speech on why education should be free

Why Education Should Be Free

Written by Dan

Last updated September 13, 2024

The question of whether education, particularly higher education, should be free is a continuing debate marked by a multitude of opinions and perspectives.

Education stands as one of the most powerful tools for personal and societal advancement, and making it accessible to all could have profound impacts on a nation’s economic growth and social fabric.

Proponents of tuition-free education argue that it could create a better-educated workforce, improve the livelihoods of individuals, and contribute to overall economic prosperity.

However, the implementation of such a system carries complexity and considerations that spark considerable discourse among policymakers, educators, and the public.

Related : For more, check out our article on  The #1 Problem In Education  here.

Within the debate on free education lies a range of considerations, including the significant economic benefits it might confer.

A well-educated populace can be the driving force behind innovation, entrepreneurship, and a competitive global stance, according to research.

Moreover, social and cultural benefits are also cited by advocates, who see free higher education as a stepping stone towards greater societal well-being and equality.

Nevertheless, the challenges in implementing free higher education often center around fiscal sustainability, the potential for increased taxes, and the restructuring of existing educational frameworks.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Free higher education could serve as a critical driver of economic growth and innovation.
• It may contribute to social equality and cultural enrichment across communities.
• Implementation of tuition-free higher education requires careful consideration of economic and structural challenges.

Related : For more, check out our article on  AI In Education  here.

The Economic Benefits of Free Education

Free education carries the potential for significant economic impact, notably by fostering a more qualified workforce and alleviating financial strains associated with higher education.

Boosting the Workforce with Skilled Workers

Free education initiatives can lead to a rise in college enrollment and graduation rates, as seen in various studies and practical implementations.

This translates into a larger pool of skilled workers entering the workforce, which is critical for the sustained growth of the economy. With more educated individuals, industries can innovate faster and remain competitive on a global scale.

The subsequent increase in productivity and creative problem-solving bolsters the country’s economic profile.

Reducing Student Loan Debt and Financial Insecurity

One of the most immediate effects of tuition-free education is the reduction of student loan debt . Students who graduate without the burden of debt have more financial freedom and security, enabling them to contribute economically through higher consumer spending and investments.

This financial relief also means that graduates can potentially enter the housing market earlier and save for retirement, both of which are beneficial for long-term economic stability.

Reducing this financial insecurity not only benefits individual lives but also creates a positive ripple effect throughout the economy.

Related : For more, check out our article on  Teaching For Understanding  here.

Social and Cultural Impacts

Free education stands as a cornerstone for a more equitable society, providing a foundation for individuals to reach their full potential without the barrier of cost.

It fosters an inclusive culture where access to knowledge and the ability to contribute meaningfully to society are viewed as inalienable rights.

Creating Equality and Expanding Choices

Free education mitigates the socioeconomic disparities that often dictate the quality and level of education one can attain.

When tuition fees are eliminated, individuals from lower-income families are afforded the same educational opportunities as their wealthier counterparts, leading to a more level playing field .

Expanding educational access enables all members of society to pursue a wider array of careers and life paths, broadening personal choices and promoting a diverse workforce.

Free Education as a Human Right

Recognizing education as a human right underpins the movement for free education. Human Rights Watch emphasizes that all children should have access to a quality, inclusive, and free education.

This aligns with international agreements and the belief that education is not a privilege but a right that should be safeguarded for all, regardless of one’s socioeconomic status.

Redistributions within society can function to finance the institutions necessary to uphold this right, leading to long-term cultural and social benefits.

Challenges and Considerations for Implementation

Implementing free education systems presents a complex interplay of economic and academic factors. Policymakers must confront these critical issues to develop sustainable and effective programs.

Balancing Funding and Taxpayer Impact

Funding for free education programs primarily depends on the allocation of government resources, which often requires tax adjustments .

Legislators need to strike a balance between providing sufficient funding for education and maintaining a level of taxation that does not overburden the taxpayers .

