should college education be compulsory essay

Should College Be Compulsory for All?

We have all wondered about going to college in high school. Globally, around 235 million people join college every year (Higher Education, 2023). The most significant step into adulthood because college allows students to be independent and make personal decisions. A college education is the stepping stone to higher education, allowing one to grow their knowledge in a specific field. A lot of students anticipate leaving college as this gives them an opportunity to leave their homes and explore life differently from their homes. Even though some students anticipate college, others feel that they do not need to go to college to pursue their dreams. However, a good college education lays a good foundation for students as they enter their adulthood. Therefore, college education should be compulsory because it facilitates skill development, gives students all-round exposure, and offers diverse learning.

Firstly, college should be compulsory for all children because it facilitates skill development. De Roux & Riehl (2022) argue that by going to college, students develop important active skills through practical learning. Colleges have qualified instructors and professors who pass knowledge down to students. Skills such as liberal arts, STEM, and culinary can be developed at colleges. Once students develop these skills, they can apply them in their future careers. There is active learning in colleges, and students are also expected to test their skills through internships. Due to this, they are put in real-life challenges where they have to practice what they have learned. Therefore, a college education is important because it lays the path toward a successful future career. A lot of professionals in the job market have a college education, and there is evidence of how they perform their skills. It is easy to differentiate someone with professional training and one without any form of training. Due to this, denying a student an opportunity to join college denies them an opportunity, which slows down their process of developing a meaningful career. Therefore, for the sake of developing skills, college should be made compulsory.

Moreover, making college compulsory allows students to have an all-rounded exposure. In college, students are exposed to a lot of new experiences that facilitate their transition into adulthood. A study conducted among college students in Canada found that most students learned how to be independent at college (Abel & Deitz, 2014). The claims are valid because college gives one an opportunity to build character and grow mentally. Outside the lecturer room, students are presented with numerous opportunities to interact with new people from different walks of life with different beliefs. In such situations, students have to learn how to accommodate others, and this helps them with dealing with people in different places, such as work environments. Also, unlike high school, where students depend on their parents and teachers for directions, college is different. In college, one must make all decisions about their daily life on their own. One learns to manage one’s finances and time. Another exposure that students can experience in college is the ability to balance their school with extra-curricular activities. In high school, students have to follow strict timetables; hence, their time is well planned. However, in college, it is different, hence the need to prioritize things that matter, which teaches students to be more intentional. College students can also pick other services apart from their classes, such as sports, which can also be lucrative. Therefore, leaving college is a good way of becoming an all-round person as one gets an opportunity to learn more.

Additionally, going to college gives students an opportunity for diverse learning. In college, the learning process is not only limited to lecturer rooms but also more classroom discussions, peer conversations, college events, and networking. In a research conducted by Trostel (2015), it is argued that colleges are effective in learning because students have numerous avenues to learn from, and this enhances the quality of knowledge they receive. College students taking engineering courses have opportunities to attend workshops and training that facilitate industrial training, which cannot be experienced if one does not go to college. Due to this, once a student graduates from college, they have a higher chance of employability as compared to students who have not attended college. A lot of companies will consider college graduates over any other group because they are better skilled and more qualified due to skill training. Also, since it is mandatory for college students to take internships, they will get employed faster as they already have work experience. Nowadays, a lot of companies give their first priority to college graduates because they are better skilled compared to non-college applicants. For this reason, they also have self-confidence when performing tasks because they are well-trained and have confidence in their skills and abilities. Therefore, making it compulsory to attend college gives students an excellent opportunity to learn.

Despite these claims, attending college should not be compulsory because it is a waste of time and money. Many students already have talents and skills, and there are many avenues from which students can learn. Hanson (2023) argues that, on average, people pay up to $100,000 for college, and this is a lot of money. Also, a lot of parents get into debt while trying to pay for college fees, leaving them with long-term debts that trickle down to their children. Also, the job market is uncertain, and this can make students frustrated and depressed when they are not placed in any jobs. Additionally, going to college can be time-wasting as it takes too long to graduate, and there are also many breaks that are unnecessary. Additionally, going to college is optional because some students already have skills and talents that they can work on and depend on for their livelihood. It is not practical for qualified athletes, musicians, or artists to go to college when they can use that time to develop their art. Also, students might have skills that they can perfect through master classes and get their way into the job market. Also, there are many avenues that people can learn from and not necessarily college; hence, there is no need to join a college. However, despite these claims, students need to join college as it is better for developing useful skills that will eventually help them get into the career they want and also a good way of developing personally.

In conclusion, college education should be compulsory because it facilitates skill development, gives a student all-round exposure, and offers diverse learning. The best advancements in society have been achieved due to the information that people get from attending college. If students want to explore other things, it is good for them, but they first need to get a college education as it helps them to adapt skills that will help to achieve others because college is not only about classroom learning. Parents should prepare their students to join colleges by teaching them the value of having an education. Most importantly, while making college compulsory, the government should offer affordable loans to students so that going to college does not feel like a bad financial decision.

Hanson, M. (2023, November 18).  The average cost of college [2023]: yearly tuition + expenses . Education Data Initiative. https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college

Trostel, P. A. (2015). It is not just the money but the benefits of college education to individuals and society.

Abel, J. R., & Deitz, R. (2014). Do the benefits of college still outweigh the costs?  Current issues in economics and finance ,  20 (3).

de Roux, N., & Riehl, E. (2022). Do college students benefit from placement into higher-achieving classes?  Journal of Public Economics ,  210 , 104669.

Higher education . (2023, October 17). UNESCO. https://www.unesco.org/en/higher-education#:~:text=There%20are%20around%20235%20million,differences%20between%20countries%20and%20regions.

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Is a College Education Worth It?

• History of College Education

The American debate over whether a  college education  is worth it began when the colonists arrived from Europe and founded “New College” (later renamed  Harvard University ) in 1636. In spring 2023, there were over 17 million college students in the United States, and over 43 million borrowers owe a collective $1.75 trillion in total student debt. 

Colonial America produced nine colleges that still operate: Harvard University (1636), the College of William & Mary (1693),  Yale University  (1701),  Princeton University  (1746),  Columbia University  (1754),  Brown University  (1764),  Dartmouth College  (1769),  Rutgers University  (1766), and the  University of Pennsylvania  (1740 or 1749). These universities were funded by the colony or England and usually catered to a specific religious denomination such as Congregational or Presbyterian (Puritan). Primary and secondary school systems were not yet established so “college students” were sometimes boys as young as fourteen or fifteen years old and were admitted to receive preparatory education with the assumption that they would matriculate to college-level courses

Pro & Con Arguments

Pro 1 Jobs increasingly require college degrees and college allows students to explore careers and earn better job placements. Only 34% of American jobs required a high school diploma or less in 2017, compared to 72% in the 1970s. During the recession between Dec. 2007 and Jan. 2010, jobs requiring college degrees grew by 187,000, while jobs requiring some college or an associate’s degree fell by 1.75 million and jobs requiring a high school degree or less fell by 5.6 million. According to researchers at Georgetown University, 99% of job growth (or 11.5 million of 11.6 million jobs) between 2010 and 2016 went to workers with associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees or graduate degrees. [ 13 ] [ 104 ] [ 105 ] Colleges offer career services, internships, job shadowing, job fairs, and volunteer opportunities in addition to a wide variety of courses that may provide a career direction. Over 80% of college students complete internships before graduation, giving them valuable employment experience before entering the job market. Colleges provide networking value. [ 27 ] Harvard Business School estimates that 65 to 85% of jobs are acquired through networking. College students can join fraternities and sororities, clubs, and teams as well as participate in a variety of social functions to meet new people and network with possible business connections. Internships offered through colleges often lead to mentors or useful contacts within a student’s preferred field. Many colleges offer social media workshops, networking tips, career-related consultation, and alumni networks. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] Meanwhile, college graduates have more and better employment opportunities. 85.2% of college freshmen said they attended college to “be able to get a better job.” The unemployment rate for Americans over 25 with a bachelor’s degree was 1.9% in Dec. 2019, compared to 2.7% for those with some college or associate’s degrees, 3.7% for high school graduates, and 5.2% for high school drop-outs. Underemployment, meaning insufficient work, is lower for college grads (6.2%) as compared to high school-only graduates (12.9%) and people without a high school diploma (18.7%). 58% of college graduates and people with some college or associate’s degrees reported being “very satisfied” with their jobs compared to 50% of high school graduates and 40% of people without a high school diploma. [ 11 ] [ 101 ] [ 106 ] [ 116 ] Thus, college graduates make more money. The average college graduate makes $570,000 more than the average high school graduate over a lifetime. Career earnings for college graduates are 71% to 136% higher than those of high school graduates. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York calculated a 14% rate of return on a bachelor’s degree, which constitutes a good investment. College graduates earn an average of $78,000, a 75% wage premium over the average $45,000 annual earnings for workers with only a high school diploma. 85% of Forbes’ America’s 400 Richest People list were college grads. [ 12 ] [ 122 ] [ 126 ] [ 128 ] And, because college graduates are more likely to have better jobs with better salaries, they are also more likely to have health insurance and retirement plans. 70% of college graduates had access to employer-provided health insurance compared to 50% of high school graduates in 2008. 70% of college graduates 25 years old and older had access to retirement plans in 2008 compared to 65% of associate’s degree holders, 55% of high school graduates, and 30% of people who did not complete high school. [ 11 ] [ 15 ] All of that means a college education has a high return as an investment. Return on investment (ROI) is calculated by dividing the gain from an investment (here the money earned as a result of a college degree) by the cost of the investment (the money spent on a college degree). A college degree has a return of 15% per year as an investment, larger than the stock market (6.8%) and housing (0.4%). Completing some college, but not earning a degree, resulted in a 9.1% return on investment. If a student spent $17,860 (the average cost of tuition and room and board in 2012-2013 for four years at a public university), that student could expect a 15% return of $2,679 each year. According to a 2011 Pew Research survey, 86% of college graduates believed college was a good personal investment. [ 8 ] [ 25 ] [ 32 ] [ 33 ] Read More

Pro 2 Because they learn interpersonal and other skills in college, graduates are more productive as members of society. Students have the opportunity to interact with other students and faculty, to join student organizations and clubs, and to take part in discussions and debates. According to Arthur Chickering’s “Seven Vectors” student development theory, “developing mature interpersonal relationships” is one of the seven stages students progress through as they attend college. Students ranked “interpersonal skills” as the most important skill used in their daily lives in a survey of 11,000 college students. Vivek Wadhwa, technology entrepreneur and scholar, states, “American children party [in college]. But you know something, by partying, they learn social skills. They learn how to interact with each other…They develop skills which make them innovative. Americans are the most innovative people in the world because of the education system.” [ 7 ] [ 16 ] [ 18 ] Students live, go to classes, and socialize with other students from around the world and learn from professors with a variety of expertise. The community of people on a college campus means students are likely to make diverse friends and business connections, and, potentially, find a spouse or mate. Access to a variety of people allows college students to learn about different cultures, religions, and personalities they may have not been exposed to in their hometowns, which broadens their knowledge and perspective. 70.7% of college freshmen in 2015 said they expected to socialize with someone of another racial or ethnic group while in college, while 59.1% said college would help improve their understanding of other countries and cultures. [ 106 ] Henry Bienan, President Emeritus of Northwestern University, argues that a college education results in “greater productivity, lower crime, better health, [and] better citizenship for more educated people.” A 2009 study found 16 to 24 year old high school drop-outs were 63% more likely to be incarcerated than those with a bachelor’s degree or higher. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from Sep. 2008 to Sep. 2009, 43% of college graduates did volunteer work compared to 19% of high school graduates and 27% of adults in general. [11] In 2005, college graduates were more likely to have donated blood in the past year (9%) than people with some college (6%), high school graduates (4%), and people who did not complete high school (2%). [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ] College graduates attract higher-paying employers to their communities. A 1% increase in college graduates in a community increases the wages of workers without a high school diploma by 1.9% and the wages of high school graduates by 1.6%. [ 21 ] Finally, people who do not go to college are more likely to be unemployed and, therefore, place undue financial strain on society, making a college degree worth it to taxpayers. Young people “not engaged in employment/education or training,” AKA NEET, are more likely to receive welfare than youth in general, they are more likely to commit crimes, and they are more likely to receive public health care, all costing the government extra money. In total, each NEET youth between the ages of 16 and 25 impose a $51,350 financial burden on society per year, and after the person is 25 he or she will impose a financial burden of $699,770. The total cost of 6.7% of the US population being NEET youth is $4.75 trillion, which is comparable to half of the US public debt. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] College graduates have lower poverty rates due to their lower unemployment rates. The 2008 poverty rate for bachelor’s degree holders was 4%, compared to a 12% poverty rate for high school graduates. In 2005, married couples with bachelor’s degrees were least likely to be below the poverty line (1.8%) compared to 2.7% of associate’s degree holders, 4.6% of couples with some college, and 7.1% of high school graduates. According to the US Census Bureau, 1% of college graduates participated in social support programs like Medicaid, National School Lunch Program, and food stamps compared to 8% of high school graduates in 2008. [ 11 ] [ 21 ] Read More

