Mendonca 1

Nolan Mendonca

Professor Harano

English 102

26 March 2019

Free College Education

For most people, a college education is a goal to reach when thinking about how far they

want to go with their academic status. Although this is a goal, many people cannot achieve it

because of the financial burden due to the high cost. The financial aspect of college has pushed

away many potential students because they cannot afford the price. The ranges of prices can cost

from $13,000 to $60,00 just for tuition. Due to this, people are denied jobs just because they

could not afford the degree, but I am not saying that it should be free. Free is never always free,

and therefore we should have a compromise on how this solution can be solved. A college

education should not be lowered to free, but there should be a better solution than what we have

now.

A college education is now considered a luxury that can help our economy tremendously. In

the National Education Association’s article, “It’s Time to Push for Free College” by Max Page

and Dan Clawson, they explain how over time college education is now harder to attend due to

the high costs, and it is beneficial for people’s lives in the future. After stating how grades K-12

are free because it helps the individual and society, they say, “As several recent studies have

underscored, a college degree is a pathway to a more stable life, financially and otherwise, even

for students who struggled in high school ” (“It’s). In this generation, it is hard to find a good job

without a degree or with some college education. With a degree in hand, people are more likely

to get hired for higher paying jobs. The lives of people with college degrees have been more
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successful in life, but if a person cannot afford college, that means it can potentially set them up

for a struggling financial status. After making this statement, they follow it with “For example,

one study shows that new spending on public colleges, which would be sparked by an influx of

more students, produces more economic activity than a similar-sized tax cut, or similar spending

on roads and bridges” (“It’s). Since there would be more people with higher paying jobs, there

will be more people with higher taxes, and it can build more architecture. The money the

government will be spending would be a good investment in the long run because then the

people with high paying jobs will be able to afford higher taxes. At the end of the day, the

government might benefit from this dramatic change, but people might take advantage of this.

The benefits of free college can help many people’s lives, but there is always a price to pay

when it comes to free. In Trade’s article, “Should College Be Free? Pros, Cons, and

Alternatives”, they show every angle of the argument, but their cons are their strongest

argument. They first state, “Those who come from high-income families or choose to attend

private colleges or universities are generally left out of this discussion” (“Should”). The families

with a higher income would be taking advantage of this opportunity, and if the person can afford

the price of the school, then they should have a contribution to the school. It is not fair to the

school and the other students who cannot afford the tuition for the kids that can afford it to not

pay it. Taking advantage of this privilege isn’t the only problem, but they also say, “Students

might take their college education less seriously if they don’t have to pay for it” (“Should”).

Since everybody pays for their college education out of their pocket, everybody takes their

education seriously because otherwise, we feel like we are wasting our money. If our college

ends up becoming free, then people have nothing to lose when they fail their classes or even have

the drive to do well at anything. This would waste the government’s money and what they would
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be trying to accomplish. Not only would people not take their education seriously, but “...the

value of those degrees could decrease” (“Should”). The value of a degree would be considered

nothing since they would be so easy to obtain, Saying that you had earned a college degree

would not work as well for a job application if there were so many available to people.

Since there are both pros and cons to this problem, we ask ourselves “What do we do?”. In

HuffPost's article, “Solving the College Tuition Problem Is Easy,” by John Rosenstein suggests

that when the student reaches their junior or senior year, their base tuition can be lowered 25

percent. Rosenstein is a professor of media and cinema studies at the University of Illinois at

Urbana, and they have implemented this policy. With this policy, Rosenstein claims, “It doesn’t

require state legislators to reallocate any of their funds, or raise taxes, or have to find any

additional revenue” (“Solving”). This solution wouldn’t cost the government any extra money or

end up raising taxes. The one small catch he says is that the school must have a Division 1

football program or a school with a large number of students. The small colleges would probably

suffer the most with this change just because of how little students attend rather than the larger

colleges who would see less of a difference. This is the only small kink in the solution, but it

doesn’t cost anything, and it’s better than nothing.

The solution to free college will always be a complicated answer. The only way we can make

the situation better is come to a compromise everyone is happy with and still being able to get

the attendance rate of students up. Instead of complaining for free tuition, we should all be open

minded to taking small steps to lower the cost.

Claim: The claim in the paper is “College education should not be lowered to free, but there

should be a better solution than what we have now.”

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Grounds: The grounds that supports this claim is “As several recent studies have underscored, a

college degree is a pathway to a more stable life, financially and otherwise, even for students

who struggled in high school” and “Students might take their college education less seriously if

they don’t have to pay for it."

Warrant: The intended audience in this essay is people who are on the boards of colleges or

government officials. They can see the pros and cons of free college and see that there is a

solution and they have the power to do something about it.

Backing: The intended audience should agree with this because they should consider the

solution, but they should also see what it would cost to have this implemented.

Rebuttal: The counterargument for this essay is that there is no real simple solution and that not

everyone will benefit from one solution. There will always be someone who is losing or not

benefitting from the solution.

Qualifier: The thing that limits the argument is that people can complain that since it’s not being

implemented by all schools, then it shouldn’t implemented at all.

Word Count: 1192

Work Cited

Page, Max, and Dan Clawson. “It's Time to Push for Free College.” NEA,

www.nea.org/home/62740.htm. Accessed March 2019.

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“Should College Be Free? Here's What You Need to Consider.” Trade,

www.trade-schools.net/articles/should-college-be-free.asp. Accessed March 2019.

Rosenstein, Jay. “Solving the College Tuition Problem Is Easy.” The Huffington Post,

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Dec. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosenstein/solving-the-college-

tuiti_b_6823830.html. Accessed March 2019.