Issue Review: Should the United States make College Education free?
- Economics
According to the World Bank, economic growth and education have a strong positive correlation. It is the level of education that creates differences in the labor market earnings. A highly educated individual would automatically earn more than a non-educated person. Statistics indicate that individuals with only a high school certificate are more prone to unemployment than their colleagues with a bachelor’s degree, and the trend is sustained either way. Implementing free college education would, therefore, increase the number of individuals attaining higher levels of learning, which would translate to improved labor market earnings.
However, care should be taken not to plunge the country into an unemployment crisis while trying to offer free education for all. Whereas it is an excellent idea to make college education free and accessible for all, the government should be prepared to create exceedingly many job opportunities to make use of the generated human resources. The failure to tab the skills offered by the learned group could lead to social and economic mischievousness. Most unemployed graduates would opt for other illegal means of economic survival which would severely hurt the economy of a country
- Health
College loans are something that hurt most students while they are in school and thereafter. Students have to put up with the stress that is often associated with the application and repayment of the given money. It becomes even more painful when a newly graduated student is expected to start servicing their loans without regard to whether they are jobless or not. Apart from waiving the loan burden from the student, a free college education would increase access to healthcare information, which could significantly enhance human health.
The fact that education loan is not only meant to pay for students’ college education raises a lot of concerns about what would happen if it was waived. In addition to helping the student to settle huge college fees, education loan fosters hard work and accountability. The student feels that they are paying for their education and hence work harder and smarter. Making college education free would make most students lazy and ignorant.
- Freedom
A free college education would provide every student a chance to choose and pursue a career of their choice. Financial constraints that are often associated with each course make students settle for jobs that they would have otherwise considered unfit for them. The only challenge with such freedom would be that many students would prefer some courses to others. Eventually, some causes would have extremely high enrolment, while others might have a sufficient number of students. This equally implies that certain professions would be flooded with time, which could result in unemployment.