I know what you're thinking. Free college education? Impossible! For everyone it probably is, but maybe more affordable education seems more reasonable. But.. how can we provide that?
Free college education will provide many benefits for students, especially for those who can not pay for tuition. The average university tuition is around $10,000 for in state public, out of state is at $26,000, and private colleges are at $35,000. That is a lot of money per year. Many students are juggling work at the same time to pay for their education. They are exhausted by taking out loans that will probably be with them until they can pay in off ten years later. Some can't even go to college because of money.
Some universities in New York have started free college education, only if you live in state. The system that they are using still need to be fixed here and there. In New York there is an application that must be filled out. Out of 95,000 students, about 22,000 to 23,000 students have received free education. Although it is a small percentage, it's better than nothing. Some colleges in Europe also offer free college education, including: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, etc.
So, how can we afford it? There's no straight answer to this. Multiple things can create an abundance of money for free or affordable education. The number one is tax, increasing tax for the millionaires, billionaires, trillionaires... We can provide free education for K-12, why can't we do it for college too? Another option is to raise money. There is approximately 4,000 to 6,000 students per college. If students got together to do a fundraiser, maybe a bake sale or anything really. We could cut back on wasteful government spending, like building a wall. If other countries have figured out a way to free education, why can't we? Just a thought.
4 comments:
First, I think this is a very nice idea and I think every student would love to discuss that. Why? Because besides studying hard, we don’t have to worry about tuition, don’t have to worry about figuring out a job while we are handling too much pressure from class, from deadlines and school projects. Paying tuition for college, it’s not only the responsibility for students, but sometimes, it is also the responsibility of parents who have kids go to college and they make good income. According to Chau’s article, the college tuition fee is not cheap at all. I agree with that.
I go to both ACC and Texas State University, and on average, my tuition fee is always over $10,000 per year. This amount deducts my Texas Grant and Federal Grant money, I support to pay out of pocket $5,000 per year. However, I agree to submit the subsidized loan, not the unsubsidized one to cover the rest of my tuition fee. I’ve been in college for 4 years, my student loan will be around $20,000 after I graduate and I don’t have to pay it back after 6 months when I graduate. Absolutely, I can make a payment plan for my student loan and I am confident that my job in the future can help me to get this loan pay off soon. To myself, the tuition fee is not really a big problem while I am in college and my parents didn’t pay for me any pennies. I am from Vietnam and in this country, I don’t think the government supports their students as the US government. At least, in the US, the government still supports college students by granting them a part of the tuition fee and offering them the loan to pay in advance. I already appreciate it. Moreover, I came to the US when I was 19 so I didn’t have a chance to go to elementary or high school here. But I appreciate the US government for granting all the kids under 18 to go to school, get their basic general knowledge in public school.
Other countries offer free college and I think the US starts doing that in some certain states based on Chau’s information. However, it is difficult to offer free college for the whole country. Moreover, our country has too many people and people sometimes demand too many benefits from the government.
Talking about the solution how do we offer free college? I think most the colleges and some sponsors of college do offer the scholarship. I think it is a very great way to reward our studying hard students. And, if students are serious to study and want to help themselves for tuition fee, trying their best to get the scholarships are very reasonable. The proposing solution about raising tax for millionaires or billionaires is kind of hard for these people. Why? Because I think at the current tax rate, I think the US government did charge them lots of tax already. I know they are rich people, but they also used to study hard and work really hard every day to be a millionaire or billionaire.
In conclusion, I think it is reasonable for the US government may cut down the tuition fee standards to colleges or universities but offering free college for the whole country is very challenging for the government.
Free high education tuition, is somehow idealism before for people who live outside Europe. Your idea sounds like a spring rainstorm that thunder and lighting come over, rain approaches together and is staying for a while, in the brain. Fortunately, it seems turned to be a real trend, has started in some small areas, that Americans may expect. Following the brainstorm, how will it be going, is it really blooming over the United States like happening in other countries such as in Europe? What do the American people need to know, and what do they really do for free high education?
