other costs like living in a dorm for paying rent, paying for

the meal are not included. States like California, Oregon and Tennessee all offer some version of

free college. In 2017, San Francisco became the first city to offer all of its resident's free tuition

at its community college.

 The city college of San Francisco saw a massive spike in enrollment after it began its free

tuition program. Now the college asks the city to cover the cost like hiring more professors and

providing student services (Mojadad, 2020). There is also the argument that offering free tuition

to everyone quote be a waste of money since not everyone wants to get a college degree. There is

research showing that graduating rates fall the fewer students pay. 47% of community college

enrollees’ drop out of school, and their number might increase if it becomes free for everyone

(Hess, 2021). So free tuition might raise the already high drop-out rates, others argue that if the

free student's point is to help students who cannot afford it, why not increase grant money to

goes to the low-income students instead? That way, we are not subsidizing college costs for

students from high-income families that might not have a problem paying off tuition fees. After

all, the actual cost of college is more than just tuition and fees. We have got rent, food and

transportation.

Conclusion

Upon this argument that the government must pay for the tuition cost while students pay

for the other expenses such as room and board. It is proved that tuition-free college is not a free

college, and the student will stay have a large debt. For some people, college is an exciting

experience, a significant experience, a transformative experience, an income creating experience,

but tuition is not the only one expense college. Students have to pay and accounts for about 40%

of the total average college cost. Lastly, even if taxpayers covered college tuition, college costs

remain high for several reasons.

Reference

Gritz, J. R. (2010, July 29). What's Wrong With the American University System. The Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/07/whats-wrong-with-the-

american-university-system/60458/

Hess, F. (2021, January 11). The College Dropout Problem. Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickhess/2018/06/06/the-college-dropout-problem/

Kamenetz, A. (2016, September 17). How College Aid Is Like A Bad Coupon. Npr.

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/17/492973995/how-college-aid-is-like-a-bad-

coupon.?t=1615192132817

Samuels, R. (2013). Why Public Higher Education Should Be Free: How to Decrease Cost and

Increase Quality at American Universities (None ed.). Rutgers University Press.