Studies like those from The Balance provide insight into the economic implications, indicating a need for careful analysis to avoid unintended financial consequences.

Ensuring Quality in Free Higher Education Programs

Merit and quality assurance become paramount in free college programs to ensure that the value of education does not diminish. Programs need structured oversight and performance metrics to maintain high academic standards.

Free college systems, by extending access, may risk over-enrollment, which can strain resources and reduce educational quality if not managed correctly.

Global Perspectives and Trends in Free Education

In the realm of education, several countries have adopted policies to make learning accessible at no cost to the student. These efforts often aim to enhance social mobility and create a more educated workforce.

Case Studies: Argentina and Sweden

Argentina has long upheld the principle of free university education for its citizens. Public universities in Argentina do not charge tuition fees for undergraduate courses, emphasizing the country’s commitment to accessible education.

This policy supports a key tenet of social justice, allowing a wide range of individuals to pursue higher education regardless of their financial situation.

In comparison, Sweden represents a prime example of advanced free education within Europe. Swedish universities offer free education not only to Swedish students but also to those from other countries within the European Union (EU).

For Swedes, this extends to include secondary education, which is also offered at no cost. Sweden’s approach exemplifies a commitment to educational equality and a well-informed citizenry.

International Approaches to Tuition-Free College

Examining the broader international landscape , there are diverse approaches to implementing tuition-free higher education.

For instance, some European countries like Spain have not entirely eliminated tuition fees but have kept them relatively low compared to the global average. These measures still align with the overarching goal of making education more accessible.

In contrast, there have been discussions and proposals in the United States about adopting tuition-free college programs, reflecting a growing global trend.

While the United States has not federally mandated free college education, there are initiatives, such as the Promise Programs, that offer tuition-free community college to eligible students in certain states, showcasing a step towards more inclusive educational opportunities.

Policy and Politics of Tuition-Free Education

The debate surrounding tuition-free education encompasses a complex interplay of bipartisan support and legislative efforts, with community colleges frequently at the policy’s epicenter.

Both ideological and financial considerations shape the trajectory of higher education policy in this context.

Bipartisan Support and Political Challenges

Bipartisan support for tuition-free education emerges from a recognition of community colleges as vital access points for higher education, particularly for lower-income families.

Initiatives such as the College Promise campaign reflect this shared commitment to removing economic barriers to education. However, political challenges persist, with Republicans often skeptical about the long-term feasibility and impact on the federal budget.

Such divisions underscore the politicized nature of the education discourse, situating it as a central issue in policy-making endeavors.

Legislative Framework and Higher Education Policy

The legislative framework for tuition-free education gained momentum under President Biden with the introduction of the American Families Plan .

This plan proposed substantial investments in higher education, particularly aimed at bolstering the role of community colleges. Central to this policy is the pledge to cover up to two years of tuition for eligible students.

The proposal reflects a significant step in reimagining higher education policy, though it requires navigating the intricacies of legislative procedures and fiscally conservative opposition to translate into actionable policy.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section addresses common queries regarding the prospect of free college education, its impact, and practical considerations for implementation.

What are the most compelling arguments for making college education free?

The most compelling arguments for tuition-free college highlight the removal of financial barriers, potential to increase social mobility, and a long-term investment in a more educated workforce , which can lead to economic growth.

How could the government implement free education policies without sacrificing quality?

To implement free education without compromising quality, governments need to ensure sustainable funding, invest in faculty, and enable effective administration. Such measures aim to maintain high standards while extending access.

In countries with free college education, what has been the impact on their economies and societies?

Countries with free college education have observed various impacts, including a more educated populace , increased rates of innovation, and in some instances, stronger economic growth due to a skilled workforce.

How does free education affect the accessibility and inclusivity of higher education?

Free education enhances accessibility and inclusivity by leveling the educational playing field, allowing students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to pursue higher education regardless of their financial capability.

What potential downsides exist to providing free college education to all students?

