There has been a lot of talk recently about not just lowering the cost of tuition, but making the cost of higher education free. And I completely agree.
The argument against this is that education is not a right but a privilege. We as humans have a right to access higher education. There are children around the world who aren't even allowed to go to school and are denied the right to learn.
I have a right to higher education just as much as anyone else. Why should I not be allowed to expand my knowledge just because my wallet cannot keep up? Yes there are scholarships and yes we can apply for financial aid. But nine times out of 10 they do not even cover half the cost of tuition.
There are also kids whose schools do not provide them with the adequate resources and information in order to apply for these types of aid. What do we tell these kids? That they were not privileged enough to go to college? That's a selfish and quite ignorant mentality to believe that no one who cannot afford college is allowed to go.
These days, in order to have a good job, you need at least a Bachelor's degree. You cannot receive this degree without going to a four-year college. Not everyone is going to go to college and of course the high costs haven't discouraged everyone. But free tuition won't cause an influx of college applications either.
I mean you need to be accepted by the accredited university to even receive free tuition. And, you need the grades to receive the degree. Free tuition does not equate to a free degree. In the end it all comes down to your hard work, not the amount of money spent. Yes, there are low-cost options like public school versus private, but even the cost of a public institution has become too much. No one should be coming out of school $20,000+ in debt. It's ridiculous. If other countries can do it, why can't we?
Most people are probably reading this and wondering, "How do we find the money to pay for all these people to go?," and in all honesty I'm not sure. But I think that if we join together we can make this happen.
I have a basic human right to higher education, and I believe school should be free.