Pro 3 College graduates and their children are healthier and live longer. 83% of college graduates reported being in excellent health, while 73% of high school graduates reported the same. A University of Southern California study found that adults over 65 with college degrees spent more years with “good cognition” and fewer years suffering from dementia than adults who did not complete high school. In 2008, 20% of all adults were smokers, while 9% of college graduates were smokers. 63% of 25 to 34 year old college graduates reported exercising vigorously at least once a week compared to 37% of high school graduates. College degrees were linked to lower blood pressure in a 30-year peer-reviewed study and lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) by a Carnegie Mellon Psychology department study. In 2008, 23% of college graduates aged 35 to 44 years old were obese compared to 37% of high school graduates. College graduates, on average, live six years longer than high school graduates. [ 11 ] [ 15 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 120 ] A medical journal study from 1970 to 2009 shows college graduates had lower infant mortality rates than high school graduates. Mothers with only a high school education are 31% more likely to give birth to a low-birth-weight baby than a woman with a college degree. Children aged 2 to 5 years old in households headed by college graduates have a 6% obesity rate compared to 14% for children in households headed by high school graduates. 18% more children aged 3 to 5 years old with mothers who have a bachelor’s degree could recognize all letters compared to children of high school graduates. In 2010, 59% of children in elementary and middle school with at least one college graduate for a parent participated in after-school activities like sports, arts, and scouting compared to 27% for high school graduate parents. [ 11 ] [ 15 ] [ 21 ] Read More

Con 1 College is not a guarantee of a job or better life. Many college graduates are employed in jobs that do not require college degrees. According to the Department of Labor, as many as 17 million college graduates work in positions that do not require a college education. 1 in 3 college graduates had a job that required a high school diploma or less in 2012. More than 16,000 parking lot attendants, 83,000 bartenders, 115,000 janitors and 15% of taxi drivers have bachelor’s degrees. College graduates with jobs that do not require college degrees earn 30-40% less per week than those who work in jobs requiring college degrees. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 40 ] Too many students earning degrees has diluted the value of a bachelor’s degree. Rita McGrath, Associate Professor at Columbia Business School, stated “Having a bachelor’s used to be more rare and candidates with the degree could therefore be more choosy and were more expensive to hire. Today, that is no longer the case.” A high unemployment rate shifts the supply and demand to the employers’ favor and has made master’s degrees the “new bachelor’s degrees.” According to James Altucher, venture capitalist and finance writer, “college graduates hire only college graduates, creating a closed system that permits schools to charge exorbitant prices and forces students to take on crippling debt.” [ 68 ] [ 69 ] College degrees also do not guarantee learning or job preparation. Many students graduate from college with little understanding of math, reading, civics, or economics. In 2011, 35% of students enrolled in college reported they studied 5 hours or less per week and there was a 50% decline in the number of hours a student studied and prepared for classes compared to a few decades ago. 36% of students demonstrated no significant improvement on Collegiate Learning Assessments after 4 years of college. In 2013 56% of employers thought half or fewer of college graduates had the skills and knowledge to advance within their companies. 30% of college graduates felt college did not prepare them well for employment, specifically in terms of technical and quantitative reasoning skills. A Pew Research survey found that 57% of Americans felt higher education did not provide students with good value compared to the money spent. [ 25 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] [ 58 ] [ 59 ] [ 60 ] The market glut and lack of job preparation, means many recent college graduates are un- or underemployed. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates (4.0%) exceeded the average for all workers, including those without a degree (3.6%) in 2019. The underemployment rate was 34% for all college graduates and 41.1% for recent grads. The underemployment (insufficient work) rate for college graduates in 2015 was 6.2% overall: 5.2% for white graduates, 8.4% for Hispanic graduates, and 9.7% for black graduates. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 44% of recent college graduates were underemployed in 2012. [ 42 ] [ 101 ] [ 129 ] Under- or un-employement also translates into fewer workplace benefits. In 2013, 68.9% of employed new college graduates did not receive health insurance through their employers and, in 2011, 27.2% received retirement coverage (down from 41.5% in 2000). [ 41 ] The total cost of going to college means more than tuition, fees, and books; it also includes an opportunity cost which equals at least four years of missed wages and advancements from a full-time job–about $49,000 for a 4-year degree and $20,000 for a 2-year degree. [ 8 ] Read More

Con 2 Student loan debt is crippling for college graduates, their families, and society. Tuition has risen quicker than income, making college unaffordable for many and forcing students to take out loans. A Mar. 2017 study found that 14% of community college students were homeless and 51% had housing insecurity issues (inability to pay rent or utilities, for example), while 33% experienced food insecurity (lack of access to or ability to pay for “nutritionally adequate and safe foods”), though 58% of the students were employed and 42% received federal Pell Grants. From the 1986-1987 school year to the 2016-2017 school year, the average cost of one year of college (including room and board) increased for 4-year private schools (109.6%) and 4-year public schools (125.7%), while median family income only increased 10.0% between 1986 and 2015. From the 1976-1977 school year to the 2016-2017 school year, annual tuition rates rose for community colleges (173.1%), 4-year public colleges (271.2%), and private 4-year colleges (213.5%). [ 111 ] [ 112 ] [ 113 ] In spring 2023, there were over 17 million college students in the United States, and over 43 million borrowers owe a collective $1.75 trillion in total student debt. 45% of people with student loan debt say college was not worth it. 10% of students graduate with over $40,000 in debt and about 1% have $100,000 in debt. In Feb. 2018, undergraduate college graduates had an average of $37,172 in loan debt. According to the US Congress Joint Economic Committee, approximately 60% of college graduates have student loan debt balances equal to 60% of their annual income. Missing late for loan payments leads to lower credit scores and additional fees, worsening the debt problem. [ 36 ] [ 37 ] [ 107 ] [ 123 ] [ 133 ] [ 134 ] Further, student loan debt often forces college graduates to live with their parents and delay marriage, financial independence, and other adult milestones. 20% of millennials are homeowners, and most millennials say their student debt has delayed home ownership by seven years on average. Student loan borrowers delayed saving for retirement (41%), car purchases (40%), home purchases (29%), and marriage (15%). Fewer than 50% of women and 30% of men had passed the “transition to adulthood” milestones by age 30 (finishing school, moving out of their parents’ homes, being financially independent, marrying, and having children); in 1960, 77% of women and 65% of men had completed these milestones by age 30. [ 38 ] [ 39 ] [ 121 ] Student debt also overwhelms many seniors. Whether they co-signed for a child or grandchild’s education, or took out loans for their own educations, in 2012 there were 6.9 million student loan borrowers aged 50 and over who collectively owed $155 billion with individual average balances between $19,521 and $23,820. Of the 6.9 million borrowers, 24.7% were more than 90 days delinquent in payments. Almost 119,000 of older borrowers in default were having a portion of their Social Security payments garnished by the US government in 2012. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] Student loan debt may not be forgiven in bankruptcy and may not have the same borrower protections as other consumer debt. A study found 60% of people attempting to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy were unsuccessful. Medical, legal, credit card, loan, and even gambling debt can immediately be discharged in bankruptcy, but getting student loan debt discharged is much more difficult and rare. Private student loans often do not have the same protections as federal loans like income-based repayments, discharges upon death, or military deferments. [ 61 ] [ 70 ] [ 71 ] College graduates aren’t the only ones overwhelmed by debt. Many students do not graduate and waste their own and their government’s money. About 19% of students who enroll in college do not return for the second year. Students who drop out during the first year of college cost states $1.3 billion and the federal government $300 million per year in wasted student grant programs and government appropriations for colleges. Overall, 41% of students at four-year colleges and universities did not graduate within six years: 41% at public schools, 34% at private non-profits, and 77% at private for-profits. Students who did not graduate within six years accounted for $3.8 billion in lost income, $566 million in lost federal income taxes, and $164 million in lost state income taxes in one year. [ 50 ] [ 117 ] Finally, student debt could cause another financial crisis. As of 2012 student loan debt was over $1 trillion dollars, and more than 850,000 student loans were in default. According to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, student loans are “beginning to have the same effect” on the economy that the housing bubble and crash created. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett, PhD, agrees that the student loan debt crisis “is a vicious cycle of bad lending policies eerily similar to the causes of the subprime mortgage crisis.” On Feb. 3, 2012, an advisory council to the Federal Reserve also warned that the growth in student debt “has parallels to the housing crisis.” As of Jan. 2013, the rate of default on student loans hit 15.1%–a nearly 22% increase since 2007. [ 61 ] [ 62 ] [ 63 ] [ 64 ] [ 65 ] Read More

Con 3 Many people would be better served learning a trade or pursuing work right out of high school. Trade professions are necessary for society to function, require less than four years of training, and often pay above average wages. The high number of young adults choosing college over learning a trade has created a ‘skills gap’ in the US and there is now a shortage of ‘middle-skill’ trade workers like machinists, electricians, plumbers, and construction workers. One survey of US manufacturers found that 67% reported a “moderate to severe shortage of talent.” “Middle-skill” jobs represent half of all jobs in the US that pay middle-class wages. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “middle-skill” jobs will make up 45% of projected job openings through 2014, but as of 2012 only 25% of the workforce had the skills to fill those jobs. [ 53 ] [ 54 ] [ 55 ] Many people succeed without college degrees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 30 projected fastest growing jobs between 2010 and 2020, five do not require a high school diploma, nine require a high school diploma, four require an associate’s degree, six require a bachelor’s degree, and six require graduate degrees. The following successful people either never enrolled in college or never completed their college degrees: Richard Branson, founder and chairman of the Virgin Group; Charles Culpepper, owner and CEO of Coca Cola; Ellen Degeneres, comedian and actress; Michael Dell, founder of Dell, Inc.; Walt Disney, Disney Corporation founder; Bill Gates, Microsoft founder; Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple; Wolfgang Puck, chef and restaurateur; Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple; Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. [ 43 ] [ 44 ] Read More

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Not Every Student Should Go to College. And That’s OK

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Forty years ago 32 percent of counselors and teachers advised all students to go to college. Just 10 years later, in 1990, that percentage had doubled with roughly two-thirds of educators recommending college for all. Despite a recent surge in popularity for career and technical education, signs indicate that the college recommendation trend has increased over the last generation.

All that college-going advice may do harm in ways most adults in the lives of teenagers hadn’t realized. Research we conducted over the past several years suggests that a “college for all” message causes far too many students from all demographics to make choices that result in failure.

Instead of forcing college on students, educators would do better to encourage them to consider more than one pathway into a good life. Some pathways will include college now or later and some not. Educators also have a responsibility to help create those pathways, and students’ choices rather than their backgrounds should determine which they take.

Students who attend college for extrinsic reasons suffer poor outcomes.

In our research, we collected and analyzed more than 200 stories from students about their postsecondary education choices and surveyed over 1,000 more students to understand what caused them to enroll in college, both two- and four-year institutions, as well as some coding bootcamps and shorter graduate programs. Our participants were roughly representative of the population of students that attend college in the United States across gender, racial, and ethnic lines. Forty-six percent were first-generation college students, meaning neither of their parents had completed a bachelor’s degree. Eighteen percent had at least one child, and 60 percent lived in households with incomes that placed them in the bottom three socio-economic quintiles.

We learned that a significant number of students from all backgrounds enroll in college to do what’s expected of them or to help them get away from a bad circumstance in their lives. These students go to college not because they want the college experience or because of what college will help them obtain. In other words, they are motivated by external factors not internal goals. They choose college because it is a socially acceptable answer to what they are doing next.

Students who attend college for extrinsic reasons suffer poor outcomes. According to our research, 74 percent of those who attended college to “do what was expected of them” dropped out or transferred. Of those who went to college “to get away,” over half had left the school they were attending without a degree at the time we talked to them.

One student we talked to, who was the first in her family to attend college, chose college to get away from a bad relationship with her stepdad. She enrolled in a college three hours away from home—even though it didn’t have the courses of study in which she was interested. Once there, she took a heavier-than-usual course load first semester, partied hard, and found herself on academic probation.

Things improved a little second semester, but the improvement was not enough to justify the money she was spending on tuition, she thought. She still struggled with time management and a nagging sense that she didn’t know why she was enrolled. So with $40,000 in federal and private student loans outstanding, she dropped out, returned home, mended things with her family, and started to find jobs to help pay off the debt.

Too many students go to college not knowing what they want to get out of it or how to make it work for them. Committing to a four-year school and taking on lots of debt when they lack passion and focus for the endeavor is risky, particularly given the grim college completion and student debt statistics.

Over 40 percent of first-time, full-time students who started college in the fall of 2012 failed to graduate from four-year programs within six years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Non-completers not only lose out on the benefits of a college degree, but also face increased debt without increased earnings. Non-completers have a three-fold higher risk of default than completers, according to the Center for American Progress.

Instead of adding to the pressure around college, which parents often fuel, high school educators should be the first line of defense for students who might benefit more from another path. Yes, educators must avoid the low expectations that direct students away from college because of their family’s income, their race, or their ethnicity. Instead, they should encourage all students to reflect on their goals and explore more than one pathway to purpose and success.