Potential downsides include the strain on governmental budgets, the risk of oversaturating certain job markets, and the possibility that the value of a degree may diminish if too many people obtain one without a corresponding increase in jobs requiring higher education.

How might free education be funded, and what are the financial implications for taxpayers?

Free education would likely be funded through taxation, and its financial implications for taxpayers could range from increased taxes to reprioritization of existing budget funds. The scale of any potential tax increase would depend on the cost of the education programs and the economic benefits they’re anticipated to produce.

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About The Author

I'm Dan Higgins, one of the faces behind The Teaching Couple. With 15 years in the education sector and a decade as a teacher, I've witnessed the highs and lows of school life. Over the years, my passion for supporting fellow teachers and making school more bearable has grown. The Teaching Couple is my platform to share strategies, tips, and insights from my journey. Together, we can shape a better school experience for all.

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Student Opinion

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.

The article continues:

Other states are assembling their own programs: The University of Texas System created a $300 million endowment in February that expands tuition assistance for thousands of students. Michigan provides free college to residents who were essential workers during the pandemic, while also covering tuition at community colleges for people ages 25 or older. Reflecting challenges before and during the pandemic, some initiatives have not produced the desired results. Even after California recently expanded free tuition opportunities, enrollment at its community colleges fell by nearly 15 percent in 2021 from a year earlier. The push for tuition-free higher education comes amid a broader enrollment crisis in the United States. Total undergraduate enrollment fell by 6.6 percent from 2019 to 2021, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Students, read the entire article , then tell us:

What do you think of New Mexico’s plan to provide tuition-free college to state residents? Do you think college should be “a public resource similar to primary and secondary education,” as New Mexico is treating it? Do you think that your state should adopt a similar plan? Why or why not?

Do you want to attend college? Why or why not? How does the cost of higher education factor into your thinking?

Do you think everyone should go to college — or do you think there should be more alternatives to higher education? If so, what should they be and why?

Why do you think universities across the United States are facing declines in enrollment? Do you think plans to make college less expensive or entirely free are the right way to increase enrollment?

Do you think making college tuition-free is worth the cost? (As the article points out, the money for the first year of the New Mexico program largely comes from pandemic relief funds. After that, legislators will need to draw funds from other sources to keep the program going.) Is it more realistic to do what states like Washington and Tennessee have done and limit tuition assistance to community colleges, exclude some residents because of family income or impose conditions requiring students to work part time?

Mr. Romero describes New Mexico’s initiative as “unusually inclusive,” given that it extends free tuition to inmates, unauthorized immigrants and some Native Americans from neighboring states. Why do you think New Mexico’s legislators decided it was important to make members of these groups eligible for free tuition? What might be some of the long-term effects of free college for all?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Callie Holtermann joined The Learning Network as a senior news assistant in 2020. More about Callie Holtermann

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If 'Free College' Sounds Too Good To Be True, That's Because It Often Is

Cory Turner

To millions of parents and students, they're magical words: free college.

But is the idea pure fantasy?

More than a dozen states now offer grants, often called scholarships, promising to help qualifying students pay for some or all of their college education. In fact, that word, "promise," shows up again and again in these programs' official names: Nevada Promise, Oklahoma's Promise, Oregon Promise, Tennessee Promise ... you get the idea.

Is Free College Really Free?

Sometimes referred to as "free college" programs, most are relatively new, sparked by the relentless rise in college costs and by a desire among state leaders to improve college access, especially for low-income students. Hundreds more free college programs have popped up at the local level , too. But a new review of 15 of these statewide programs, conducted by The Education Trust , finds that states vary wildly in how they define both "free" and "college."

"I mean, I get paid to do this," laughs Katie Berger, a senior analyst at the nonprofit advocacy group, "and it was very challenging for me to understand the nuances in a lot of these programs. ... And if it's hard for me to understand, I can't imagine how challenging it is for low-income students and first-generation students to wrap their heads around this."

