Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy - Should College Be Free?

Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy

Who doesn't like something free?^[1] Well, that's the problem when people discuss free college education. The problem is people fail to understand that "free college" can never actually be free. Making education free for students only means that the money has to be found somewhere else. In the case of public college, that means coming from taxpayer's wallets. There are several forms of financial aid for those who earn it throughout grade school and low income families that need it, but nothing worthwhile comes free. College is intended to be challenging to pay off, and can be proven beneficial with completion. Implementing free further education comes with many crucial sacrifices to our country, including social and economic issues. Free college education can wane the value of a degree, and put the choice of individuals into another group of people's hands.

Consequently, when we converse about free college, we must be aware that college is anything but free. Free college for college attendees only means shifting the monetary problem to another group of people (whom may not even benefit from college itself). Free college is too expensive to implement, and what sense does it make to put it on some who do not even obtain the benefits from it? "A plan proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders would use a combination of federal and state funds to make public college tuition free" (Josephson), but many states have cut higher education budgets. The question remains, of how to raise money to pay for free college if not from taxpayers. The "free college" concept is flawed and the money is still essential for further education, so why not remain to extract money from those choosing to enroll in college?

Alternatively, proponents of free college argue that the choice of free college to the population as a whole would have a large economic benefit for the country. I digress, in a study conducted by Harvard it shows that, "in the fall of 2011 students who started bachelor degrees, but did not graduate within six years, accounted for $3.8 billion in lost income, $566 million in lost federal income taxes, and $164 million in lost state income taxes in one year" (Infobase). These are results of people not graduating that put a financial burden on themselves and the government.  Could one imagine the increase of this issue on the government of college dropouts when it doesn't financially upset the students? College students can take semesters and ultimately decide they do not wish to continue this career path, and start something entirely new, or likewise drop out because they decide college is not fit for them.. All at the stake of our government and taxpayers. Eventually, those going to college will become taxpayers and pay for the colleges anyways, in a lifetime it will calculate to paying for their own college loans and then some. Those who don't even benefit from college (with neither them or their close family attending), are then put responsible for another person's choice. The economy will be at a downward spiral, with increasing American debt and a significant increase in taxes. Shifting the payments for college onto another group of people does not fix the problem, but only makes it worse.

Conversely stated, free college will benefit the less fortunate and allow them to have equal opportunity to pursue higher education. This would be ideal in a perfect world, but has not been successful in the real world.  Scottish Universities found when colleges stopped charging for tuition, it instead helped those who were able to pay for tuition already on their own.  "Low-income students saw no advantage when Scottish universities stopped charging tuition, since they were already exempt from it, research at the University of Edinburgh found" (How Free).  "The net effect was a transfer of $20-25 million a year in benefits, shifting from lower-income students to their higher-income students who could afford to pay tuition but no longer do" (How Free)^[2]. This not only becomes another disadvantage at a monetary value to low-income students, but a social one as well. Under a plan with such large economic assistance, the universities would become much more selective. "So many people would apply to go to top public universities that those would become much more selective, shutting out poor and non-white students, who would land in already overburdened open-access regional public universities and community colleges with low success rates" (How Free). Therefore, college financial assistance in practice results in benefiting the rich and can potentially omit minorities and the less fortunate.

In any case, a college degree is not an object just handed to someone, it is an optional privilege. A degree is a valuable means of economic advancement in the workforce, as well as a social advancement at intellectual level. People have the option to pursue a college degree, but in order to obtain it they must work for it. Working for a college degree does not only require academic labor, but physical as well. The majority of people attending college are not able to pay off their debt for years, but that is something they must be aware of when going to college. A college degree is set to be difficult both in financial and academic matters, because it is a prize of economic benefits that will eventually override the obstacle of tuition. The price difference is substantially large,  "According to the U.S. Census Bureau, adults aged 18 and older holding a bachelor's degree earned an average of $51,544 in 2004, compared with an average of $28,645 earned by those with a high school diploma- or about 73% more" (Infobase). Multiplied over the course of a lifetime that could translate into a difference in income of hundreds of thousands of dollars" (Infobase).  Those who go to college make more, and therefore should have to pay much more for that advantage.^[3] Also stated, "no economy can support a workforce that is comprised of entirely college educated, white-collar office workers" (Infobase). Take for example, a typical minimum wage job at a local food business. In that setting there is typically young students dishwashing or waitressing and adults without college degrees filling cooking and waitress positions. The young students are typically in high school saving up for college, or in college getting an income for finances. With free college, a majority of those young people are not going to be there without worries of college finances and the large taxes established from the free college. With free further education, there will be a decrease in the adults as well because they will become involved in white collar jobs or still be in college. This here creates a problem for businesses with low paying jobs, and will force them to shut down. This leads to not only problems for the business owners, but the society as a whole when industries then start to take over, which creates an entire issue in itself. Government help can cause local businesses to shut down due to lack of employees, and industries begin to take over. Also, if the government begins funding colleges, it will hurt low paying jobs, and the technical fields that are accessible without college. Those going into a technical field can have an advantage of not paying for college and that benefit helps encourage people into jobs in the technical field. If the advantage of no cost of college is available to all, those involved in technical jobs will likely decrease. In conclusion, free college can result in degree inflation that will degrade its value and hurt other businesses.