According to valuecolleges.com, there are over 40 countries around the world offering free post-secondary education so far, and 10 countries of them offer free or almost free of cost for international students, according to scoopwhoop.com. As people have learned, those European countries do so for all students equally, regardless of family income level. However, the first program in New York offers free tuition at public colleges only to families making up to $125,000 annually. That is not the model, as most people think, for other states to follow.
Despite whatever the policies are, the "free tuition" has to be a relative term base on the fact that all the free tuition cost are absorbed by the taxpayers. In European countries, people pay higher taxes than that in the United States, which allows those countries to offer more social services than the United States. While tax as a percent of GDP is about 27.1% in the United States, it is about 37.5% in Germany, for instance, according to the preliminary 2017 data, Mish Talk.
Another substantive difference is the college enrollment percentages, it is much lower in Europe than in the United States. Which means a lower percentage of college students in the European countries population take advantage of free tuition policy; obviously, it works well then and could be a successful model. If the United States was going to follow the footsteps of European countries in this way, to finance a free college education to every student, like Germany, by increasing tax, the additional tax can be calculated as 10.4% of the income for each family, if it is assumed the college enrollment rates are about the same level in the two countries.
It is true that eliminating financial stress will help students with low income to get degrees if free tuition is the means for encouraging people to seek high education. On the contrary, the universities will be overcrowded, hardly maintain the quality of teaching, and provide adequate studying support for each student under the current campus circumstance and enrollment policy. The adjustment approach might have to be lower enrollment, that any family or student would not like. As a result, the number of college students will be decreased, as well as the number of graduators with a degree. This will completely deviate from the original intention of free education. At the same time, the taxpayers are unfairly forced to pay off the tax gap, no matter how many kids they have or if they have any kids go to college.
To sum up, it is still not appropriate to introduce free college education over the current United States. The program in New York is a chance to test how it works, how people react, and should it be continued. At the same time, we should take an eye on the countries who are already doing that, such as Germany, whose people are interestingly divided into two groups about free education after the last few German universities went tuition-free, one group advocate reimposing tuition, while another group prefers to keep it. Let us wait.
I completely agree that we should try to make a greater effort to make college education tuition free. I am a UT student and I too take courses at ACC from time to time. I am currently pre-med which is quite intensive in its workload; therefore, having a job to help pay for my education is an extra load that can sometimes hinder my academic abilities. Being a college student is stressful already, along with its transition from high school to college, which is why I think college should be free. It would lift a huge weight off of a college student's shoulders.
Some students also dream of pursuing further education but can't because of financial instability. This seems pretty unfair because everyone deserves an opportunity to education no matter their financial status. I think making college free would make huge differences in today's society which could in turn move our world into a more intellectual and advanced state.
I don’t think to make college education free is the answer. however, I agree that there should be efforts to make college tuition more affordable. I don’t believe in making college free because there’s no such thing as free, the money will have to come from somewhere. Additionally, making college education free would devalue a college degree, many students would get lazier and not really try because they wouldn’t seem to have a proper understanding of the value of the education they’re receiving. Furthermore, making college tuition-free would not only devalue a college degree but it would also over saturate some areas if not much of the workforce. This would lead to people unable to find jobs that they went to school for.
I believe the best to approach this college tuition problem would be to make efforts to make college tuition more affordable, reduce the cost because I believe that the cost for a college degree is very high. By finding ways to reduce college tuition, students wouldn’t be graduating college with large amounts of debt. Without the weight of student loan, students would have the freedom to pursue their dreams jobs, put their degrees to good use and contribute to the economy. Lastly with a reduction in college tuition, more students especially lower income student would get the opportunity to attend college, and pursue their careers, thus creating a well-educated workforce. Many deserving lower-income students choose to get into the workforce instead of getting a higher education.
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