The Controversy Surrounding Free College in America
‘If you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like, or where you live. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white, Hispanic or Asian, Native American, young or old, rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight. You can make it here in America if you’re willing to try.’ – President Obama. The question of whether or not the United States should have free college has been brought to the attention of everyone in America. There are many problems with creating a program for free college. This concept of free college could work in a perfect society, but we live in a world where everyone has to work for what they deserve and shouldn’t have things handed to them. Free college is mostly a liberal concept, and people most likely think of Bernie Sanders. Sanders is currently using free college ideals as a way to bring in young voters that want free college. There are many issues that revolve around free colleges, such as; higher taxes, attracting more students that are ill-suited for the college environment and will end up dropping out anyway, work will be harder to find, and the creation of poor academic incentives.
The European Paradigm: Are Too Many People Going to College?
There are many countries in Europe that give their citizens college for free. Or, to put it another way, the cost of going to college is within their taxes; students don’t have to pay any tuition fees when they enter college because it’s already paid for. What countries are currently offering free college tuition or have done in the near past? Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Austria, and Greece are all nations that have some form of free college for their citizens or for citizens that are part of the European Union. European colleges in countries that offer free college are typically overcrowded– that is, there are too many people getting college degrees than the market demands, which means that there are many people in Europe not utilizing college degrees for that reason. For European countries to afford their ‘free college for all’ programs, along with other socialist programs, they had to create a heavy tax load on Europeans and European businesses. This heavy tax load disrupts economic growth, which is needed to have jobs that need people with college degrees. Because those jobs don’t get created, there are many people who can’t utilize their degrees and have to find work not related to their degrees.
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In other words, the high taxes created to pay for everyone to get college degrees disabled economic growth that would have allowed a lot of people from using their degrees that those taxes paid for. And that’s on top of the fact that free college causes a lot more people to attend college than their labor markets need. That means that billions of Euros of tax money are going to waste to pay for degrees that never get used. Also, note that many of these European countries that offer free college for their citizens are beginning to use tuition fees. For example, Sweden and Germany didn’t use to charge tuition and fees, but now they do.
So, it seems that as politicians in the United States are pushing for “free college for all,” European countries are realizing that they need tuition and other fees to lower their tax costs. In other words, the ‘free college for all’ program democratic socialists are pushing won’t be as successful as they think. Unless we can figure out a way to expand our education to include not just K-12 education but a college-level education as well and do it with current tax money already brought in for education purposes by local, state, and federal taxes without raising taxes one more cent, then the ‘free college for all’ program is nothing but a fairytale. When democratic socialists in the United States, like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, endorse the idea of ‘free college for all,’ they are ignoring the decades of evidence as to how that set-up played out in Europe. In the lead-up to the 2020 elections, we’ve heard several proposals offering free college tuition for all and loan forgiveness for those still carrying debt.
The Economic Implications and Fairness of Free College
While proponents call these proposals “investments in our future,” the reality is they would be creating a financial burden on taxpayers, but mostly on middle- and lower-income citizens. There’s an unfairness to forcing many working-class Americans who couldn’t afford to go to college themselves to pay off the loans of those who could. Requiring a family making $50,000 a year to pay off the college debts of doctors, lawyers, engineers, and even some members of Congress who make $174,000 a year is unacceptable. Moreover, how is it fair for those who did go to college and worked hard to pay for others to go to college?
It is unfair and creates poor academic incentives and an un-level playing field when free tuition is given to the academically marginal student entering community college, while her academically superior but perhaps financially similar status classmates face significant tuition charges at four years colleges. Students would need to try as hard, creating laziness, because there is no reward for hard work in high school. Free college would allow people to float their way through high school without having to care about getting good grades for any scholarships. This attitude wouldn’t just last in high school; it would carry over into college and into the workforce. With people not worrying about college, they wouldn’t care if they pass or fail classes because they could just take them again, free of charge. This would cause students to take even longer to receive a degree and cost taxpayers more money. Taxpayers would be required to pay for the laziness of the college students that don’t care about failing a few classes because they aren’t the ones paying for it.
Challenging the Myth of a College Utopia
College dropouts earn $21,000 less per year than college grads, according to College Atlas and the Economic Policy Institute. Having free college would make students more likely to drop out. At the moment, 50% of students that attend college for a four-year degree stay at their college or university for five or more years to earn a degree. Americans would need to pay for students that take longer to get a degree. (Lake, R. 2020)Dropout rates would also presumably go up since they would have no debt they would need to pay, thus resulting in no consequences for the student once they drop out. The American taxpayers would have to pay for a bunch of students that only went for a semester or two and realized college wasn’t the thing for them. It can easily be inferred that more students would take this route because there are no more consequences to this.
Many people complain about student loans, but as a matter of fact, the interest rates for student loans are currently at 4.36%. Interest rates on unsecured personal loans typically range between 5% and 36%. Banks and credit unions will offer competitive rates, but some of the lowest you can find are from online lenders, especially those that cater to creditworthy borrowers.
An outcome of free college would be that students might have more freedom to choose a major they enjoy, but with students choosing these types of majors, they would be less likely to make as much money if they were getting a degree for a business-related job or a law degree. If students had the mindset of “I’m not paying for it so I can get whatever degree I want.” then many students leaving college would be sitting on art degrees while being a barista at a Starbucks and living with their parents.