One way to help is through courses that are now emerging to give students structured opportunities to discover what drives them. But high schools should go further. They must counter the narrowing of the curriculum over the last couple decades caused by an overemphasis on test results and the decrease in career and technical education pathways in many schools. Extracurricular activities, experiential learning, and opportunities to build relationships with adults outside of school through real-world projects can help students discover their strengths and interests. Rather than marginalize these opportunities, schools should integrate them into every student’s program.

Our research in no way implies that college is a one-time decision. Just because college isn’t the right step now

for a student doesn’t mean it will never be the right step. College and, more to the point, education can help bring a lifetime of happiness, as studies have documented . But that education has to be at the right time and in the right circumstance.

If students aren’t yet ready, then taking a gap year can be a smart move. The stereotype of rich kids gallivanting around Europe is outmoded. An increasing number of programs offer gap-year experiences with financial aid so that all students can partake of them. Counselors and teachers should help students explore these opportunities, which are filled with immersive activities that help students learn about themselves and, in many cases, earn money through holding a series of jobs. This can make a gap year considerably more affordable than college.

Far better than a monolithic college-for-all vision is for individuals to know where they are in their lives, what they want, and how to articulate it. Only then can we ensure that education delivers on its promise of helping people build their passions, fulfill their human potential, and live a lifetime of productive struggle and happiness.

A version of this article appeared in the March 11, 2020 edition of Education Week as The Danger of ‘College for All’

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — College Education — Should Everyone Go to College

Should Everyone Go to College

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Published: Sep 7, 2023

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Benefits of a college education, challenges of a college education, alternatives to college education.

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Should College Be Free? The Pros and Cons

Types of Publicly Funded College Tuition Programs

Pros: why college should be free, cons: why college should not be free, what the free college debate means for students, how to cut your college costs now, frequently asked questions (faqs).

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Americans have been debating the wisdom of free college for decades, and more than 30 states now offer some type of free college program. But it wasn't until 2021 that a nationwide free college program came close to becoming reality, re-energizing a longstanding debate over whether or not free college is a good idea. 

And despite a setback for the free-college advocates, the idea is still in play. The Biden administration's free community college proposal was scrapped from the American Families Plan . But close observers say that similar proposals promoting free community college have drawn solid bipartisan support in the past. "Community colleges are one of the relatively few areas where there's support from both Republicans and Democrats," said Tulane economics professor Douglas N. Harris, who has previously consulted with the Biden administration on free college, in an interview with The Balance. 

To get a sense of the various arguments for and against free college, as well as the potential impacts on U.S. students and taxpayers, The Balance combed through studies investigating the design and implementation of publicly funded free tuition programs and spoke with several higher education policy experts. Here's what we learned about the current debate over free college in the U.S.—and more about how you can cut your college costs or even get free tuition through existing programs.

Key Takeaways

• Research shows free tuition programs encourage more students to attend college and increase graduation rates, which creates a better-educated workforce and higher-earning consumers who can help boost the economy. 
• Some programs are criticized for not paying students’ non-tuition expenses, not benefiting students who need assistance most, or steering students toward community college instead of four-year programs.  
• If you want to find out about free programs in your area, the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education has a searchable database. You’ll find the link further down in this article. 

Before diving into the weeds of the free college debate, it's important to note that not all free college programs are alike. Most publicly funded tuition assistance programs are restricted to the first two years of study, typically at community colleges. Free college programs also vary widely in the ways they’re designed, funded, and structured:

• Last-dollar tuition-free programs : These programs cover any remaining tuition after a student has used up other financial aid , such as Pell Grants. Most state-run free college programs fall into this category. However, these programs don’t typically help with room and board or other expenses.
• First-dollar tuition-free programs : These programs pay for students' tuition upfront, although they’re much rarer than last-dollar programs. Any remaining financial aid that a student receives can then be applied to other expenses, such as books and fees. The California College Promise Grant is a first-dollar program because it waives enrollment fees for eligible students.
• Debt-free programs : These programs pay for all of a student's college expenses , including room and board, guaranteeing that they can graduate debt-free. But they’re also much less common, likely due to their expense.  

Proponents often argue that publicly funded college tuition programs eventually pay for themselves, in part by giving students the tools they need to find better jobs and earn higher incomes than they would with a high school education. The anticipated economic impact, they suggest, should help ease concerns about the costs of public financing education. Here’s a closer look at the arguments for free college programs.

A More Educated Workforce Benefits the Economy

Morley Winograd, President of the Campaign for Free College Tuition, points to the economic and tax benefits that result from the higher wages of college grads. "For government, it means more revenue," said Winograd in an interview with The Balance—the more a person earns, the more they will likely pay in taxes . In addition, "the country's economy gets better because the more skilled the workforce this country has, the better [it’s] able to compete globally." Similarly, local economies benefit from a more highly educated, better-paid workforce because higher earners have more to spend. "That's how the economy grows," Winograd explained, “by increasing disposable income."

According to Harris, the return on a government’s investment in free college can be substantial. "The additional finding of our analysis was that these things seem to consistently pass a cost-benefit analysis," he said. "The benefits seem to be at least double the cost in the long run when we look at the increased college attainment and the earnings that go along with that, relative to the cost and the additional funding and resources that go into them." 

Free College Programs Encourage More Students to Attend

Convincing students from underprivileged backgrounds to take a chance on college can be a challenge, particularly when students are worried about overextending themselves financially. But free college programs tend to have more success in persuading students to consider going, said Winograd, in part because they address students' fears that they can't afford higher education . "People who wouldn't otherwise think that they could go to college, or who think the reason they can't is [that] it's too expensive, [will] stop, pay attention, listen, decide it's an opportunity they want to take advantage of, and enroll," he said.

According to Harris, students also appear to like the certainty and simplicity of the free college message. "They didn't want to have to worry that next year they were not going to have enough money to pay their tuition bill," he said. "They don't know what their finances are going to look like a few months down the road, let alone next year, and it takes a while to get a degree. So that matters." 

Free college programs can also help send "a clear and tangible message" to students and their families that a college education is attainable for them, said Michelle Dimino, an Education Director with Third Way. This kind of messaging is especially important to first-generation and low-income students, she said. 

Free College Increases Graduation Rates and Financial Security

Free tuition programs appear to improve students’ chances of completing college. For example, Harris noted that his research found a meaningful link between free college tuition and higher graduation rates. "What we found is that it did increase college graduation at the two-year college level, so more students graduated than otherwise would have." 

Free college tuition programs also give people a better shot at living a richer, more comfortable life, say advocates. "It's almost an economic necessity to have some college education," noted Winograd. Similar to the way a high school diploma was viewed as crucial in the 20th century, employees are now learning that they need at least two years of college to compete in a global, information-driven economy. "Free community college is a way of making that happen quickly, effectively, and essentially," he explained. 

Free community college isn’t a universally popular idea. While many critics point to the potential costs of funding such programs, others identify issues with the effectiveness and fairness of current attempts to cover students’ college tuition. Here’s a closer look at the concerns about free college programs.

It Would Be Too Expensive

The idea of free community college has come under particular fire from critics who worry about the cost of social spending. Since community colleges aren't nearly as expensive as four-year colleges—often costing thousands of dollars a year—critics argue that individuals can often cover their costs using other forms of financial aid . But, they point out, community college costs would quickly add up when paid for in bulk through a free college program: Biden’s proposed free college plan would have cost $49.6 billion in its first year, according to an analysis from Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Some opponents argue that the funds could be put to better use in other ways, particularly by helping students complete their degrees.

Free College Isn't Really Free

One of the most consistent concerns that people have voiced about free college programs is that they don’t go far enough. Even if a program offers free tuition, students will need to find a way to pay for other college-related expenses , such as books, room and board, transportation, high-speed internet, and, potentially, child care. "Messaging is such a key part of this," said Dimino. Students "may apply or enroll in college, understanding it's going to be free, but then face other unexpected charges along the way." 

It's important for policymakers to consider these factors when designing future free college programs. Otherwise, Dimino and other observers fear that students could potentially wind up worse off if they enroll and invest in attending college and then are forced to drop out due to financial pressures. 

Free College Programs Don’t Help the Students Who Need Them Most

Critics point out that many free college programs are limited by a variety of quirks and restrictions, which can unintentionally shut out deserving students or reward wealthier ones. Most state-funded free college programs are last-dollar programs, which don’t kick in until students have applied financial aid to their tuition. That means these programs offer less support to low-income students who qualify for need-based aid—and more support for higher-income students who don’t.

Community College May Not Be the Best Path for All Students

Some critics also worry that all students will be encouraged to attend community college when some would have been better off at a four-year institution. Four-year colleges tend to have more resources than community colleges and can therefore offer more support to high-need students. 

In addition, some research has shown that students at community colleges are less likely to be academically successful than students at four-year colleges, said Dimino. "Statistically, the data show that there are poorer outcomes for students at community colleges […] such as lower graduation rates and sometimes low transfer rates from two- to four-year schools." 

With Congress focused on other priorities, a nationwide free college program is unlikely to happen anytime soon. However, some states and municipalities offer free tuition programs, so students may be able to access some form of free college, depending on where they live. A good resource is the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education’s searchable database of Promise Programs , which lists more than 100 free community college programs, though the majority are limited to California residents.

In the meantime, school leaders and policymakers may shift their focus to other access and equity interventions for low-income students. For example, higher education experts Eileen Strempel and Stephen Handel published a book in 2021 titled "Beyond Free College: Making Higher Education Work for 21st Century Students." The book argues that policymakers should focus more strongly on college completion, not just college access. "There hasn't been enough laser-focus on how we actually get people to complete their degrees," noted Strempel in an interview with The Balance. 

Rather than just improving access for low-income college students, Strempel and Handel argue that decision-makers should instead look more closely at the social and economic issues that affect students , such as food and housing insecurity, child care, transportation, and personal technology. For example, "If you don't have a computer, you don't have access to your education anymore," said Strempel. "It's like today's pencil."

Saving money on college costs can be challenging, but you can take steps to reduce your cost of living. For example, if you're interested in a college but haven't yet enrolled, pay close attention to where it's located and how much residents typically pay for major expenses, such as housing, utilities, and food. If the college is located in a high-cost area, it could be tough to justify the living expenses you'll incur. Similarly, if you plan to commute, take the time to check gas or public transportation prices and calculate how much you'll likely have to spend per month to go to and from campus several times a week. 

Now that more colleges offer classes online, it may also be worth looking at lower-cost programs in areas that are farther from where you live, particularly if they allow you to graduate without setting foot on campus. Also, check out state and federal financial aid programs that can help you slim down your expenses, or, in some cases, pay for them completely. Finally, look into need-based and merit-based grants and scholarships that can help you cover even more of your expenses. Also, consider applying to no-loan colleges , which promise to help students graduate without going into debt.

Should community college be free?

It’s a big question with varying viewpoints. Supporters of free community college cite the economic contributions of a more educated workforce and the individual benefit of financial security, while critics caution against the potential expense and the inefficiency of last-dollar free college programs. 

What states offer free college?

More than 30 states offer some type of tuition-free college program, including Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington State. The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education lists over 100 last-dollar community college programs and 16 first-dollar community college programs, though the majority are limited to California residents.

Is there a free college?

There is no such thing as a truly free college education. But some colleges offer free tuition programs for students, and more than 30 states offer some type of tuition-free college program. In addition, students may also want to check out employer-based programs. A number of big employers now offer to pay for their employees' college tuition . Finally, some students may qualify for enough financial aid or scholarships to cover most of their college costs.

Scholarships360. " Which States Offer Tuition-Free Community College? "

The White House. “ Build Back Better Framework ,” see “Bringing Down Costs, Reducing Inflationary Pressures, and Strengthening the Middle Class.”

The White House. “ Fact Sheet: How the Build Back Better Plan Will Create a Better Future for Young Americans ,” see “Education and Workforce Opportunities.”

Coast Community College District. “ California College Promise Grant .”

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. “ The Dollars and Cents of Free College ,” see “Biden’s Free College Plan Would Pay for Itself Within 10 Years.”

Third Way. “ Why Free College Could Increase Inequality .”

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. “ The Dollars and Cents of Free College ,” see “Free-College Programs Have Different Effects on Race and Class Equity.”

University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. “ College Promise Programs: A Comprehensive Catalog of College Promise Programs in the United States .”

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• 1. Changes in the American workplace
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An extensive body of research has argued that obtaining a college diploma is a good deal for graduates on almost any measure – from higher earnings to lower unemployment rates. By the same token, those without a college degree can find their upward mobility in the job market limited by a lack of educational credentials: This survey finds that one-third of Americans who lack a four-year college degree report that they have declined to apply for a job they felt they were qualified for, because that job required a bachelor’s degree.

But despite the potential benefits and opportunities available to college graduates – and the potential challenges faced by those who lack a college diploma – Americans have somewhat mixed attitudes about the effectiveness of traditional four-year colleges and other higher education institutions. On a personal level, many college graduates describe their own educational experience as having a generally positive impact on their personal and professional development. Roughly six-in-ten (62%) college graduates with two- or four-year degrees think their degree was very useful for helping them grow personally and intellectually, while roughly half think it was very useful for opening up job opportunities (53%) or for providing them with useful job-related skills and knowledge (49%).

