Tuition-Freee Colleges for Everyone should not exist in the United States

Tuition-Freee Colleges for Everyone should not exist in the United States

Across the country, and in particular, during political campaigns for the presidency, the issue of introducing free colleges gains a lot of attention. People from both sides of the spectrum provide their rationale on why they support or oppose tuition-free colleges for all Americans. Proponents, for instance, maintain that the increase in tuition fees in college and university has led to a significant increase in student debt (McCluskey and Goldrick-Rab n.pag). In 2017, the national student debt stood at 1.4 trillion. Since high tuition fees and student debt are primary factors that voiced by proponents of tuition fee colleges, the government should not make colleges free for all Americans. Americans who can afford should be allowed to finance their education.

Any American would like to have a tuition-free college education; however, it is unaccompanied by unintended costs. Mainly, this is because the notion of free colleges does not exist because nothing in this world is for free. In particular, ““Free” would have to be paid for with tax dollars, and looking at colleges’ current tuition and fee revenue, and income directly from the government gives a rough sense of how much it would cost” (McCluskey and Goldrick-Rab n.pag). According to McCluskey and Goldrick-Rab, each adult American will incur about $1,360 every year to finance tuition-free colleges. For instance, an American who started taxes while aged between 18 years and 75 years will pay about $77,500. Therefore, tuition-free colleges will only spread the burden of paying fees to all Americans, an approach which is unfair to people paying for fees of others who can afford it for their children.

It is unfair to American people to burden them with payment of fees for others because the United States provides other opportunities that transform people to become eligible to embark on business or get employed. On-the-job training and other forms of informal education are available in the American job market (McCluskey and Goldrick-Rab n.pag). The skills and knowledge from these training have significant demand in the job market. Notably, the primary reason why people enroll for college education is to have a pay increment. In my perspective, some Americans should not benefit financially from a burden that was shared by other Americans, especially when they can afford college fees.

Remarkably, college tuition fees have skyrocketed due to financial assistance from the government.  In the state of Washington, the government’s financial aid to students has increased between $53.1 billion (inflation-adjusted) and $139.6 billion in 2005-2006 and 2015-2016 academic years, respectively (McCluskey and Goldrick-Rab n.pag). Notably, colleges are relying on government financial assistance to raise tuition fees. As such, it is hurting underprivileged Americans, the same people it is meant to help. Based on this observation, therefore, tuition-free colleges will hurt deprived Americans than witnessed under government financial assistance.

Tuition-free colleges will hurt the prospects of people seeking employment. Nowadays, a significant number of graduates do not get employed because many Americans have acquired college education (than labor market demands) through massive subsidies from the government (McCluskey and Goldrick-Rab n.pag). As such, this situation has prompted employees to demand more academic credentials such as degrees, most of which do not increase the knowledge and skills of people concerning the job they are seeking.

In conclusion, adopting tuition-free colleges in the American system is not a solution to the current trends of increased tuition fees and student debt. In particular, this approach will spread the burden of college fees, even of able people, to all Americans. Again, tuition-free colleges will increase college fees more than it is pushed up by government financial assistance to students. Further, tuition-free colleges will hurt Americans seeking job opportunities as employers will ask for extra credentials once every individual has a college education. Overall, the American government should consider ways of assisting needy students in paying their fees, but let those who can afford to cater to the education of the children.

Works Cited

McCluskey, Neal, and Sara Goldrick-Rab. “Should College Education Be Free?” The Wall Street Journal, 20 March 2018, https://www.wsj.com/articles/should-college-education-be-free-1521558856. Accessed 21 March 2017.