With the upcoming election, everyone seems to be discussing the topic of "free college." It's a wonderful idea, but when you really think about it, is anything ever really free? Would the professors be volunteer teaching? Would the electricity and water bills from university buildings simply be ignored? No. Someone would have to pay for it. This is the aspect of "free college" that many forget about.
I know what you're thinking, "Other countries have free college education." Yes, other countries like Denmark and Germany do have "free college," but that doesn't mean there are no bills to be paid.
So what takes care of these expenses? Taxes, of course!
And who pays taxes? The citizens of the country.
If this idea became a reality tomorrow, current college students like myself would start having little to no debt. Awesome, right? But hang on, because at the same time that higher education became free, taxes just skyrocketed. So while you wouldn't be paying for college now, you would be paying for it the rest of your life. Even after you pay off all of your "hypothetical" college debt, you would still be paying more because you are now paying for everyone else's education.
Not to mention you're paying regardless of how the students do in college. Think about it—do you care more about something that you paid for or something that you got for free?
With a "free" college education, students wouldn't care as much about missing a couple classes or failing an exam. They would spend more time doing what they want while taking their time getting a degree. But while they are earning this degree, so are the thousands of students who are now going to college that couldn't afford it before. Thus making the value of the degree worth less. It's simple economics: When something goes up in numbers, the value goes down. That's why the United States can't merely make more money to pay off it's debt; there'd be more money in circulation therefore decreasing the value of the American dollar.
Adding on to the decreased degree value concept, students would have to spend more time in college to make more money. Basically, having a Bachelor's degree in a free college system would almost be equivalent to having a high school degree. To make more money, you would need a Master's degree (or higher), which would result in you making the same as someone who earned a Bachelor's degree when college wasn't free.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, a free college education allows students from all incomes to obtain a degree. More degrees mean more educated people in our country who could make a difference. With the hefty expense that college is now, some people just can't afford to go. The person to cure cancer could be busy working at McDonald's trying to make a living because they couldn't afford to go to college.
Because college has become so expensive, students not only have to study, volunteer, go to class, and do homework, but they also have to work. Working while in college is essential for most students because they don't want to have thousands of dollars in debt when they're older. A free college education would eliminate the debt that they would owe and give them more time to dedicate to studying and doing well in school.
To do well in school, you have to study. For good studying, colleges recommend that you study two to three hours for every one hour you spend in class. Let's say you take 16 credits and spend 25 hours in class a week. If it's recommended that you study two and a half hours for every one hour, that should be studying 62.5 hours a week. There are 168 hours in a week. Take out the 87.5 spent studying and in class, and you're left with 80.5. The average student works around 20 hours a week, so now you're left with 60.5 hours, which is around two and a half days. That should mean you have the weekends to yourself, right? But wait—there's still homework and projects to work on, and volunteering to be done, and club meetings to attend. So where's the time you spend on yourself?
According to Ally Holterman of HealthlineNews, in 2014, 86.5 percent of students felt overwhelmed by all they had to do, 82.1 percent felt exhausted (not from physical activity), and 54 percent felt severe anxiety. Is this really how our education system should make students feel? If education is the main priority, why do so many students have these negative feelings? Mental health is a huge factor in how well a student does at a university. Feeling stressed out and pressured to do well will only hurt our society in the long run. Students need time to recuperate and relax. Making the education system free would allow them to spend more time doing things that make them happy and mentally healthy.
So what do you think? Should college be free?