Yet even as many college graduates view their own educational experience in positive terms, the public as a whole – including a substantial share of college graduates – expresses reservations about the extent to which various higher education institutions prepare students for the workforce more generally. Just 16% of Americans think that a four-year degree prepares students very well for a well-paying job in today’s economy, and 51% say this type of degree prepares students “somewhat well” for the workplace. Some 12% think that a two-year associate degree prepares students very well (46% say somewhat well), and 26% feel that certification programs in a professional, technical, or vocational field prepare students very well (52% say somewhat well).

The purpose of college: Americans view workforce-relevant skills and knowledge as more important than personal and intellectual growth

Americans’ views of what a college education should be tend to prioritize specific, workplace-related skills and knowledge rather than general intellectual development and personal growth. Half of Americans say that the main purpose of college should be to teach specific skills and knowledge that can be used in the workplace, while 35% think its main purpose should be to help students grow and develop personally and intellectually and 13% volunteer that these objectives are equally important. The public’s views on this issue have shifted slightly in favor of skills development since the last time Pew Research Center asked this question in 2011. At that point, 47% said main purpose of college should be to teach specific skills and knowledge and 39% said it should be to promote personal and intellectual growth.

Americans who have engaged in additional schooling beyond a bachelor’s degree are especially likely to say that the main purpose of college should be personal and intellectual growth, rather than the acquisition of specific skills and knowledge. Some 47% of those with a postgraduate or professional degree think the main purpose of college should be personal and intellectual growth, while 35% think it should be teaching workplace-relevant skills.

In contrast, those with limited college experience (or no college experience at all) are more likely to prioritize the development of specific skills over general intellectual improvement. For instance, 56% of Americans with a high school diploma or less say college should be primarily a place to develop specific work-oriented knowledge and skills, while just 31% see it primarily as a place for personal and intellectual growth.

There is also a partisan element to these views, with Republicans and Democrats expressing highly differing opinions on the purpose of college. Democrats (including Democratic-leaning independents) are about evenly split on which of these objectives is more important: 42% say colleges should prioritize personal and intellectual growth, while 43% say they should prioritize the development of workforce-relevant skills. But among Republicans and Republican leaners, 58% say that the main purpose of college should be teach specific skills – while just 28% feel that the main purpose should be general personal and intellectual growth.

These partisan differences hold true even after accounting for differences in educational attainment. Democrats and Democratic leaners with high levels of educational attainment are more likely to prioritize personal and intellectual growth relative to Democrats and Democratic leaners with lower levels of educational attainment.

But Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents at all educational levels are more likely than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents with similar levels of education to believe that personal and intellectual growth should be the main purpose of college.

Along with Democrats and those who have progressed beyond a bachelor’s degree, younger adults (those ages 18 to 29) are more likely than older adults to feel that personal and intellectual growth should be the primary purpose of college: some 43% of 18- to 29-year olds feel this way, compared with roughly one-third of those in older age groups.

In addition, Americans who themselves work in the education field tend to place a greater emphasis on personal and intellectual growth as the primary purpose of college: 46% believe that this should be the main purpose of a college degree, while 35% believe that college should mainly be a place to develop specific skills and knowledge (19% of those who work in the education industry consider them equally important).

Most college graduates regard their college experience as very useful for intellectual growth; views are more mixed when it comes to job opportunities and marketable skills

When asked to assess certain aspects of their own educational experience, about six-in-ten (62%) college graduates (including those who graduated from a two-year degree program) feel that their time in college was very useful in helping them grow personally and intellectually. About half say their college experience was very useful in helping them access job opportunities (53%) or in helping them develop skills and knowledge they could use in the workplace (49%).

The further people have progressed in their college career, the more likely they are to consider their experience very useful. Those with a postgraduate or professional degree are more likely to say that their college education was very useful in each of these respects compared with four-year degree holders, who are in turn more likely than those with a two-year associate degree to say that their education was very useful across each of these measures. For example, while two-thirds of those with a postgraduate or professional degree say their college education was very useful in opening doors to job opportunities, 56% of those with a four-year degree, and an even smaller share (40%) among those with a two-year degree, say the same. And while 57% of those with more than a bachelor’s degree say college was very useful in helping them develop marketable skills, about half or a smaller share among those with a four- or two-year degree hold this view (49% and 43%, respectively).

When it comes to helping them grow professionally and intellectually, majorities of those with a postgraduate or professional degree (77%) and those with a bachelor’s degree (64%) say college was very useful, compared with 46% of those with a two-year college degree.

Americans have mixed views about the extent to which college prepares students for a well-paying job in today’s economy

When asked a broader set of questions about the impact of college more generally, the public expresses somewhat mixed views about the extent to which a college education prepares students for success in the workforce.

Two-thirds of Americans (67%) think that a traditional four-year degree prepares students for a well-paying job in today’s economy at least somewhat well, but just 16% think it prepares them very well, and 29% think it does not prepare them well. A somewhat smaller share of Americans (58%) think that a two-year community college degree prepares students for a well-paying job either very (12%) or somewhat (46%) well, while 38% think that these programs do not prepare students well.

Interestingly, Americans with a four-year college degree are generally no more positive – or negative – than those with less education about the relationship between a four-year degree and a well-paying job: 13% of those with a bachelor’s degree or more education say a four-year degree prepares people very well, as do 11% of those with a two-year associate degree, 12% of those with some college experience but no degree, and 17% of those with a high school diploma. Among those who did not complete high school, however, 40% believe that a four-year college degree does a very good job of preparing people for a well-paying job.

When it comes to assessments of a two-year college degree, about one-in-six (16%) Americans who hold this type of degree say it prepares workers very well for a well-paying job. This is considerably larger than the share of those with at least a bachelor’s degree (7%) who say a two-year degree prepares people very well, but not necessarily more positive than the views of those with less education.

Blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to say four- and two-year degrees prepare people very well for a job in today’s economy. For example, about three-in-ten (29%) Hispanics and about a quarter (24%) of blacks say this about a four-year degree, compared with 12% of whites. And while about one-in-five blacks and Hispanics (18% each) say a two-year associate degree prepares people very well, one-in-ten whites share this view.

These findings are consistent with previous Pew Research Center surveys that found that black and Latino parents view college as more essential for their children’s success than do white parents.

A substantially larger share of the public has positive attitudes towards certification programs in a professional, technical or vocational field in the context of workforce development. Some 78% of Americans think that these programs prepare students well for a job in today’s economy, including 26% who think they prepare students very well. Just roughly one-in-five (19%) think they do not prepare students well. It is important to note, however, that respondents were not asked about the effectiveness of certification programs instead of a college education.

Positive assessments of certificate programs as a way to prepare workers for jobs in today’s economy are particularly widespread among those who did not complete high school; 44% in this group say these types of programs prepare people very well, compared with about a quarter (27%) of those with a high school diploma and a similar share of those with some college, but no degree (22%), a two-year degree (28%), or a four-year degree or more education (22%). Certificate programs are also particularly well-regarded among Hispanics, 39% of whom say they prepare people very well for a good job in today’s economy. About a quarter of blacks (25%) and whites (23%) say the same.

One-third of Americans without a bachelor’s degree have elected to not apply for a job they felt they were qualified for because it required a four-year degree

Recent research has argued that there is a “ credentials gap ” in today’s workforce, as employers increasingly require a bachelor’s degree for positions that did not demand this level of schooling in the past. And the survey finds that 33% of Americans who do not have a four-year college degree report that they have declined to apply for a job they felt they were qualified for, because it required a bachelor’s degree.

Americans who have engaged in some type of formal education beyond high school (short of obtaining a bachelor’s degree) are particularly likely to believe they’ve been adversely affected by credentialing requirements as they work their way up the educational ladder. Some 25% of Americans with a high school diploma or less and no additional schooling beyond that have not applied for a job because of a bachelor’s degree requirement. But that figure rises to 34% among those with a high school diploma plus additional vocational schooling, to 38% among those with some college experience but no degree, and to 44% among those with a two-year associate degree. Put somewhat differently, as people receive additional formal education without actually obtaining a bachelor’s degree, they may develop relevant skills without the on-paper credentials to match.

In addition, adults younger than 50 are much more likely than older adults to have refrained from applying to a job they felt they were qualified for because they didn’t meet the formal educational requirements. About four-in-ten non-college graduates ages 18 to 29 (41%) and ages 30 to 49 (44%) say this has happened, compared with 31% of those ages 50 to 64 and just 12% of those 65 and older.

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Education Should Be Free for Everyone

In my argumentative essay, I discuss the ethical side of having a free education system. I discuss the positive sides and the negative sides of free education, and I focus mostly on having free higher education since we already have free education up to High School graduation levels. I conclude with a discussion about the actions of colleges and Universities and how they would inevitably make the ethical discussion mute from a student’s perceptive since the burden of ethics would fall upon higher education institutions in a world where they are given plenty of incentive to act immorally.

From an ethical perspective, it seems unfair that people who have less money are going to miss more opportunities. Ethically, opportunities should be open for all people. Though it may be true that the availability of an opportunity shouldn’t guarantee that a person receives that opportunity, the opportunity shouldn’t be ruled out. For example, all people should be able to become qualified to work in air traffic control, and even though a blind person is hardly guaranteed such a job position, the opportunity shouldn’t be ruled out as a default. Free education, especially free higher education, may open up a series of opportunities that some people would otherwise be unable to enjoy, and even if those opportunities are not guaranteed, they shouldn’t be ruled out by default, which is what happens when some people cannot use higher education for financial reasons. (Flood, 2014)

Some people are going to use free education as a way of getting out of work and as a way of doing nothing with their lives. Students up to the final year in High School are unable to get full-time jobs and live independently on their wages, which is why their education should be free. However, when a person is able to get a full-time job and live independently, he or she may get out of working by living on the education system. Even if the qualifications are free and not the living expenses, a person may still claim a slew of benefits and receive no incentive to ever get a job because he or she remains in the education system for years and years. (Gritz, 2010)

If all forms of education are free for students, then it becomes very easy for a person to waste his or her life on meaningless education. The decision to get into thousands upon thousands of dollars of debt in order to pursue a career should be agonizing and very difficult so as to make the student think long and hard about the decision. If all education is free, then less thought is required, and students may waste years of their life studying for qualifications that they do not need or even want. (Kamenetz, 2016)

If a student is genuinely looking for higher education and is not looking for a reason to do nothing and mess around for years by exploiting other people’s tax money through free education, then such a person may enjoy a longer education process. For example, a student taking a series of law qualifications is going to need five to seven years of education, which is also very expensive. If the cost of the qualification were removed, such a person may be able to take up jobs on an intermittent basis, stretch out his or her qualification duration, and take longer to gain said qualifications in a more comfortable manner. Instead of having to spend years as a low-income student while building debt, such a student may spend longer on a qualification and work while studying so that he or she may enjoy a more comfortable education experience. Plus, all of this would occur who the pressure of accumulating student debt. (The Leadership Institute, 2018)

Despite the ethical upsides and downsides that come with free education for students, it is sadly the Universities and colleges that will spoil it. These days, student loans are very easy to get, and this has resulted in colleges and Universities putting their prices up to almost scandalous levels, and it has resulted in colleges and Universities creating courses that add no real value for people wishing to join the workforce. If colleges and Universities were being fully funded by tax dollars, they would encourage students to join with a whole host of silly and frivolous programs because the quality of education would no longer matter or apply. (Fox, 2006).

Bibliography

Flood, Alison. “US students request ‘trigger warnings’ on literature.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 May 2014, www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/19/us-students-request-trigger-warnings-in-literature.

Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/story/2006/09/01/why-does-college-cost-so-much-and-is-it-worth-it.html 2006

Gritz, Jennie Rothenberg. “What’s Wrong with the American University System.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 28 July 2010, www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/07/whats-wrong-with-the-american-university-system/60458/.

Kamenetz, Anya. “How College Aid Is Like A Bad Coupon.” NPR, NPR, 17 Sept. 2016, www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/09/17/492973995/how-college-aid-is-like-a-bad-coupon.

The Leadership Institute. “Why are colleges so liberal?” Leadership Institute, www.leadershipinstitute.org/crazycolleges/. 2018

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College Is The Holy Grail, But Should Everyone Go?

Subscribe to the center for economic security and opportunity newsletter, isabel v. sawhill isabel v. sawhill senior fellow emeritus - economic studies , center for economic security and opportunity.

May 8, 2013

The new Holy Grail in American life appears to be a four-year college degree. Almost all high school students and their parents aspire to go to college, and high school graduates are enrolling in much higher numbers than in the past. The problem is that too few of them are graduating. Dropout rates from four-year schools are over 40 percent and from community colleges they are closer to 70 percent. The need for remedial courses to compensate for what kids are not learning in high school is distressingly high and not all that effective.

