College tuition is not something that has been existent in our country forever, so I ask everyone, did the change from college free education to college tuition have a purpose? It is a topic that many Americans debate. It intrigues everyone because many believe that there can be a vast amount of negative repercussions to come from change. The topic worries everyone in America because the effects that could come from it are terrifying. Believe it or not, public education used to be free in our Nation. The idea of publicly funded education goes all the way back to the founder fathers of America. We found out quickly that tuition based education was the key to economic success. If someone is motivated enough to spend a lot of money on education, then they will make roughly 60% more money than if one does not obtain the expensive degree (Redd, 1). So, spending more money to obtain a degree that holds actual value is worth it in the end. And for many wondering why we would change from publicly funded education to college tuition, the answer is simple. The reason that publicly funded education was possible is because only a small percentage of Americans attended college. Since enrollment increased, so did funding requirements. That is why change was needed, and come to find out, it was for the best. Free college tuition in America is no longer a possibility because of the detrimental effects it would have on the value of college, society, economy, and most importantly our Nations success.

Throughout the last couple of years with the new Presidential election taking place, the idea of free college has been a roaring topic among our nation. With many disagreements taking place about this debate, the most heated is the idea of Quality or Equality. As many of us have been raised correctly, the choice seems obvious; Equality. Everyone deserves equal opportunity, and as us being human beings, we all care for others who are in need. It does not seem fair that students are not obtaining a higher education due to financial reasons. Low income individuals could dig themselves out of the positions they are in if only they could possess enough money to retrieve a college education. I had all of these same beliefs until I read Bernard Adams article where he delivers a very valid point. In his article, “Quality and Equality”, he states: “It is not in Americas best interest to deprive the able and highly motivated student, instead to extend opportunity to young individuals who show no sign of motivation or educational success”. By this he means as we make higher education more accessible and decrease a smaller amount of spots available for the motivated student, we extend opportunity for individuals who do not want to continue education and did not take it seriously in the past. It is very understandable that everyone deserves equal opportunities, but if you are motivated enough anyone can go into debt to receive an Education that is worth it. Receiving this valuable education will allow you to pay back your debt and make more money than you ever would without a college education. However, that being said, many economists claim that educational tuition is very harmful to our country because it decreases the amount of skillful workers in our nation that we need. What many do not understand is the high cost of education is not the reason us Americans are not filling these high paying jobs. In terms of College, there are plenty of students studying in those fields. After researching, we see that graduation rates are the main issue here. In Bob Luebke’s article “Why free college tuition is a bad idea”, he states “about 55 percent of students graduate six years after starting. The problem is not access but completion”. In the end, giving Americans this so called “equality” or free education like we want would push the graduation rates below 55 percent, causing much bigger issues than an “expensive” college education. Unfortunately, whether we want to believe it or not, Tuition is the backbone to educational success. For years now college tuition has been rising to rates which many American families can not pay for, making more and more students being denied the opportunity to attend a university to better their lives. On the flip side, it is proven from the effects on other countries that making education free overcrowds colleges and deteriorates both the educational quality and value of the degree. It is then up to us as a country to decide which one is more important. There are many people in our nation who are affected by this insane college expense, whether it be low income families, parents struggling to pay for their student’s education, student loan victims, Taxpayers, or just those who care about equal opportunity in general. Being a college student, I know exactly how depressing it is hearing your parents talking about tuition expenses and struggling to put you through the education they believe you deserve. The struggle that they are going through is exactly what allows us to have a valuable education. You get what you pay for, and as we all know, nothing in this world is free. That is why it is so important for us as America to realize the harm in college free education. Not only will equality not be achieved, but quality will decline rapidly destroying our nation little by little. It is better to put a dent in one’s bank account than to put a dent in the Nations precious future.

There is one major downside to College tuition, which is student loan debt. In the article “Economists say college costs hurt economy”, Catherine Cole states “Students who take school loans graduate owing an average of twenty-six thousand dollars. Often times the debt can exceed that amount. Since only fifty-five percent of college students graduate within six years, you can see where there is also a lot of students who are in much more debt than the average. Not only does student loans affect specific individuals, but it also greatly impacts our Nation as a whole. In 2015, the total amount of student debt in America was estimated to be around 1.3 trillion dollars (Redd, 1).  Student loans are the most dominant type of financial aid, and if we could cancel those from our federal funds it would help our economy. Since many students come out of college with great amount of debt, they try everything they can to save as much money as possible. When individuals are saving money, they do not contribute to the economy hurting it greatly. This sets up a terrible conundrum for Americas economy; “We want more and more post-secondary education. We want more focus on academic quality and graduation. At the same point, the funding sources for higher education have been diminishing for a generation.” (Cole, 1).  Also, making college free would be much more difficult than one would think. First, Congress would have to act on implementing the tax on financial transactions. And then each individual state would have to opt to participate, which might mean chipping in more for higher education than they already do (Lobosko, 1).  The only other downside to maintaining college tuition in our Country is the distractions of other expenditures that come with the tuition. In Robert Samuels article “Why public higher education should be Free”, he argues that universities have lost their focus on research and instruction, and this loss of vision is the real, underlying crisis facing higher education. Whether those be sport events, gyms, Greek life or more, they all take away from education and research declining the value and potential of higher education.