People that are for free college say that more people would be going to college and give a more educated workforce, helping better our society as a whole. This doesn’t make any sense due to the fact that the amount of more students would just make jobs harder to come by. More degrees mean a more competitive workforce, making jobs that much harder to get. The unemployment rate would be almost guaranteed to rise due to free college.
The government does have opportunities set in place to help aid students. For example, grants like the Pell Grant are given out to low-income students in order to help with financial issues. Another opportunity the government gives is the GI Bill. By serving in the military, college can be completely paid for by the government. The GI Bill doesn’t have to be used by the serviceman or woman either; it can be given to their children or spouse. In fact, I will be using my dad’s GI Bill.
Alyssa Slicko, a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, gave a speech about free college and said, “I worked hard throughout high school to get good grades, to get into college, and to get my tuition paid for. That discipline was my first experience of the ‘real world.’ At some point in your life, everything stops getting handed to you. You have to work on the things you want. Whether paying out of pocket for your college education or having it paid for by the scholarships you’ve received, you appreciate college and value your time and money. College is a privilege. College is a transition and preparation for a career and life itself. How can you be expected to work hard in your career if you can’t work hard for everything leading up to that career? It is stressful to know that if I fail a test and don’t meet my GPA requirements, I will ultimately lose my scholarships. However, that stress motivates me to work hard. I’m constantly studying so that I can achieve my career goals. I’m working hard for what I want.” She is proof that college students need the stress of having responsibilities and criteria that need to be met to be able to afford college. By getting rid of these standards that must be upheld, our country will be in a disservice.
Free college would only cause the money people have to pay in student loans into paying taxes. Americans would end up paying more in added taxes than they would if they were to use student loans. These loans are the most fair loan anyone can get in the United States of America shown by the interest rates. Countries are realizing this as well and, as a result, are beginning to cut back on their free college programs. Students would begin to not care about the classes they are taking and would slack off, causing taxpayers to put more money in to afford these younger generations going to college. Giving these students no responsibility for their own actions would teach poor values and could hinder the future of our great country.
References:
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Bloom, H. (n.d.). The Economic and Moral Case for Free College. Institute for Family Studies. Retrieved from https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-economic-and-moral-case-for-free-college
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James, K. C. (2019). The Unfairness of ‘Free College’. The Heritage Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.heritage.org/education/commentary/the-unfairness-free-college
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Vedder, R. (2018). The Negative Impact of ‘Free College’ Proposals. American Enterprise Institute. Retrieved from https://www.aei.org/economics/the-negative-impact-of-free-college-proposals/
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Lake, R. (2020). Study: 50% of College Students Drop Out. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/01/22/study-50-college-students-drop-out
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Slicko, A. (2019). Quotation from Alyssa Slicko’s speech on free college. University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Football Unveiled: Balancing Risks And Benefits In The Debate
The Legacy and Popularity of Football
Many people believe Football should be banned, but there are many reasons not to ban Football. The article “Birth of Pro Football” states that Football has been around for more than 100 years now. The sport is a combination of rugby and soccer, and each team now has about 53 players. Many people have enjoyed watching and playing the sport. It wouldn’t be that odd to go to the park and see a few people playing a small game of Football. But even though so many people love the game, there are also many people who want to get rid of it. Football should not be banned because, for one, it’s not only a risky sport. Actually, it’s not even the riskiest sport. Also, Football hasn’t been proven to be linked to many long-term or short-term effects, and there’s just not enough evidence to ban it.
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Doctors and other people believe Football should be banned because there is too much of a risk, but it’s not a very valid reason, “Football is on the riskier side of the spectrum of sports, but still is less risky than skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, equestrian or bicycling.” (Robert Glatter) par. 3, Why should people ban a sport even though it’s not even the most dangerous, skiing, snowboarding, and cycling leave injuries that can sometimes not be healed, all these sports can lead to devastating injuries.
Also, people are worried about CTE. They really shouldn’t be. Most of the info being told about CTE came from news stations, and they exaggerated it a lot. CTE hasn’t been linked to dementia, and it hasn’t been proven to cause any other side effects. One common disbelief is CTE causes suicidal thoughts. It doesn’t. There have been a lot of depressed players, but the studies show that depression rates are fairly normal in the NFL. We can’t really be worried about CTE for now since we really don’t know much about it. Scientists and doctors have only been studying the disease for about ten years, while all other neuro diseases have been studied for about 30+ years.
Even if people do ban Football, what sport would come next to fill the shoes of the beloved game? “If we eliminate football which sport is next, who is responsible for defining safe play.” If people want to ban Football just because it has some risks, then they might as well ban all sports. Every sport has some kind of risk. Soccer can lead to serious head trauma. Basketball can lead to sprains and broken bones, and even tennis has some risks. If Football is banned, then banning all other sports is fair since the reason is that the sport isn’t safe, and if Football is banned, then what would we do with all the multi-million dollar football stadiums? People shouldn’t ban it just for safety; for all the bad that comes from Football and other sports, children can learn social and leadership skills, and they can also learn discipline.