For those who actually graduate, a college degree can pay off handsomely in the labor market. After adjusting for other confounding variables, the extra lifetime income associated with a bachelor’s degree is $570,000, and the rate of return is high – somewhere around 10 percent.  However, those figures are averages. The benefits of a college degree vary widely depending on the quality of the school and a student’s choice of major. Not all college degrees are created equal: there is a huge variation in the return to a bachelor’s degree, depending on choice of major and occupation; school type and selectivity level; as well as the likelihood of graduating. The details are spelled out in a newly released Brookings brief that notes that 170 of 853 unique schools, or 1 in 5 of those schools analyzed, have negative returns on investment .

With college costs at record highs, many students are incurring debilitating debt. Student loans are the second largest item on household balance sheets after mortgage debt.  It may actually be irresponsible to tell young people that college is always the best choice, and that they will be able to find jobs that make these debt levels affordable. If a student is able to get into a school with high graduation rates, generous financial aid, and he or she chooses a major with high expected earnings – such as engineering or science — they can greatly improve their lifetime prospects. But an expensive degree at a non-selective four-year school with a low graduation rate may not be a wise decision.

How can we help students make smarter investments in their postsecondary years? First, we need to make sure they have better information on financial aid, graduation rates, earnings levels, and other relevant information about the institutions they are considering. Some of this data exists, such as the PayScale college rankings and the Obama Administration’s College Scorecard, but should be more broadly publicized. Second, we should encourage more students to consider less traditional postsecondary alternatives such as job training programs, apprenticeships, vocational certificates, and associate degrees that train students in skills that are in high demand by employers. Finally, financial aid should be tied to academic performance: research suggests that students with financial aid that has strings attached are more likely to complete their degrees.

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Diverse Aspirations and Learning Incentives

Financial Considerations and Inequality

Balancing workforce dynamics and job requirements, efficiency, merit, and the value of education, conclusion: navigating educational diversity.

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Should College Be Free?

Do you think other states should follow New Mexico in making higher education tuition-free? What would that mean for society?

By Callie Holtermann

Do you plan to go to college? Are you or your family concerned about paying for it?

In the past three decades, the average cost of attending a private college in the United States has tripled — landing at around $50,000 per year.

Should college cost this much? How would our society change if college cost nothing at all?

Amid declines in enrollment , states including Texas and Michigan are experimenting with plans to reduce or eliminate tuition for many students. Starting in July, New Mexico will go a step further: It will completely cover tuition for all state residents who attend public colleges and universities.

In “ What if College Were Free? This State Is Trying to Find Out. ,” Simon Romero writes about the state’s plan, which received bipartisan approval:

As universities across the United States face steep enrollment declines , New Mexico’s government is embarking on a pioneering experiment to fight that trend: tuition-free higher education for all state residents. After President Biden’s plan for universal free community college failed to gain traction in Congress, New Mexico, one of the nation’s poorest states, has emerged with perhaps the most ambitious plans as states scramble to come up with their own initiatives. A new state law approved in a rare show of bipartisanship allocates almost 1 percent of the state’s budget toward covering tuition and fees at public colleges and universities, community colleges and tribal colleges. All state residents from new high school graduates to adults enrolling part-time will be eligible regardless of family income. The program is also open to immigrants regardless of their immigration status. Some legislators and other critics question whether there should have been income caps, and whether the state, newly flush with oil and gas revenue, can secure long-term funding to support the program beyond its first year. The legislation, which seeks to treat college as a public resource similar to primary and secondary education, takes effect in July.

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Mandatory Attendance in Education Essay

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Introduction

Humiliation, counterargument and rebuttal, works cited.

Student performance does not depend on attendance as much as it depends on the effort put in study. Bonesrønning and Opstad propose the concept of ”quantity of study” (46) and suggest that the amount of time and effort invested in learning is a predictor of the successfulness of learning.

However, what should be understood is whether attendance plays a role in this quantity of study. Based on this understanding, colleges can be recommended to either introduce mandatory attendance or refrain from such a policy. It will be argued that mandatory attendance is not a potentially effective policy because it routinizes education and humiliates students; further, counterarguments will be refuted.

First of all, a mandatory attendance policy turns college education into a routine. Multiple studies suggest that attendance positively correlates with student achievement (Al-Shammari 1). However, such studies did not focus on mandatory attendance.

Frequent attendance may indicate that a student is interested in the subject and willing to work hard to learn, but if a student is forced to attend, it will not necessarily shape such willingness. It is more likely that the mandatory attendance policy will be counterproductive: students will perceive studying as an obligation instead of perceiving it as an opportunity to learn and grow, both personally and professionally. If one is made to do something, he or she is less likely to develop genuine interest in it than in case doing it would be the person’s free choice.

Second, mandatory attendance requirements can be perceived by students as humiliating. Starting college is a transitional period; at this time, many students start living independently, and for them, college is the time when they start living like adults. Making free, independent choices is part of the adult life, but a mandatory attendance policy is something that undermines this independence.

When college students are told that they have to attend classes, and their final grades will depend on it, they are likely to feel like they are being treated like kids and not like adults (O’Connell 43). This perception cannot positively affect the students’ willingness to learn. Instead, they should feel that they can build their learning process according to their needs and not according to mandatory policies.

A popular argument in favor of mandatory attendance policies is that they enhance student discipline (Cheruvalath 153). If students are required to attend classes, they are more likely to think through their schedules, and if they commit to well-structured schedules, it is easier for them to find time to do their homework properly. However, an important point is overlooked in this argument: attendance is not equal to participation or engagement. Some academic studies have disconfirmed that attendance is linked to performance (Eisen et al. 807). Even if a student finds time to attend all the classes or a certain course, it does not necessarily mean that the student will perform well at the course.

A mandatory attendance policy should not be implemented because it turns the process of learning into a routine and makes students feel like they are not being treated as adults. Both these effects decrease students’ interest in education and can negatively affect academic performance. Although it can be argued that mandatory attendance makes a student more disciplined, being disciplined is not directly linked to student achievement. According to Macfarlane, it is more effective to develop a culture of learning than to introduce mandatory attendance policies (370). Colleges should not assume that a mandatory attendance policy alone will improve student performance or the quality of learning.

Al-Shammari, Zaid N. “Enhancing Higher Education Student Attendance through Classroom Management.” Cogent Education , vol. 3, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-11.

Bonesrønning, Hans, and Leiv Opstad. “How Much Is Students’ College Performance Affected by Quantity of Study?” International Review of Economics Education , vol. 11, no. 2, 2012, pp. 46-63.

Cheruvalath, Reena. “Does Attending Classes Help Foster Human Values in College Students?” Active Learning in Higher Education , vol. 18, no, 2, 2017, pp. 143-155.

Eisen, Daniel B., et al. “Does Class Attendance Matter? Results from a Second-Year Medical School Dermatology Cohort Study.” International Journal of Dermatology , vol. 54, no. 7, 2015, pp. 807-816.

Macfarlane, Bruce. “The Surveillance of Learning: A Critical Analysis of University Attendance Policies.” Higher Education Quarterly , vol. 67, no. 4, 2013, pp. 358-373.

O’Connell, Claire Babcock. “Attendance Policies: Do They Help or Hinder Adult Learning?” The Journal of Physician Assistant Education , vol. 23, no. 4, 2012, pp. 43-46.

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College & Careers

Tuition-free college is critical to our economy

Morley Winograd and Max Lubin

November 2, 2020, 13 comments.

To rebuild America’s economy in a way that offers everyone an equal chance to get ahead, federal support for free college tuition should be a priority in any economic recovery plan in 2021.

Research shows that the private and public economic benefit of free community college tuition would outweigh the cost. That’s why half of the states in the country already have some form of free college tuition.

The Democratic Party 2020 platform calls for making two years of community college tuition free for all students with a federal/state partnership similar to the Obama administration’s 2015 plan .

It envisions a program as universal and free as K-12 education is today, with all the sustainable benefits such programs (including Social Security and Medicare) enjoy. It also calls for making four years of public college tuition free, again in partnership with states, for students from families making less than $125,000 per year.

The Republican Party didn’t adopt a platform for the 2020 election, deferring to President Trump’s policies, which among other things, stand in opposition to free college. Congressional Republicans, unlike many of their state counterparts, also have not supported free college tuition in the past.

However, it should be noted that the very first state free college tuition program was initiated in 2015 by former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican. Subsequently, such deep red states with Republican majorities in their state legislature such as West Virginia, Kentucky and Arkansas have adopted similar programs.

Establishing free college tuition benefits for more Americans would be the 21st-century equivalent of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration initiative.

That program not only created immediate work for the unemployed, but also offered skills training for nearly 8 million unskilled workers in the 1930s. Just as we did in the 20th century, by laying the foundation for our current system of universal free high school education and rewarding our World War II veterans with free college tuition to help ease their way back into the workforce, the 21st century system of higher education we build must include the opportunity to attend college tuition-free.

California already has taken big steps to make its community college system, the largest in the nation, tuition free by fully funding its California Promise grant program. But community college is not yet free to all students. Tuition costs — just more than $1,500 for a full course load — are waived for low-income students. Colleges don’t have to spend the Promise funds to cover tuition costs for other students so, at many colleges, students still have to pay tuition.

At the state’s four-year universities, about 60% of students at the California State University and the same share of in-state undergraduates at the 10-campus University of California, attend tuition-free as well, as a result of Cal grants , federal Pell grants and other forms of financial aid.

But making the CSU and UC systems tuition-free for even more students will require funding on a scale that only the federal government is capable of supporting, even if the benefit is only available to students from families that makes less than $125,000 a year.

It is estimated that even without this family income limitation, eliminating tuition for four years at all public colleges and universities for all students would cost taxpayers $79 billion a year, according to U.S. Department of Education data . Consider, however, that the federal government  spent $91 billion  in 2016 on policies that subsidized college attendance. At least some of that could be used to help make public higher education institutions tuition-free in partnership with the states.

Free college tuition programs have proved effective in helping mitigate the system’s current inequities by increasing college enrollment, lowering dependence on student loan debt and improving completion rates , especially among students of color and lower-income students who are often the first in their family to attend college.

In the first year of the TN Promise , community college enrollment in Tennessee increased by 24.7%, causing 4,000 more students to enroll. The percentage of Black students in that state’s community college population increased from 14% to 19% and the proportion of Hispanic students increased from 4% to 5%.

Students who attend community college tuition-free also graduate at higher rates. Tennessee’s first Promise student cohort had a 52.6% success rate compared to only a 38.9% success rate for their non-Promise peers. After two years of free college tuition, Rhode Island’s college-promise program saw its community college graduation rate triple and the graduation rate among students of color increase ninefold.

The impact on student debt is more obvious. Tennessee, for instance, saw its applications for student loans decrease by 17% in the first year of its program, with loan amounts decreasing by 12%. At the same time, Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications soared, with 40% of the entire nation’s increase in applications originating in that state in the first year of their Promise program.

Wage inequality by education, already dreadful before the pandemic, is getting worse. In May, the unemployment rate among workers without a high school diploma was nearly triple the rate of workers with a bachelor’s degree. No matter what Congress does to provide support to those affected by the pandemic and the ensuing recession, employment prospects for far too many people in our workforce will remain bleak after the pandemic recedes. Today, the fastest growing sectors of the economy are in health care, computers and information technology. To have a real shot at a job in those sectors, workers need a college credential of some form such as an industry-recognized skills certificate or an associate’s or bachelor’s degree.

The surest way to make the proven benefits of higher education available to everyone is to make college tuition-free for low and middle-income students at public colleges, and the federal government should help make that happen.

Morley Winograd is president of the Campaign for Free College Tuition . Max Lubin is CEO of Rise , a student-led nonprofit organization advocating for free college.  

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. Commentaries published on EdSource represent diverse viewpoints about California’s public education systems. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our  guidelines  and  contact us .

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Genia Curtsinger 2 years ago 2 years ago

Making community college free to those who meet the admission requirements would help many people. First of all, it would make it easy for students and families, for instance; you go to college and have to pay thousands of dollars to get a college education, but if community college is free it would help so you could be saving money and get a college education for free, with no cost at all. It would make … Read More

Making community college free to those who meet the admission requirements would help many people. First of all, it would make it easy for students and families, for instance; you go to college and have to pay thousands of dollars to get a college education, but if community college is free it would help so you could be saving money and get a college education for free, with no cost at all. It would make it more affordable to the student and their families.

Therefore I think people should have free education for those who meet the admission requirements.

nothing 2 years ago 2 years ago

I feel like colleges shouldn’t be completely free, but a lot more affordable for people so everyone can have a chance to have a good college education.

Jaden Wendover 2 years ago 2 years ago

I think all colleges should be free, because why would you pay to learn?

Samantha Cole 3 years ago 3 years ago

I think college should be free because there are a lot of people that want to go to college but they can’t pay for it so they don’t go and end up in jail or working as a waitress or in a convenience store. I know I want to go to college but I can’t because my family doesn’t make enough money to send me to college but my family makes too much for financial aid.

Nick Gurrs 3 years ago 3 years ago

I feel like this subject has a lot of answers, For me personally, I believe tuition and college, in general, should be free because it will help students get out of debt and not have debt, and because it will help people who are struggling in life to get a job and make a living off a job.

NO 3 years ago 3 years ago

I think college tuition should be free. A lot of adults want to go to college and finish their education but can’t partly because they can’t afford to. Some teens need to work at a young age just so they can save money for college which I feel they shouldn’t have to. If people don’t want to go to college then they just can work and go on with their lives.