To help measure and make sense of states' free college efforts, Berger and The Education Trust used eight criteria, with a particular focus on equity. None of the programs managed a perfect score. Only one, in Washington, met seven of the criteria. Berger says that's because every free college program is a complex balance of priorities and costs. "All of these choices represent trade-offs. There is no truly universal, college-is-completely-free-for-everyone-ever [program]."

Here's what The Education Trust was looking for:

• Covers at least four years of tuition and covers a bachelor's degree at a four-year institution: These first two criteria are close cousins. The idea behind both is that when a state only covers tuition for two years of schooling — or excludes traditional, four-year institutions — it often ends up channeling students into lower-quality programs that have lower graduation rates and offer limited job prospects.
• Helps low-income students cover living expenses and covers fees in addition to tuition: "[Students] have to eat. They have to have shelter. They have to buy books," says Tiffany Jones, director of higher education policy at The Education Trust. "If a politician is selling a program saying, 'I'm making college free,' and they're not dealing with any of that stuff except for tuition, that can be really problematic."
• Includes adults and returning students: More than a third of students currently enrolled in a higher education program are 25 or older. Yet The Education Trust found that just two free college programs, in Hawaii and Tennessee, currently include older or returning students.
• No college G.P.A requirement above 2.0, or a C-average
• Allows students to enroll half-time: This is a big one for low-income or older students who want or need to work while they're in school. More than half of current free college programs prohibit this kind of part-time enrollment.
• Grant does not convert to a loan if criteria isn't met

To see these programs side-by-side, we've put together a handy chart at the end of this story. But first, a closer look at two programs that make very different promises.

In Indiana, an early promise

While many states are new to free college, Hoosiers have been at it for years. The state's 21st Century Scholars program is nearly three decades old, and is one of the top-rated programs on The Education Trust's list, meeting six of eight criteria.

21st Century Scholars can attend any participating two- or four-year institution, public or private, and the program covers four years of tuition and fees. Also, students won't receive less help from the state if they get other grants that can be used to cover non-tuition costs. The only knocks against the program, when measured against The Education Trust's rubric, are that it is not available to adult and returning students and participants cannot enroll part-time.

Changing Face Of College

Today's college students aren't who you think they are.

'Biggest-Ever Free College' Program Reaches 6 Percent Of New York Students

But what really sets Indiana's program apart is when it kicks in: seventh grade .

"It's an early promise program," says Teresa Lubbers, Indiana's commissioner for higher education.

Any seventh- or eighth-grader who qualifies for free or reduced price lunch can apply. In return for promising to pay their way through college, the state asks participants to meet 12 requirements in high school, the toughest of which is maintaining a B-average. Other requirements include visiting a college campus, taking a career interests assessment and filing a Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.

The program has grown over the years. Lubbers says roughly 20,000 participants are now in college with another 80,000 working their way through middle and high school. Other states may blanch at the sticker price: Last year alone, Lubbers says, the program awarded more than $160 million in financial aid. But Lubbers believes that price will drop with the state's unemployment rate and that there's still bipartisan support for the program.

"We're about changing the culture of a state that did not need education beyond high school to have a middle-class lifestyle," Lubbers says. "The world has shifted, and we are committed to make sure Hoosiers are not left behind."

In Oregon, a need-blind promise

The Oregon Promise program is much newer to the free college scene than Indiana's. Now in its third year, it's also smaller and, in many ways, more restrictive. Oregon Promise does not cover school fees or four-year institutions. It is a two-year grant (meaning it covers a maximum of 90 credits), and it is applicable only at community colleges.

Not surprisingly, Oregon Promise costs the state far less each year than Indiana's program. Instead of $160 million, Oregon's program costs the state $20-25 million a year, according to Ben Cannon, the executive director of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

The First State To Offer Free Community College To Nearly Every Adult

Perhaps the biggest difference, though, is who benefits. Again, Indiana restricts its free college program to low-income students. Oregon does not.

