Why college tuition should be free

The average American ends up $37,000 deep in student loan debt after college. Debt for what? For the freedom to pursue opportunities? Education is a right, not a privilege. Education should not have financial barriers. Education should not be compromised. Education should not cause Americans to be fighting their way out of the cavernous pit of student loan debt well into their thirties. Millions of people are in outrageous debt simply because they wanted to go to college. Tuition costs do nothing but put in place barriers that prevent people from pursuing their dream.

The American dream.

According to data from the Federal Reserve, the amount of student loan debt owed by Americans has amassed to an absurd $1.73 trillion dollars as of June 2021. Student loan debt has been declared the second largest debt held by consumers. High tuition costs are an infectious problem in the United States, spreading and affecting so many people in so many different ways. It’s become evident that some kind of change, some kind of reform needs to be done. Implementation of tuition-free college would greatly improve several different aspects of American society.

First and foremost, the most obvious reason supporting free college is that more people would have a fairer chance to go to college. Tuition costs can be daunting to low-income families, which often pushes students away from even trying to attend college, regardless of their academic achievements.

Students have become aware of this wealth-gap issue concerning the costs of college. Tobias W., 11th grader at Airport High School and member of the Beta Club, stated his opinion on this situation: “Education should not have to be paid for because it does not affect a rich family as much as a poor family. If colleges had free tuition, I think a lot more students would actually go to college.”

Low-income students that do attend college, however, are more likely to enroll in a less-selective institution that receives less funding than more selective colleges. A report from the Century Foundation found that private, more selective four-year colleges cost an average of $72,000 per full-time student per year. Comparatively, public universities cost on average $40,000, while community colleges only expend a mere $14,000. Ironically, the least selective universities, which are the online schools, are actually quite expensive as well, costing between $40,000-$50,000. Because practically anyone can get into these schools, there is almost a forced debt situation no matter what kind of school a person wants to attend, even a not-so-great school.

The more selective a college is, the higher its quality. The higher its quality, the higher the funding it receives. The higher the funding it receives, the higher the tuition probably costs. All of these factors trickle down to create a devastating disadvantage for low-income families. The most prestigious opportunities are the hardest to get, and even the colleges that are easy to get into still cost a fortune.

In addition to helping in closing the wealth gap, free college would also be a step further in equality for minorities. According to an article from CBS News, 85% of Black people in America hold student loan debt compared to 69% of White Americans. An article from Pew Research stated that White people are five times more likely to be accepted into a private not-for-profit selective school, and that during the year 2016, White people made up 63% of the students at selective schools while minorities, including Black, Asian, Hispanic, and others, only made up a scant 37%.

Offering tuition-free college would help both low-income families as well as minority students, the combination of which would help to close the Black-White wealth gap and provide more opportunities for minorities and work towards their long over-due liberation.

As previously mentioned, high tuition costs have an effect on a large number of people. Setting aside the low-income students that had their opportunity for higher education stolen from them, what about the people that managed to get in?

Trellis Company, a non-profit organization that specializes in helping Americans successfully repay student debt and promoting success in higher education, performed a survey in 2018 that included more than 58 universities across the nation. According to their studies, 55% of college students ran out of money three or more times in the year 2017. Also, 42% of students find their total debt to be overwhelming. Furthermore, in a different study conducted by a research team from Ohio State’s Office of Student Life and College of Education and Human Ecology, it was found that 32% of students neglected their college studies at least once due to financial stress.

This is an obvious problem.

“[Impoverished students] think about going but one thing that stops them is the money. It stops them because even if they do go, and get loans, going into debt just continues the cycle of poverty,” says Ms. Holcomb, an English teacher at AHS and the Lexington 2 Innovation Center, “[which] makes it difficult even if they manage to get [a] college education, it still leads to… a gap between [socioeconomic classes].”

College students should be able to focus on their studies, not how they’re going to pay for their next semester. College students should be able to focus on their mental health, and not allow themselves to be devoured by the monster of student loan debt.

Americans would see an increase in the average education levels of the general population. Americans would see an increase in diversity. Americans would see an increase in social cohesion. Americans would see an increase in tax revenues. Benefits of free tuition will take time to come into effect, but it will certainly have a positive impact on our society.

Considering that America has put it’s college students in such financial despair that compromise their personal health and learning, it is arguable that free college could essentially produce more level-headed, educated students.

Maybe, just maybe, more people would be able to devote themselves to passing their midterms if they didn’t have to fork over thousands of dollars a semester.

However, not everyone is supportive of this concept.

Opponents of free college often argue that free college isn’t technically “free” and that the money has to come from somewhere, like higher taxes, so the reason why they are so adamant about their disapproval is because they are against the idea of having their taxes raised.

What must be understood is that taxes serve a purpose.

Some people think that advocates for free college are just high schoolers and undergraduates that don’t want to hand over any money. However, there are plenty of reasons why someone who had already attended college, or doesn’t want to, would support free tuition. Even though they wouldn’t be the one going to college, free college would benefit the United States as a whole, and that includes you. That includes me. That includes us.

An increase in taxes is nothing compared to the tens of thousands—and in some people’s cases, hundreds of thousands—of debt that Americans are in due to simply wanting the freedom to pursue opportunities.

Taxes are essential to the functioning of American society. Taxes are the support behind constitutional functions such as maintaining the military.

Is the right to education not constitutional?

The second President of the United States once said, “The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.”

Our Founding Fathers believed that education should be provided by the country and provided to everyone equally in the country.

They’d roll in their graves if they could see the price tags of university now.