Not saying my name 3 years ago 3 years ago

I think college tuition should be free because people drop out because they can’t pay the tuition to get into college and then they can’t graduate and live a good life and they won’t get a job because it says they dropped out of school. So it would be harder to get a job and if the tuition wasn’t a thing, people would live an awesome life because of this.

Brisa 3 years ago 3 years ago

I’m not understanding. Are we not agreeing that college should be free, or are we?

m 3 years ago 3 years ago

it shouldnt

Trevor Everhart 3 years ago 3 years ago

What do you mean by there is no such thing as free tuition?

Olga Snichernacs 3 years ago 3 years ago

Nice! I enjoyed reading.

Anonymous Cat 4 years ago 4 years ago

Tuition-Free: Free tuition, or sometimes tuition free is a phrase you have heard probably a good number of times. … Therefore, free tuition to put it simply is the opportunity provide to students by select universities around the world to received a degree from their institution without paying any sum of money for the teaching.

Mister B 4 years ago 4 years ago

There is no such thing as tuition free.

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Adolescence

Is college necessary, what to do when your teen doesn't want to go to college..

Posted April 2, 2018 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

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Is college necessary? Well, it depends who you ask. From an early age, children are told that if they want to get a good job then they have to go to college. Ingrained in our societal beliefs is that a college education provides more money which leads to success. Numbers back up those beliefs and show that people who attend college and earn a bachelor’s degree do make more money than those with a high school diploma.

The data suggests that in order for students to prosper, they need to go to college. The majority of youth are hearing these messages. In 2015, the percentage of students enrolling in college in the fall following high school graduation, was 69 percent . In 2017, some 20.4 million students were projected to attend an American college or university, representing an increase of about 5.1 million since fall 2000. And these numbers are expected to rise over the next decade .

Is college really for everyone and does a degree lead to true happiness ? Educational organizations would like for us to think so, but isn’t happiness more about discovering our talents, finding our passion and landing a job that embraces our strengths?

What about the student who doesn’t have an interest in going to college? Does that mean this student is doomed to an unsuccessful life? There may be a variety of reasons why some students aren’t interested in postsecondary education such as:

• They don’t know what they want to do.
• They need a temporary break from school.
• They don’t believe they need a college education to do what they want to do.
• They march to the beat of their own drum and live day-by-day.

As difficult if may be for some to admit, college isn’t for everyone and that’s OK. Just because some youth choose to forgo a college education, that doesn’t mean they won’t be successful. In fact, there are many successful people who didn’t earn a college degree.

5 Successful People Who Didn’t Earn a College Degree

• Steve Jobs - founder of Apple - dropped out of Reed College after one semester. Jobs legacy has forever left a significant mark on the technological and business industry.
• Ellen DeGeneres - dropped out of the University of New Orleans after one semester. Ellen worked hard to make her way to the top as a comedian, television host, actress, writer, producer, and LGBT activist.
• Michael Dell - following his parents dreams of him becoming a doctor, he enrolled as a pre-med major and dropped out after completing one year at the University of Texas at Austin. Dell is ranked as the 39th richest person in the world by Forbes , with a net worth of US $23.7 billion as of April 1, 2018.
• Rachael Ray - chose to not attend college nor culinary arts school but that didn’t stop her from becoming a very successful celebrity chef. Rachael spent most of her life learning the skills she needed in the kitchens and started her first business, a food gift-basket service, while in high school.
• Alicia Keys - After graduating as valedictorian from Manhattan's Professional Performing Arts School at 16, she signed a deal with Clive Davis, and attended Columbia University for less than half a semester dropping out to focus on her music.

Some would argue that these artists, entrepreneurs and celebrities are exceptions to the rule. Perhaps that’s true, but who's to say that our children aren’t an exception? Life’s more about helping them find the things that spark their interest and ignite their passion.

What’s a parent to do if their child doesn’t share the same dream of going to college as they do? Well, forcing them to do something they aren’t ready for isn’t the answer. Having them give up their dreams to follow ours isn’t the answer either. The answer lies in helping our children develop some tangible goals to support their dreams, not ours.

5 Ways to Help Teens Find Their Passion

1. Ask and listen. If we want to know our child’s hopes and dreams, all we need to do is ask and then listen. Giving them an opportunity to describe themselves, their interests and their future goals and dreams will help us better know how to help them discover what they want to do in life. The more teens are able to articulate their strengths, hopes and aspirations the more comfortable they become in describing and accepting themselves. Self-acceptance has been linked with overall life satisfaction. And don’t we want our kids to be happy in life?

2. Identify hidden talents. Too often our kids may struggle to recognize their talents, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. They may just need to have opportunities to try new things that will unveil these hidden talents. As parents, we can pay close attention to the things that sparks our kids interest, motivates them, and creates a desire learn and do more.

Here are a few ways to help teens discover their hidden talents:

• Encourage them to notice the things that they enjoy doing. For example, what kinds of games do they like playing, books do they like reading, shows do they like watching, or music do they like listening to? Also pay attention to the kinds of things they enjoy doing in their spare time for fun, such as cooking, playing a sport, or tinkering in the garage. All of these clues may lead to a hidden talent.
• Go through the process of elimination. Sometimes it’s easier to identify what we don’t like doing as opposed to what we do like doing, and the same is true for teens. What we don’t like doing is equally important as it allows us an opportunity to eliminate things from our list and focus more on the things we do like.
• Challenge teens to listen for common messages. Tell your kids to listen to what others say about their strengths. It’s easy for a teen to dismiss a compliment, but odds are, those compliments have a common pattern. Encourage teens to listen for these patterns.

3. Stop, listen and pay attention. Teach teens to listen to their inner voice . Sometimes the answers to the path that we should follow lies in the silence of self-exploration.

4. Explore and practice. Once kids know what they are good at, encourage them to give it a try. When a teen enjoys doing something, it won’t feel like work because it’s perceived as being meaningful. When we do things we don’t like the hands of time move slowly, but “time flies when you’re having fun!”

5. Cultivate experiences. Help teens cultivate their talents and explore various avenues or careers that feed into their strengths. For example, if a teen wants to be in a band and play the guitar, then encourage music lessons, getting into a band, and playing in front of crowds. Also, explore occupations that are centered around guitars like becoming a luthier. There are so many wonderful occupations that tap into similar talents and exposing youth to these opportunities can open a window to endless possibilities.

6. Believe in them. Finally, we need to believe in our kids. We have to set aside our own desires and allow them to achieve theirs, even if that doesn’t include college. It’s important that we praise our youth regularly for their accomplishments and that we support their dreams for that’s what fuels achievement and success.

The neat thing about education is it's always there and people can take advantage of going back to school at any point in their lives. In life, there’s no such thing as a perfect course to success. People carve their own unique path and that may or may not include college. I wonder how many youth work hard to become who we want them to be, rather than becoming who they want to be...

Raychelle Cassada Lohman n , M.S., LPC, is the author of The Anger Workbook for Teens .

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ECONLOG POST

Oct 27 2013

Why Not Compulsory College?

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By Bryan Caplan, Oct 27 2013

A few nay-saying libertarians and unschoolers aside, almost everyone favors compulsory K-12 education.  Yet virtually no one favors compulsory college.  It’s quite a mystery.  If mandatory education is a great idea at the primary and secondary levels, why would it be a horrible idea at the tertiary level?  What is the origin of this peculiar policy discontinuity?

True, there are many reasons why compulsion makes less sense as students age.  Older students are better informed and less impulsive.  Older students have higher opportunity costs.  Older students are more resentful of coercion.  But there’s no reason to think that these problems suddenly jump from trivial to overwhelming during the first summer after high school graduation.

You could say that policymakers’ hands are tied by our quaint notion that 18-year-olds are adults, and adults should be free to run their own lives – even if their decisions are demonstrably unwise.  But the law already puts 18-21 year-olds in an intermediate “pre-adult” category – old enough to die in combat, too young to buy beer.  Given this precedent, it’s hard to see why policy-makers couldn’t further bend the rules by requiring pre-adults to go to college.  Reformers could even sweeten the deal by restoring pre-adults’ right to drink… as long as they remain college students in good standing.

My fallback explanation, as usual, is just status quo bias.  People support compulsory K-12 because we have compulsory K-12.  People oppose compulsory college because we don’t have compulsory college.  Simple as that.

But perhaps I’m missing something.  If so, please share.

P.S. I’m well-aware that compulsory attendance ages vary somewhat from state-to-state.  The fact remains: Virtually no one in any state favors compulsory college.  This is the fact that demands an explanation.

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Oct 27 2013 at 1:39am

I think the answer most people would give is that what is taught at K-12 are either skills that are necessary for for just about any occupation in our society (e.g. math, literacy), or some minimum knowledge that any citizen must have in order to participate responsibly in a democracy (e.g. history, geography, science, civics). By contrast, they would say that college teaches knowledge and skills that are necessary for some occupations, but unnecessary for many others, so requiring everyone to go to college wold be a waste.

(I am not endorsing the answer, just trying to make a plausible guess at what it would be.)

Oct 27 2013 at 2:12am

I would say that it has more to do with work. 18 is the de facto minimum age you can expect to get full-time work in modern times.

Since you can’t reasonably expect a teenage to get full-time work (these days), they have to do something with their time. Essentially school is a substitute for work, and hopefully they learn something useful during that time.

In previous times, when it was easier to get work as a teenager, the emphasis on high school education was lower.

I would say that society follows this general pattern: Children are required to go to school until they are old enough to work. As the minimum working age changes, the amount of mandatory schooling changes to match.

Tom Papworth

Oct 27 2013 at 7:28am.

Logically, if there is compulsion, it has to end somewhere. Otherwise why not compulsory post-grad; compulsory doctorate etc.

I think the history of state-mandated education is the perpetual creep upward of compulsion. Has the age-limit ever been reduced? If so, how often?

Having said that, there is presumably a consideration that beyond some point, not everybody can/will benefit from further education. Whether this influences where the limit is placed is unclear however.

One final point: at least in the UK, higher ed has remained largely a private-sector affair. That may make govt less willing to compel people to attend than would be the case if the state ran the colleges.

Grieve Chelwa

Oct 27 2013 at 7:53am.

I haven’t looked at the numbers, but perhaps it’s cheaper to put someone through K-12 than it is to put someone through college? So compulsory primary & secondary school is an easier sell than compulsory college.

Richard Manns

Oct 27 2013 at 8:51am.

Surely the comment

“But there’s no reason to think that these problems suddenly jump from trivial to overwhelming during the first summer after high school graduation.”

is rather facetious, given that we’ve already implicitly conceded that legal compulsion (at least in theory) is a binary affair, and yet ‘becoming an adult’ is gradual at best. The resultant line is as arbitrary as banning voting, sex or marriage below a certain age or indeed abortion above a certain age.

Oct 27 2013 at 9:02am

No one demands college education … yet. I fear it is coming. Even as we see the college bubble expand – useless degrees being awarded – grade inflation making it impossible for employers to assess incoming students – I fear we will see even MORE demands for college education – till the bubble collapses. The only question is will the bubble collapse before demands for compulsory college education OR after.

A reason why we may not be seeing demands for compulsory college is that unlike K-12, at the college level, we get students from ALL OVER the world – and a small fraction of those students who graduate have the skills to keep this economy running smoothly. The fact that a majority of the graduates do not have any skills worthy of some employer is masked by the few who do – a small fraction of the kids from US K-12 along with a fraction of the kids from elsewhere graduate with skill sets that keep our economy going.

So, short answer: Immigration is why we do not see demands for compulsory education – our economy has not felt the need to force everyone here to get the necessary skill sets.

Robin Hanson

Oct 27 2013 at 9:31am.

The babysitting function of school only works if kids are required to go to school, and parents want teens babysat, but not older kids.

Oct 27 2013 at 11:32am

You mean, like an individual mandate to attend college?

Yancey Ward

Oct 27 2013 at 11:35am.

There is no bad idea whose time isn’t coming.

John Fembup

Oct 27 2013 at 11:57am.

Yeabbut why do this? And how?

I think the principal reason not to have compulsory college education is that not nearly enough people care about it or demand it. What does it matter if that results from status quo bias or something else? There are very few voices asking for this.

Why should the general public want to fund college for many more students when many college students seem uninterested or not yet mature enough to take advantage of it? That’s not to suggest most college students are indifferent; only to ask why should indifferent students now be required to attend college? Would that change their indifference? If college attendance were mandatory, would it still be permitted to drop out? Would colleges still be permitted to flunk out students for academic (or other) failure? Who will pay for the additional capacity to admit more students whose main incentive is not to gain a college education, but that it’s mandatory to attend?

In the absence of public demand, why should Congress care about enacting a college mandate regardless of its merits, if any?

Besides, secondary education is mandatory to roughly age 16. How’s that working? Is secondary education in such good shape that we can confidently create a new national priority to mandate college enrollment?

btw, Mortimer Adler long advocated lifetime compulsory education – but only after the normal college ages of roughly 18-23.

Oct 27 2013 at 12:35pm

Eighteen is the age you can vote.