This is why, in the first year of Oregon's program, fewer than half of all participants qualified for a federal Pell Grant (a common measure of low-income status). The state does have a separate, larger program — the Oregon Opportunity Grant — that is targeted to low-income students, but it has been badly underfunded . In short, when it comes to the promise of free college, Oregon has chosen to pick up the tab for many students who don't need help.

This question of who should benefit from a free college program has stirred fierce debate. The problem with need-blind access, says Tiffany Jones at The Education Trust, is that it often results in more money going to students who don't need it than to low-income participants. That's because some programs scale back state aid to students who get additional help from, say, a federal Pell Grant.

Parsing The 'Free' In Free Community College

"We just want to be careful," says Jones, "that we aren't buying into the idea [of free college] but in reality spending a lot of money on wealthy students — not necessarily these students who struggle — and then, when the money is running out and 10, 15 years from now we look back, and we're saying 'OK, let's do something for low-income students.'"

The review also found that the programs with income caps often fared better in enrolling students of color. For example, in Indiana, African-Americans account for roughly 10 percent of the state population but 15 percent of 21st Century Scholars. It's a similar story for Latino students. In the case of Oregon's program, black students are underrepresented, though Latino students are not.

Oregon official Ben Cannon argues the decision to provide need-blind access may actually drive more low-income students into college.

"Simplicity in messaging is really, really important for these programs. They are, more than anything, marketing programs," Cannon says. "They succeed because they convince students and their families that college is accessible."

Need-blind access, Cannon argues, makes it easier for teachers to promote the program in their classrooms and may reduce the stigma some low-income students feel participating in a strictly means-tested aid program.

But Cannon also acknowledges the risk: Every dollar Oregon spends on more affluent students, is one dollar less it has to spend on vulnerable students.

"Whether that is a price worth paying," Cannon says, "given the fact we're funding students who don't need the financial help, is, I think, one we need more time and more research to better ascertain."

No doubt, the many states that haven't yet committed to free college are watching and taking notes.

( Not seeing the chart? Click here. )

Why Free College Is Necessary

Higher education can’t solve inequality, but the debate about free college tuition does something extremely valuable. It reintroduces the concept of public good to education discourse.

Free college is not a new idea, but, with higher education costs (and student loan debt) dominating public perception, it’s one that appeals to more and more people—including me. The national debate about free, public higher education is long overdue. But let’s get a few things out of the way.

College is the domain of the relatively privileged, and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future, even if tuition is eliminated. As of 2012, over half of the U.S. population has “some college” or postsecondary education. That category includes everything from an auto-mechanics class at a for-profit college to a business degree from Harvard. Even with such a broadly conceived category, we are still talking about just half of all Americans.

Why aren’t more people going to college? One obvious answer would be cost, especially the cost of tuition. But the problem isn’t just that college is expensive. It is also that going to college is complicated. It takes cultural and social, not just economic, capital. It means navigating advanced courses, standardized tests, forms. It means figuring out implicit rules—rules that can change.

Eliminating tuition would probably do very little to untangle the sailor’s knot of inequalities that make it hard for most Americans to go to college. It would not address the cultural and social barriers imposed by unequal K–12 schooling, which puts a select few students on the college pathway at the expense of millions of others. Neither would it address the changing social milieu of higher education, in which the majority are now non-traditional students. (“Non-traditional” students are classified in different ways depending on who is doing the defining, but the best way to understand the category is in contrast to our assumptions of a traditional college student—young, unfettered, and continuing to college straight from high school.) How and why they go to college can depend as much on things like whether a college is within driving distance or provides one-on-one admissions counseling as it does on the price.

Given all of these factors, free college would likely benefit only an outlying group of students who are currently shut out of higher education because of cost—students with the ability and/or some cultural capital but without wealth. In other words, any conversation about college is a pretty elite one even if the word “free” is right there in the descriptor.

The discussion about free college, outside of the Democratic primary race, has also largely been limited to community colleges, with some exceptions by state. Because I am primarily interested in education as an affirmative justice mechanism, I would like all minority-serving and historically black colleges (HBCUs)—almost all of which qualify as four-year degree institutions—to be included. HBCUs disproportionately serve students facing the intersecting effects of wealth inequality, systematic K–12 disparities, and discrimination. For those reasons, any effort to use higher education as a vehicle for greater equality must include support for HBCUs, allowing them to offer accessible degrees with less (or no) debt.

