Don't Kid Yourself. A College Education Is NEVER free.

A free college education that some leaders are advocating for sounds pretty sweet. No one wants to see young people succeed academically more than an educator. No  one wants to see the price of that education become more reasonable than the mother of 3 college graduates that have some big loans to pay back for that education!

But I am skeptical free tuition would work as the Democrats say it will.  

We live in a global economy, and young people have to compete with workers around the world.  It’s important  we have the best-educated workforce possible.  So we need to make an education more affordable. But there are major flaws in the current plan some are proposing.    

First and foremost, the plan is badly targeted! What about people whose families can afford to pay for their education? Why do they need free tuition? Seems like a waste of tax dollars to pay for those who can afford college and unfair to poor families who deserve the benefit of a free education and they still would not have the money to cover the cost of books, transportation and  if they are not living at home, the cost of room and board. Wouldn’t a better plan to be to apply a sliding scale to the cost of tuition depending on your income? 

Another problem with free education is it does not guarantee one will graduate. Did you know that in the US, just 20% of students who begin a 2 year program actually graduate within 3 years?  A student still needs to maintain a certain GPA to maintain free tuition.  How exactly does a free education guarantee improved graduation rates?  Community colleges have already lowered their standards to compensate for high school students who graduate ill-prepared for the rigors of college.  How will a free education improve student performance? No one can argue that the current system often fails to deliver the high-quality educational pathways that many students need to be successful in the modern workforce. It’s one thing to give everyone a free education; quite another to keep students from dropping out, or failing out, which as we all know is a problem in this country! The countries with the most success with college graduates who are highly skilled and successful in employment are not the ones with free tuition.

Which brings me to ask about minority students who are high achievers. What about high academic achieving black or Hispanic minority students? Wouldn’t it be safe to say that many smart high schoolers who come from minority-low income families opt to go to a free 2 year school instead of applying to a more rigorous,  college better suited to their abilites for financial reasons?

 Finally, if I have not convinced you there is a down side to the current proposals then answer this for me please: Who’s going to pay for free education?  In countries where higher ed is free (like in Sweden) the citizens are heavily taxed, with some of the highest tax rates in the world.  (Sweden has a 42% and Germany has a 49% tax wedge)   I don’t know about you but I feel I’m taxed enough already. I would hate to see my taxes go up even more.! And free education does not necessarily make a country globally competitive in the workplace.  Germany is already rethinking their free system and looking to the model the US has had in place for guidance.

One more thought in closing. If a 2 year education is free, how does that influence the fields of study students go into. Some degrees are more costly to earn. How is that fair and how does that influence the way  young adults decide fields of study? A  degree that is a prelude to teaching cost less than one in engineering.  Technologies for various fields are more costly. Some fields of study require more classes and more investment in time than others.  Is that viable?

College debt and accessibility to the poor or to nontraditional students is most certainly an issue, but isn’t there a better answer than the ones the Democrats are proposing?  We don’t rank globally in highly skilled workers just because college costs money. Furthermore, statistically, many graduates already have a difficult time finding jobs.  No tuition will only increase the unemployment problem.

We rank lower because our education system needs fixing, right along side the attitudes society has about education.  The old saying “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink” really holds true to why our education system is failing. You can have the best and most talented teachers in the world. But if students are not motivated to learn, if they do not understand the ethics behind hard work and fortitude in learning, then free college is nothing more than another drain on our economy! But then, there are some who don’t’ want to hear this, anytime the word free is put in front of a word, that is all the further some can see….until they find themselves with a degree and no job…or when they drop out and have wasted taxpayer money.