You must be living under a rock if you have never heard a debate regarding whether or not public colleges and universities should take a huge weight off of their students and provide them with free education. During my senior of high school, it was the season for the Presidential Primaries. I knew friends from both parties having distinct and unique views about who they had hoped would move to Pennslyvania Avenue in January of their first year of college. One trend I did realize amongst my classmates was there were a good number of Bernie Sanders supporters. Some of the Sanders supporters I knew wanted him to take the White House to ease the burden of their rising costs of college education. Coming from an affluent community, most people I know have parents who are able to provide for their students full college education. So I did not view college education costs as much of a problem when doing my research on what candidate I would support in the 2016 Presidential Primaries. However, I do know a few people who truly struggle at paying for their college education. Yes, I definitely do feel bad for those kids who struggle to just go to school because of financial difficulty. And while it is hard to blame students for wanting free college education, in my mind that might not be the greatest idea. By no means am I saying in this article that people on the lower end of the economic spectrum or people from less fortunate communities and/or families then mine do not deserve a college education. I definitely DO believe public colleges and universities should not keep raising, and if possible, lower the annual cost of college tuition so college can be more affordable for everybody. All I am saying in this article is why I believe free college education is a bad idea.
Kids might get lazier with their schoolwork:
This might be the greatest fear I would have if college was suddenly made tuition-free for everybody. Students may no longer feel a need to go to class, study, do any homework, etc. In the matter that I am not opinionated, studies even prove paying for your college education, even if it is at least a small fraction of it directly correlates to higher rates of on-time graduates. Martin Coleman explored this theory, known as sunk cost, as to whether or not paying for college is beneficial to the students (Ng). Upon the conclusion of the study, Coleman proved students would be much more likely to continue their education, while the chances of graduating when they are initially scheduled to increases should they pay something for their education (Ng). Since there is no money to be lost, I fear more students would start to feel less serious about what the primary focus of college is. Continuing their education and learning all of the necessary skills you need for employment. Students then would place a greater emphasis on partying all of the time, skipping class and sleeping in more, and just not feeling any type of motivation to get any kind of schoolwork or learning done. With nothing to lose themselves or their parents in money, some may believe it's not a big deal if they end up failing out of college. The philosophy of "if I fail out because I party every night and never go to class" could become more common; since there would be basically unlimited amounts of do-overs students could have on their college career. If college was all free, I fear some students may lose focus on learning and continuing their education. Maybe they would even lose the perspective on graduating in four years all due to no difference in financial status if they decide to never take education seriously, party and never go to class. There is now no difference if it takes them ten years to just graduate college. There is no more money to be paid for taking longer to graduate just because they don't want to finish something.
URLS:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/free-tuiti...
Works Cited:
Ng, Chenny. "Free Tuition Won't Help Students. These Investments in Community Colleges Will." The Washington Post. WP Company, 13 Nov. 2015. Web. 18 June 2017.