The Obama administration’s free community college plan, expanded in July to include grants that would reduce tuition at HBCUs, is a step in the right direction. Yet this is only the beginning of an educational justice agenda. An educational justice policy must include institutions of higher education but cannot only include institutions of higher education. Educational justice says that schools can and do reproduce inequalities as much as they ameliorate them. Educational justice says one hundred new Universities of Phoenix is not the same as access to high-quality instruction for the maximum number of willing students. And educational justice says that jobs programs that hire for ability over “fit” must be linked to millions of new credentials, no matter what form they take or how much they cost to obtain. Without that, some free college plans could reinforce prestige divisions between different types of schools, leaving the most vulnerable students no better off in the economy than they were before.

Free college plans are also limited by the reality that not everyone wants to go to college. Some people want to work and do not want to go to college forever and ever—for good reason. While the “opportunity costs” of spending four to six years earning a degree instead of working used to be balanced out by the promise of a “good job” after college, that rationale no longer holds, especially for poor students. Free-ninety-nine will not change that.

I am clear about all of that . . . and yet I don’t care. I do not care if free college won’t solve inequality. As an isolated policy, I know that it won’t. I don’t care that it will likely only benefit the high achievers among the statistically unprivileged—those with above-average test scores, know-how, or financial means compared to their cohort. Despite these problems, today’s debate about free college tuition does something extremely valuable. It reintroduces the concept of public good to higher education discourse—a concept that fifty years of individuation, efficiency fetishes, and a rightward drift in politics have nearly pummeled out of higher education altogether. We no longer have a way to talk about public education as a collective good because even we defenders have adopted the language of competition. President Obama justified his free community college plan on the grounds that “Every American . . . should be able to earn the skills and education necessary to compete and win in the twenty-first century economy.” Meanwhile, for-profit boosters claim that their institutions allow “greater access” to college for the public. But access to what kind of education? Those of us who believe in viable, affordable higher ed need a different kind of language. You cannot organize for what you cannot name.

Already, the debate about if college should be free has forced us all to consider what higher education is for. We’re dusting off old words like class and race and labor. We are even casting about for new words like “precariat” and “generation debt.” The Debt Collective is a prime example of this. The group of hundreds of students and graduates of (mostly) for-profit colleges are doing the hard work of forming a class-based identity around debt as opposed to work or income. The broader cultural conversation about student debt, to which free college plans are a response, sets the stage for that kind of work. The good of those conversations outweighs for me the limited democratization potential of free college.

Tressie McMillan Cottom is an assistant professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a contributing editor at Dissent . Her book Lower Ed: How For-Profit Colleges Deepen Inequality is forthcoming from the New Press.

This article is part of   Dissent’s special issue of “Arguments on the Left.” Click to read contending arguments from Matt Bruenig and Mike Konczal .

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Why Should College Be Free: Overview of The Benefits

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Words: 1583 |

Updated: 23 January, 2024

Words: 1583 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

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Introduction, why college should be free, works cited.

• BBC. (2019, December 20). Greta Thunberg: Climate Crisis Activist Gets Comic Book Treatment. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50861907
• CNN. (2019, September 23). Greta Thunberg: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know.
• Greta Thunberg’s official website. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.gretathunberg.org/
• Svenska Dagbladet. (2018, August 20). Greta Thunberg: “Skolstrejken för klimatet kan pågå i åratal” [Greta Thunberg: “The school strike for climate can go on for years”]. Retrieved from https://www.svd.se/greta-thunberg-skolstrejken-for-klimatet-kan-paga-i-aratal
• The Guardian. (2019, March 11). Greta Thunberg: The Fifteen-Year-Old Climate Activist Who Is Leading a Global Movement.

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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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