Oct 27 2013 at 2:33pm

I love how many of the comments assume in one way or another that the policy was put in place for carefully thought out and sensible reasons, leaving the specifics of the reason as the only mystery.

So, why is K-12 mandatory: It’s a product of a progressive era where High School was the every-mans college of the day, and University attendance so foreign and rare as to be unimaginable. Like all progressive programs, the theory is that you can mandate human perfection and improvement with coercive government force.

Oct 27 2013 at 2:47pm

I think the more interesting question is not:

Why isn’t college mandatory when K-12 is?

If we generally acknowledge that post-secondary education is now pretty much necessary to obtain a decent job, what rationale obligates the government to completely pay for K-12 education, but not for post-secondary education?

Oct 27 2013 at 4:27pm

The purpose of mandatory K-12 was to keep kids out of the workforce so that the unions could have all the high-paying factory jobs to themselves.

The reason we don’t need to extend that to college anymore is because you can’t really get a high-paying job in the US economy without a college degree anymore. (A few minor exceptions aside.)

Oct 27 2013 at 6:29pm

I am always surprised how seldom people argue for raising or lowering the age when one is allowed to drop out of school. And along with that raising or lowering the ages in our child labor laws.

Oct 27 2013 at 6:50pm

I’m one of those few who believe that it is wrong to require formal education at any grade level. Children are not owned by the state. However, children are not owned their parents, either. The balance between parental rights and child rights is difficult to achieve. Most people will agree that parents who refuse to educate their children are neglecting them. Children who are not sent to school should undergo testing* at regular intervals to ensure adequate education. Children who do not pass will be required to attend a state-approved school or be taught at home by government-approved private tutors.

*Such testing would be adjusted for low IQ children.

Glen S. McGhee

Oct 27 2013 at 10:31pm.

Simple: too costly. Not enough existing capacity.

But we are headed in this direction.

And this is a big problem, just like when K-12 was made compulsory — and when it really happened, academic standards went down dramatically. Look at math standards before and after desegregation in the south . Everyone, including poor whites, forced social promotion AND a watered down curriculum. As teachers from that era will tell you, “We never caught up after that.” Just kept falling further and further behind. Not too long ago in Alabama, high schools students were taking EOC exams that even their teachers could not pass.

Oct 27 2013 at 11:24pm

Status quo bias. Sort of like the reason we ended up with Romney-Obamacare rather than a single payer or the Swiss system.

Oct 28 2013 at 8:44am

I think the current school leaving age is too high. Teenagers’ brains are more independent than children’s and thus it’s much harder to make them learn anything they don’t want to. (Kids are easier to fool by things like the Teacher-Me game, where if the kids fail to answer questions correctly the teacher “wins”.) The difficulties of forcing learning on adults is even harder.

But there is a bit of a reason for linking compulsory learning to before legal adulthood – if a child’s parents prefer their kid to not go to school and instead say stay home and care for younger children but the child wants to attend then they are more able to ignore their parents’ requests once a legal adult. I left home and started uni at age 17 and even with my dad signing things and generally cooperating it was a hassle until I turned 18.

Roger Sweeny

Oct 28 2013 at 10:37am.

“We must save children from being forced to work full time.”

“We can’t leave children to the streets.”

Put those two together and you wind up with laws restricting young people’s working and laws forcing young people to go to school.

The details, including the exact ages, will be a matter of history, but some ages in the teens are probably inevitable if policy-makers believe those two things.

(I don’t think this is inconsistent with Robin Hanson’s post.)

Oct 28 2013 at 12:13pm

Ooh, what to teach? Where can I get the teaching job? What a boon for government employees.

Of course this all has to do with the current situation in public as well as pseudo-private education. The result is poor quality education at high cost.

We all seem to understand reading, writing and arithmetic but the schools haven’t figured out how to teach it. But the Public expects we provide basic education.

Why can’t a math teacher figure out that some students need to understand angles in order to be a carpenter but are unable to teach geometry in any applied manner? Why is it that teachers haven’t figured out that reading a car magazine or fashion magazine is just as much a part of reading as Virginia Woolf?

Now we get to college where teachers go through a pre-described program and learn little. Accountants must receive five years of college; a Practical Nurse must have a doctorate – the list goes on and on as to how college is required and little results are shown.

We don’t want to pull the plug on our little children but we aren’t going to force someone to endure the financial hardship of college.

Anyway as they said in the TV Sitcom Dinosaurs, “You don’t go to school to learn, you go to get out of the house.”

Oct 28 2013 at 5:43pm

I suspect status quo bias is most of the explanation, but I also suspect that, even if one got past that, the cost would make it prohibitive. After all, if college is publicly mandated, the presumption would be that it would have to be publicly provided, and how would we structure the taxes to cover that? Would it be local like K-12, or federal, or what? And what chance is there of anyone agreeing effectively to pay for everyone else’s kids’ college? Would there be a cap on the amount covered, would publicly funded colleges be required to accept that as full payment, and if so how fast would the perceived gap between the quality of public vs. private university educations grow?

That being said, the assumption that publicly mandated education is publicly funded is also just status quo bias. Perhaps the Obamacare individual mandate would be a precedent in the other direction.

Oct 28 2013 at 11:46pm

Mostly because so many 18-20 year olds find useful things to do instead of milling about in college. There are actors, athletes, musicians, etc. Plus, those who go into the trades, the military. And do we really want to force the individuals who create all the great new technology to linger in college based on some bureaucrats idea of innovation?

And what would be on the CGED, College Graduate Equivalency exam? We’d need a competency test to show student actually learned what the transcript indicates. That certainly would get rid of the professor vanity courses. If college is mandatory, then the course of study is a issue for public determination.

Comments are closed.

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A few nay-saying libertarians and unschoolers aside, almost everyone favors compulsory K-12 education.  Yet virtually no one favors compulsory college.  It's quite a mystery.  If mandatory education is a great idea at the primary and secondary levels, why would it be a horrible idea at the tertiary level...

Should university education be compulsory?

Each week our two teenagers debate a hot topic. This week ...

Matthew Murchie, 14, St Joseph's College

The speed at which not only technology but the whole of society is changing is increasing all the time. A thorough education has become not only useful, but essential.

A hundred years ago, education was only for the rich. The majority of the population were forced to send their children to work from a young age.

Those people would be amazed to find that today, every single child in the city receives nine years of free schooling.

Nowadays, people's expectations have risen so much that a university degree is now seen as a basic requirement for job applications.

So making university education compulsory is hardly a far-fetched idea at all.

Of course, university fees would have to drop and the government would have to provide subsidies for families who are unable to support their children during their degree course. But this financial assistance would benefit all students.

Many people, now employed as industrial workers or in manual jobs, might find they have the talent and potential to become successful businessmen or doctors.

Many people have been labelled failures just because they never had the opportunity to flourish.

And even if these new students don't achieve great success in their careers, they will still have benefited from their time at university.

The ability to work in a team and the social skills they will have developed will be of tremendous use whatever they go on to do.

Cheryl Wong, 17, Shun Lee Catholic Secondary School

I don't think it is a good idea to force every young person to go to university.

While students can get huge benefits from going to university, we shouldn't deny people of this age the right to choose.

Not everybody loves their time spent at school. This may be because they don't do well academically or because they find the method of learning unsuitable for them.

These young people may be eager to start work rather than go to university. And, after nine or 12 years of compulsory education, they should be able to judge what is best for them.

A lot of the skills that are needed at work can be learned both at university and while working in a job. Both students and those in employment have to learn how to cooperate with their colleagues, for example.

In fact, the motivation for workers is much greater than for students, as they can be fired if they don't quickly pick up the skills they need. Also, making university education compulsory would put a big additional burden onto both the government and the universities.

As not all families in Hong Kong can afford university tuition fees, the government would have to find a large sum of money to support poorer students.

The universities would struggle to take on so many extra students while continuing to provide all their undergraduates with a high standard of education.

All in all, making university education compulsory is not in the best interests of school-leavers and might not benefit society as a whole.

Should University Education Be Made Compulsory? Essay

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• Published: 12.27.19
• Views: 2353

Tournaments exist in every single modern metropolis. It is of no doubt that you will have a better working environment if you have a university level. Those, who have are only graduated from high-schools, are more likely to be used as commercial workers as well as to be using manual jobs. That is the way the real world works.

If the govt forces all high-school graduates to go to university or college, inequality can now be caused towards the ones who may have the real capacity to enter school. Therefore , university or college education really should not be compulsory for all students. Its not all student is usually eager to head to university as being a students lack the learning incentive and are more interested in earning money by going to job. Extra burden is put on their shoulder blades because they cannot have the interests and ability in learning.

Besides, the government needs to access enormous assets to supply financial financial assistance to all poor students who also cannot afford the expensive college or university tuition charges in Hk. Of course , many people want to study for university. Producing university education compulsory seems to be a good idea. However , that is not accurate. If all people get a college or university degree and work in your workplace, then that will work for the industries or restaurants?

The society might be messed up. The only solution is always to raise the task requirement because everyone keeps a school degree. Because of this, only the ones who happen to be graduated coming from overseas universities, have a master level, or even have got a doctor degree can work within an office. Nonetheless it does not seem sensible at all.

Really does that mean that those who have the talent and potential and they are graduated by local universities do not ought to have to get a better job. Actually making school education compulsory is a waste of time and money. As we know, not every students are able to enter university. The educational institutions may have to adjust the entry requirement to cater for the needs coming from all students in Hong Kong. After that, a college or university degree no more represents a high standard of education.

It seems like to be a daily news near the feet that everyone can easily get it. It really is useless. In summary, making school education required is certainly not fair to all students as different pupils are good at different fields. Going to university or college is not really the only choice. More importantly, each of our society requires a balanced amount of blue-tie workers and while-tie employees.

Although it is definitely cruel to many students, that may be how the globe works.

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Editorial: The idea that success does not require a college degree gets space on DNC stage

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A curious theme emerged during the first two nights of the Democratic National Convention: emphasis on the need to create well-paid careers for people who don’t obtain a bachelor’s degree.

“College shouldn’t be the only ticket to the middle class,” former President Obama proclaimed Tuesday . “We need to follow the lead of governors like Tim Walz who’ve said that if you’ve got the skills and the drive, you shouldn’t need a degree to work for state government.”

He was referring to an executive order that Walz signed in October 2023, shedding bachelor’s degree requirements for state government jobs that don’t really need one. (In fairness, it was former President Trump who started the ball rolling with a similar executive order for federal jobs in June 2020.)

Editorial: You shouldn’t need a college degree to have a decent life in America

Not everyone wants or needs a four-year degree. Apprenticeships, part-time learning and other workforce development ideas would make the economy fairer.

June 6, 2021

On the first day of the convention, President Biden touted the CHIPS and Science Act, legislation that encourages investment in nanotechnology and clean energy, noting that companies are building massive new chip-making factories that provide well-paid jobs, “ and you don’t need a college degree .”

The idea that not everyone wants or needs a college degree is having a political moment. After years of the “college for everyone” movement, it’s about time.

A July 2024 poll by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found that most Americans question the value and cost of college. Only 36% said they had high levels of confidence in college, down from 57% in 2015. On average, one U.S. college is closing every week .

Granderson: Here’s one way to bring college costs back in line with reality

Why do universities charge future teachers the same rate as future engineers?

April 30, 2024

College does have value, and on average, college graduates earn significantly more than those with less education. But it’s not for everyone; people have different skills and talents to offer society that sometimes aren’t a good fit for the expectations of a classroom.

More than 30% of four-year college students don’t complete a degree within six years, which usually means they leave without a bachelor’s, having spent time and money with nothing to show for it. And more than 40% of bachelor’s holders are underemployed in jobs that didn’t really need a degree.

Convention speeches, of course, are long on pep and short on details. Now that Democrats have outlined this as a priority, it is time to start talking about the specifics of how the nation will get there. There are a few clear paths worth considering.

Commentary: California needs to break down walls between CSU and community colleges

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July 22, 2024

White-collar apprenticeships: The United States needs to pay more than lip service to the apprentice route for well-paid, white-collar jobs. To do this, it need look no further than Switzerland , where the bulk of students spend their last two years of high school attending classes part time, and training in paid, part-time apprenticeships in fields that generally require bachelor’s degrees here.

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A program modeled on Switzerland ’s has been started by a philanthropist in Denver, but it’s a small program and even with significant growth its reach is limited. In addition, the Chicago Apprentice Network, a consortium of corporations, has become an apprenticeship program for community college students.

These types of apprenticeship programs involve broad public-private partnerships that require structure, funding and a push from the U.S. Department of Education.

More help for community colleges and their students: Just because a bachelor’s degree isn’t required doesn’t mean that many students are ready for the job world after high school. Community colleges play the biggest role in preparing students for well-paid employment through both associate’s programs and short-term certificates that allow them to enter fields as diverse as video game design, avionics and shoeing horses. Close to 30% of people with a two-year associate’s degree earn more than the average bachelor’s holder.

These colleges deliver education at a low cost to students and taxpayers; they need more funding to give students the courses and financial help to learn skills for their chosen careers without having to work full time while they try to succeed in their classes.

