Should College Be Free for All?

English Draft #3

Should College Be Free for All?

     In 2016, the average cost of college is significantly higher than the cost 30-45 years ago. Students of the 2016 generation’s parents were able to obtain a quality education, including room, board, and miscellaneous expenses without it costing them an arm and a leg. However today, a high school graduate that was an average student in school may not be able to go to college because their parents or themselves do not have the money to afford it. This is the sad reality of many young entering college students across the nation. These students who could not afford it could have gone off to medical school, law school, Hollywood, and we would never know it. Because they could not afford an education, they now are the person who stand behind the counter taking orders at your local Wendy’s.

      A person choosing to further their education should not be punished because of not receiving as many scholarships or having to work to support their family. An average family in America makes only $50,000 a year, and with many children having to support to go to college, the parents would have to start saving for their children as soon as they are born. While college is expensive, it should not be entirely free and open to any person who feels like entering. The reason why many students do not pay attention and could care less about high school is because it is free public education that they are being forced by the government to attend. College is a choice of course, but should not be altered to act like a public high school education. Some college students are paying their whole tuition, and for the ones that are not their parents or the state is. If a student begins to decline in college and not wanting to be there, that becomes a waste of their money or their parent’s money. If a student’s GPA declines because of the less interest in school and in assignments their scholarship money from the state or the school will stop coming to them, making it much more expensive to attend.

     If college was made free to all high school graduates that chose to attend, the cost of some government spending will decrease. Thousands and thousands of financial aid is given out to all schools around the country every year and this huge amount of money can be saved by making the cost of college free to all applicants. If college is made free, more students and adults would attend, creating more jobs, lower unemployment rates, and lower the cost of public assistance given to lower income families. The average income for a family in the United States would increase because more would be educated. The literacy rate and intelligence status for the United States would increase significantly because more would be receiving a college education.

     This all seems well and extraordinary. Why have we not done this before? United States does not have an excellent literacy rate, we are not even on the list of most intelligent countries. More than 5 out of 10 people in the United States are living on public assistance and welfare as I am typing this essay. But this plan lacks motivation and reality. The saying “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink” directly correlates with giving America free public college education to all. While this solution is great for the few that cannot afford to continue their education but desperately want to, it does nothing for those who do not want to learn and put in the extra work and time. The United States will still have a majority of people living on public assistance and taking advantage of the government system, because it is the easiest way out. Second, reality sets in, where would the schools get the money they need to improve and keep up with maintenance for the students that live and attend there? Would students be forced to buy textbooks from decades ago and use equipment that is not modernized because the school simply can’t afford to buy these essentials? While this is a setback, no one truly knows how far a school’s budget may be cut in order to keep a free tuition system running. Maintenance staff may have to be fired because the school cannot afford to pay them, maybe the school will only be able to pay one police officer to guard the entire campus instead of a whole team. This leads the students to have a dirty and possible dangerous environment while having classrooms and textbooks that cannot afford renovation and modernization.