Without researching about the topic and all there is to know about it, free college education seems like a no brainer. Why would we not make college accessible to everyone, and at the same time increasing the number of doctors, scientist, and engineers? Its not that easy. As many of you may know, there is no such thing as something being ‘free’ in life. Even proponents of free college know the money has to come from somewhere. And that somewhere happens to be the federal taxpayers. In Carol Patton’s article “Is free tuition working?”, Richard Alvarez states “The challenge with this free college concept is an unfunded mandate from the federal government. States will be forced to defund other state programs or initiatives to pay the bulk of tuition cost.” Making room for college free tuition under federal funding will take away other funding’s such as Medicare, Military expenditures, or other unemployment funds. Many of these funds that are already in place are very crucial to the stability of our nation. Removing these aids in the end will not benefit the low income families who cannot afford college, but instead will harm them a great amount. This also will cause many Americans who do not associate with college to become very angry. Many citizens have jobs that do not require college degrees. They will be paying for others education and getting no benefits in return. So we are once again stuck in a major conundrum, is this so called ‘free’ college worth sacrificing more important funding such as Medicare and unemployment programs? Or should we keep tuition based educations and continue on our Nations successful path?In reality, it would be much too difficult to maintain federal funds great enough to pay for every college education wanted. That being said, all of the support would fall heavily on the tax payers. The heavy taxes would then cause EVERY American to have less money to spend or invest ultimately hurting the economy. Another huge reason to keep our education system the same is to maintain one of the top educational egos in the world. We are one of the most advanced and powerful country, so why change education that is so successful? If college became free, the basic jobs that individuals attend straight after high school would see a major decline hurting our economy. The sad thing about our country is that not everyone can be equal for it to operate correctly. Not everyone can be Doctors, Scientist, or engineers. There needs to be some inequalities for our economy to work, which is why college tuition separates the highly motivated from those not interested in higher education. College tuition also provides a vast amount of learning experiences. From the age of eighteen, students learn how to manage their money and maintain a budget to ultimately contribute to the economy later on to the best of their abilities. They will know how to not only manage their money, but also will value it more when they have a real job. When you have something difficult put in your path, it strives you to succeed, which is why our education system should never change.

There is one issue that can come about free college that none of us can deny. Whether opponent or proponents to the idea, we all know that making college free would lack motivation to succeed. If college became free in America, many students who did not intend to pursue a higher education would attend just to party. As bad as that may sound, it is unavoidably true. Amy butcher describes this great by using a quote from John Ebersole, when he states, “The idea of ‘free’ college degrees comes at a risk. If students don’t perceive value in the credentials, they may not remain committed to their attainment; a degree that costs nothing could be valued accordingly.” College is already known to have a great amount of partying. If no tuition was needed to attend, it would not only drive students to lose focus from learning, but also cause the motivated students to cut class whenever they wanted. If you have nothing to lose, you ultimately have no motivation resulting in your failure. Proponents believe that having tuition based colleges cause students to become distracted from extracurricular activities such as football, gyms, and Greek life. How do you think it would be if college were free AND also did not provide any extracurricular activities to keep students busy? Do people actually think students would use their time to study and learn to the best of their abilities? No, instead, they would become very bored, realize they have nothing to lose, and party more than ever before. As hard as it may be to accept, free education is not right for America. We all as a nation need boundaries and guidelines disciplining us to the path of success.

There is one thing that drives me to not only talk about my opinion on this debate but also inform everyone why I am right, and that is educational value. Being a college student, I want the education I receive to have value. If everyone else in our country has the same education, that education would have little to no value, making more education needed to have inequalities once again. If college was accessible to more and more people, there would be no significance or motivation to achieve the goal of graduating. College is one method that allows us to path of skillful, well paying jobs. Since I am draining my parents of money, it pushes me to do nothing less than my best. I know what they are sacrificing for me to have an education, which is why I want that education to have some value when I’m finished. Over eighteen million students wouldn’t enroll in college a year if there wasn’t some benefits to come from it. It might take a lot of effort to obtain a college degree, but the value of higher education will never diminish.

The number one reason Americans believe college should become free is to enforce Equality in our country. I could not agree more, and I believe that everyone deserves a chance to pursue higher education if that is what they want in life. However, free college is not the answer to alleviating these social disparities. As perfect as the idea sounds, its not what it seems at all. The title of ‘Free’ college makes it seem like everyone is getting the same thing, but as that Richer students got a huge subsidy and poorer ones ended up with more debt (Schrager, 1). As When higher education becomes free, the competition becomes harder than you can ever imagine due to limited spots. We can see from Greece’s trial with free education, there will be many entrance examinations. Preparations for these exams are very costly, giving lower income individuals a huge disadvantage from the start (Psacharopoulos and Papakonstantinou). Ironically, free college benefits the rich and harms the poor. Not only will the wealthy be more prepared for these entrance examinations, but they also will not have to worry about paying for the cost of living. America’s education system however is very progressive. Most of the time, families pay based off of their income unlike the regressive free education system (Schrager, 2). No matter what change happens in our educational system, social disparities are inevitable, so why should we destroy something good for no benefit in return?

Not only does free higher education effect federal funds, the economy, society, college value, or social disparities, but it also impacts the jobs here in America. It is already very hard to find jobs straight out of college. Imagine if anyone who wanted to access college could, how would job availability look? There would be a huge demand for non skillful jobs like restaurant industry and industry workers, and individuals with college degrees would have to fill those jobs. Then the outcome makes many wonder, what is the point of this so called ‘free’ college degree? That is why our enrollment rates are so much higher in America than those countries who have free higher education. Individuals from other countries do not want to go to college because they know the degree would obtain no value. Less people going to college would mean less scientist, doctors, and engineers. The choice is ours, what do we want for our Nations future?

So, I ask you, what would happen to America if higher education became free? There should be no debate because we can see how it effects other countries around the world. Why would we want to fix something that is not broken? Our higher education system may be extremely expensive, but it is the only way for it to operate correctly. As I have always been taught growing up, you get what you pay for. It may be terrible to take out student loans and fork out thousands of dollars, but in the end it will ultimately be worth it. If college became free in America, it would effect our economy, society, higher education value, and produce many negative repercussions that are not needed for our nations success.