Better training for school counselors: School counselors have been under intense pressure for the past 30 years to send more students to four-year colleges. As a result, most counselors don’t know enough about other paths for students who aren’t college-bound, beyond skilled trades and the military.

Both can be good options, but there are many more — entrepreneurialism, creative careers, service work, healthcare, travel and outdoors occupations are just some of them. They seldom know employers open to hiring people without a college degree, even though far more employers fall into that category.

All of these programs will cost taxpayers money, but it’s worth it. The funding will be returned several times over in the form of fewer student loan defaults and a more financially stable generation of young employees who don’t feel like failures because four years of coursework after high school wasn’t for them.

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• Department for Education

Providing remote education: guidance for schools

Updated 19 August 2024

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] .

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/providing-remote-education-guidance-for-schools/providing-remote-education-guidance-for-schools

This is non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education on providing high- quality remote education in cases where it is not possible, or is contrary to government guidance, for some or all pupils to attend school.

This guidance is for

This guidance is for school leaders, school staff, trust leaders, trust boards and governing bodies in schools in England. The guidance may also be useful for parents and carers, and local authorities.

This guidance only applies to pupils of compulsory school age, and the word ‘pupil’ in the guidance only means pupils of compulsory school age.

Introduction

This document provides guidance to schools on providing high-quality remote education when it is not possible, or is contrary to government guidance, for some or all pupils to attend school.

Remote education should only ever be considered as a last resort where a decision has already been made that attendance at school is not possible, but pupils are able to continue learning.

Prioritising attendance

Attendance is essential for pupils to get the most out of their school experience, including for their attainment, wellbeing, and wider life chances.

Remote education should not be viewed as an equal alternative to attendance in school. We expect schools to consider it only as a last resort when the alternative would be no education, and only after it has been established that the pupil is, or will be, absent from school. In such cases, remote education can have the benefit of allowing absent pupils to keep on track with their education and stay connected to their teachers and peers.

Schools should consider the approaches set out in this guidance and work closely with pupils, parents, carers, and any other relevant partners such as the local authority, to remove any barriers to attendance as detailed in the school attendance guidance .

Pupils absent from school and receiving remote education still need to be marked as absent in the register. Schools must continue to record pupil absence in the register in line with the School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 and attendance guidance, using the most appropriate code.

Scenarios where remote education should be considered

Circumstances where it might not be possible for pupils to receive in person education fit into 2 broad categories:

school closures or restrictions on attendance, where school access for pupils is restricted

individual cases where a pupil is unable to attend school but is able to learn

School closures or restrictions on attendance

Providing remote education does not change the imperative to remain open or to reopen as soon as possible. Every effort should be made to ensure pupils can be taught in person by attending their school or if appropriate and possible, attending a safe alternative site.

After exploring all options to ensure the school remains open to all pupils, there may still be some exceptional occasions when school leaders or the local authority decide it is not possible to open safely, or where opening would contradict guidance from local or central government. If restricting attendance for pupils is the only viable option, schools should consider providing remote education to help pupils stay on track with the education they would normally receive.

It can be helpful for schools to have a plan in place that outlines any remote education procedures for teachers, parents, carers and pupils. Remote education plans are particularly useful during emergency closures where the decision to close can often be made at short notice.

Schools should consult DfE emergency planning guidance in the event of school closures or restrictions on attendance.

Individual cases where a pupil is unable to attend school but is able to learn

There should only be limited circumstances where a pupil is unable to attend school but is able and well enough to continue their education remotely. These circumstances should only involve a short-term absence and might include pupils:

• recovering from short- term infectious illnesses
• preparing for or recovering from some operations
• recovering from injuries where attendance might inhibit recovery

In some exceptional cases, these circumstances might also include pupils whose attendance has been affected by a special educational need or disability ( SEND ) or a mental health issue. In these circumstances, after the pupil’s absence from school has been established, schools should consider providing pupils with remote education on a case-by-case basis. This should be part of a plan to reintegrate back to school, and only when it is judged that providing remote education would not adversely affect the pupil’s return to school.

Guidance for schools on mental health issues affecting a pupil’s attendance has further support on dealing with mental health and attendance challenges.

Provision of remote education should be made as a short-term solution allowing absent pupils to keep on track with their education and stay connected to their teachers and peers. Pupils with long-term medical conditions or any other physical or mental health needs which affect attendance may need more support to continue their education.

Working with the local authority

Under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 (s.19 duty) local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable education for children of compulsory school age who, because of health or other reasons, would otherwise not receive a suitable education.

Statutory guidance on education for children with health needs who cannot attend school sets out that local authorities should provide education as soon as it is clear that the child will be away from school for 15 school days or more during the school year, whether consecutive or cumulative.

The s.19 duty sits with the local authority. Schools should work closely with them and any relevant medical professionals to ensure children with health needs are fully supported at school, including putting in place individual healthcare plans if appropriate. This may involve, for example, programmes of study that rely on a flexible approach which include agreed periods of remote education.

What to consider when providing remote education to individual pupils

When a pupil is absent, the school should always seek to overcome the barriers to attendance and provide support for the pupil to attend, regularly reviewing any barriers with:

• parents or carers
• if appropriate, a relevant medical professional

Remote education should not be viewed as an equal alternative to attendance in school. Providing remote education during a pupil’s absence does not reduce the importance of bringing that absence to an end as soon as possible.

In the limited circumstances when the school decides to use remote education for individual pupils when they are absent, the following should be considered:

Ensuring mutual agreement of remote education by the school, parents or carers, potentially pupils, and if appropriate a relevant medical professional. If the pupil has an education, health and care plan or has a social worker, the local authority should also be involved in the decision.

Where remote education is being used as part of a plan to reintegrate back to school, putting a formal arrangement in place to review its efficacy regularly, alongside identifying what other support and flexibilities can be put in place to help ease the pupil back to school at the earliest opportunity.

Setting a time limit within which the period of remote education provision should be reviewed, with the aim that the pupil returns to in person education with the required support in place to meet their needs.

Good practice

Schools are likely to have established remote education plans in place already that have worked well for them when attendance in school has not been possible. If schools choose to use established remote education plans, these should be kept up to date so they remain relevant to the school’s current context.

A good remote education plan should be kept under review in consultation with staff and should demonstrate a consideration of any additional burdens that providing remote education may place on staff and families.

Work provided during periods of remote education should aim to be high quality, meaningful, ambitious, and cover an appropriate range of subjects to enable pupils to keep on track with their education.

Where pupils have access to appropriate devices, remote education might include recorded and / or live direct teaching time, as well as time for pupils to complete tasks, reading, and assignments independently, depending on their age and stage of development.

Online video lessons do not necessarily need to be recorded by teaching staff at the school. If preferred, high quality lessons developed by external providers such as Oak National Academy can be provided instead of school led video content.

Those requiring further guidance to develop remote education provision should consider the following:

Provision being ready for pupils to access as soon as reasonably practicable, though in proportion to the length of absence and expected disruption to education.

Providing remote education that is equivalent in length to the core teaching time pupils would receive in school where possible, being mindful of the individual needs and circumstances of the pupil and their families. These include, but are not limited to:

• Consideration of age, stage of development, and independent study skills.
• Any SEND or other additional needs the pupils might have.
• The pupils’ home environment, which includes having a suitable place and opportunity to study.
• Screen time, making reasonable allowances for adequate breaks for pupils and staff during digital remote education.
• Any significant demands on parents’ or carers’ help or support. Younger children, especially pupils in primary schools and some children with SEND , might require high levels of adult involvement to support their engagement with remote education, which can make it a particular challenge for these groups.

Working to overcome barriers to digital access where possible for pupils by, for example:

• Auditing access to devices and connectivity across the school as part of wider emergency planning.
• Distributing school-owned devices accompanied by a user agreement or contract if and where necessary and possible.
• Supporting families to find appropriate internet connectivity solutions if and where necessary and possible.

If required, ensuring equal access through the provision of printed resources, supplemented with other appropriate forms of communication between the school and pupils.

Planning opportunities for regular feedback and interaction with teachers and peers during the school day.

• Identifying a senior leader with overarching responsibility for the quality and delivery of remote education. Responsibilities may include consulting with staff and relevant leaders within the school or trust to develop any remote education plans, ensuring they are relevant and up to date.
• Having an understanding that children can be at risk of harm inside and outside of the school, inside and outside of home and online, and having systems for checking, daily, whether pupils are safe at home and engaging with their remote education.

Digital education platforms

Digital education platforms (also known as virtual learning platforms, virtual learning environments and virtual classrooms) can be used to enable continued access to teaching resources. The cloud-based features enable teachers to embed remote education provision within school planning, as opposed to setting it as a separate event if required. Digital education platforms can also facilitate teacher-pupil interaction, including feedback and assessment, as well as enabling pupils at home to stay connected to their peers in school.

Schools using digital education platforms should keep them secure and up to date and steps should also be taken to ensure staff remain trained and confident in their use.

Schools should also consider taking the necessary steps to train staff on the accessibility features their chosen digital platforms have available.

Providing information about remote education

Schools should consider sharing any up-to-date procedures and plans in place with parents, carers and pupils in order to provide ongoing clarity and transparency about what to expect from remote education if it is required.

It is up to schools to decide how they share remote education information with parents, carers and pupils. Some schools continue to maintain pages on their websites providing information and guidance about remote education provision and links to any trusted external education websites. This is not a requirement, but it can be helpful for parents or carers and pupils to access if required.

Free school meals and remote education

Where pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals are receiving remote education, schools should work with their school catering team or caterer either to provide good quality lunch parcels or to issue a food voucher if available. This will ensure that eligible pupils continue to be supported for the period they are unable to attend school. Guidance on free school meals for schools and local authorities has more information on free school meals.

Remote education during a suspension or permanent exclusion

As outlined in the suspension and permanent exclusion guidance , headteachers should take steps to ensure work is set and marked for pupils during the first 5 school days of a suspension or permanent exclusion.

Remote education should not be used as a justification for sending pupils home due to their misbehaviour. Any time a pupil is sent home due to disciplinary reasons, this is a suspension and must be done in line with the law on disciplinary suspensions. This is the case even if they have been asked to log on or access online education while suspended. After a period of off-site direction or suspension, a pupil is expected to attend full-time.

The school’s legal duties to pupils with SEND remain in force.

Provision for pupils with SEND

If pupils with SEND are not able to attend school and require remote education, their teachers are best placed to know how their needs can most effectively be met to ensure they continue to access the curriculum. The school needs to put in place an appropriate curriculum, teaching and support that will enable the pupil to continue learning effectively.

Some pupils with SEND may not be able to access remote education without adult support. Schools should work collaboratively with families and put arrangements in place that allow pupils with SEND to access remote education successfully. In this situation, decisions on how provision can be delivered should be informed by relevant considerations including the support families will require and types of services that the pupil can access remotely.

The duty under the Children and Families Act 2014 for mainstream schools to use their ‘best endeavours’ to secure the special educational provision called for by a pupil’s special educational needs continues to apply when remote education is in place.

If a pupil has an education, health and care plan, whether they are in a mainstream or special school, the school must work with the local authority to ensure all the relevant duties under the 2014 Act continue to be met.

The duties under the Equality Act 2010 relating to disability and more broadly continue to apply, such as:

• to make reasonable adjustments
• not to discriminate
• to have due regard to the statutory objectives in the public sector equality duty

It may be challenging or impossible for the school to deliver remotely the kind of approach that it does in the classroom, for example the provision of certain differentiated resources and the support of a Teaching Assistant. If this is the case, the school must instead consider, in cooperation with the local authority (if the child has an EHC plan), other ways in which it and the local authority can meet its statutory duties, working closely with the parents or carers.

Delivering remote education safely

Keeping children safe online is essential. The guidance on safeguarding and remote education provides information on what schools should do to protect pupils online during any period of remote education. The guidance includes a collection of resources which includes support for:

• safe remote education
• virtual lessons
• live streaming
• information to share with parents and carers to support them in keeping their children safe online

Schools should ensure their safeguarding and child protection policies are up to date and reflect:

• the potential need for remote online education provision
• the fact that pupils might be learning both online and in the classroom

Further information

• Working together to improve school attendance
• Children missing education
• Mental health issues affecting a pupil’s attendance: guidance for schools

Emergency planning and response

• Emergency planning and response for education, childcare, and children’s social care settings
• Alternative provision
• Education for children with health needs who cannot attend school

Pupils with medical conditions at school

• Supporting pupils with medical conditions at school

Safeguarding

• Keeping children safe in education
• Safeguarding and remote education

Children with SEND

• Deaf friendly remote learning: a checklist for teachers
• SEND specific resources for learning from home

Advice to help schools understand the Equality Act

• Equality Act 2010: advice for schools

Suspensions and permanent exclusions

• Suspensions and permanent exclusions guidance

Guidance for parents

• Parental responsibility measures
• NHS guidance: is my child too ill for school?
• Illness and your child’s education
• Learning to talk: 3 to 5 years - Start for Life

Ofsted guidance

• What’s working well in remote education
• School inspection handbook

Free school meals

• Free school meals: guidance for schools and local authorities

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