Should College be Free?

Everyone deserves the opportunity to get a college education so that they can be an essential component in today’s workforce and can play a vital part in the social, economic, and cultural development of the country. A college education is essential for prospective individuals in order to build a career in which they must be encouraged to create a better-educated workspace and be informed as well as higher earning consumers to help boost the economy (Cottom). Before diving into the weeds of free college and free education’s benefits, it should be considered that if education at the college level becomes free, it would lead students to appear to devalue the college degree. The paper explores a plethora of reasons why college should not be free in the United States and around despite expensive college fees that almost always leave a student in debt that keeps rising in the pursuit of obtaining the degree.

People often devalue things when they do not pay for them as they do not have to get back their money’s worth. If colleges would be free and tuition fees will be waived from any student’s graduation degree, this puts so much pressure on the taxpayers of the country. The burden of college tuition fee waiver falls on the taxpayers of the United States as the debt increases. A free college education would ultimately shift the burden of paying for higher education degrees from individuals to taxpayers of the country as a whole. For students from underdeveloped areas, lower-income backgrounds, and lower middle class who cannot afford expensive college fees, scholarships and grants should be provided to such students. The redistribution of wealth in society could be seen as unfair and unbalanced, particularly by those who may never benefit from higher education in colleges. Moreover, free education at the college level affects the economy as an investment in a college degree propels economic development and the growth of an individual, community, nation as well as country.

Paying for a college education gives individual students greater control over what they want to do, when they want to do it, how they want to do it, and where they want to do. Therefore, providing free college education and degree may hinder students to explore their potential in different areas of education as the economic barriers will be reduced so they would keep clinging from one option to another. This reason, on the one hand, explores the idea that students if given free college education would not be consistent in making their careers. On the other hand, providing a college education without any investment may lead to an oversupply of non-competent graduates in the professional world. This can compromise the ability of institutions to attract qualified faculty as well as create determined individuals who really deserve to find and fill prospective job positions. This could in turn decrease the value of the college degree as graduates after their college education may struggle to find employment in their preferred field leading to possible wasted resources, dissatisfaction, and depression.

The decrease in the value of college degrees due to the free college education may have dire consequences for the students who already hold such degrees and have earned their qualifications after a lot of struggle and financial investment. This could also potentially harm the quality of higher education as there can be a decrease in funding and resources for colleges due to the reduction of fees. Colleges rely on financial incentives gained from tuition fees from the students enrolled in a particular percentage of different faculties to fund important educational resources such as extracurricular programs within and out of the institutions, faculty salaries, and research initiatives. Without tuition fees, institutions for higher education including colleges and universities may struggle to attract and retain quality educational faculty, staff members, and management (Murphy et al.). Moreover, without tuition fees, colleges may not provide sufficient resources for research and effective teaching.

Proponents of the free college education idea argue that higher education should be free so that individuals can access educational opportunities and facilities on equal and fair levels. However, they neglect the other side of the coin when not considering the financial burden on the government and other funding sources. The provision of free higher education places the government in a position where other important public services such as infrastructure and healthcare may be compromised due to the shortage of financial resources and incentives. Furthermore, free higher education may result in increased demand for higher education programs that do not have a significant return on investment and are not in high demand. Resultantly, this may result in the decline of the quality of education as maintaining the quality while sustaining the current level of resources and funding without any financial incentives that could be taken from college tuition fees would be difficult to maintain high standards of education (Fredriksson).

In conclusion, adopting a free college policy does not necessarily benefit lower-income individuals and students who come from disadvantaged groups or underprivileged backgrounds because lowering college tuition fees does not lead to greater participation from disadvantaged groups. There is always additional cost associated with attending a college for a higher degree such as transportation, textbooks, living expenses, and other necessary resources. Moreover, paying for a degree in an accredited higher education institute allows more individuals to receive a quality education while providing them with the ability to invest, learn, implement, and earn which can foster an individual’s professional as well as interpersonal growth and stimulate the economy. Thus, paying for a college degree is a much more prospective opportunity than attending a free-of-cost college that curbs the genuine growth, skills, and talents of an individual student.

Works Cited

Cottom, Tressie McMillan. “Why Free College Is Necessary.” Dissent, vol. 62, no. 4, 2015, pp. 115–17.

Fredriksson, Peter. “Economic Incentives and the Demand for Higher Education.” Scandinavian Journal of Economics, vol. 99, no. 1, 1997, pp. 129–42.

Murphy, Richard, et al. “The End of Free College in England: Implications for Enrolments, Equity, and Quality.” Economics of Education Review, vol. 71, 2019, pp. 7–22.