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Graham Vaught
Adam P.
English 102`
April 4, 2016
Free College Education
The biggest problem that students are facing is debt. A study shown individual debt loads
which average more than $35,000 per student for the class of 2015 (Fraser 104). The total debt
come to 1.3 trillion dollars and it is increasing every year. Because of this problem one big
solution that is highly promoted by Senator Bernie Sanders is free college education for
everyone. Even though the idea sounds good will it work or will the idea of free education for
everyone, is just a big money pit? I tackled this question though 5 questions. The first question is
how it will affect the peoples tax rate? The second question is how will affect the middle and
poor class? The third question is how much will the government control the education? The
fourth question is how much will it increase the countrys debt? And the last question is will it
flood our job market and affect the small college schools? After reaching the answers to these
questions I have found that having a free college education system will harm the middle class
and will cause more problem then to fix.
One of the major reasons for which college students do not attend college is the price of
tuition. Author Fran Cubberley said in her article that The more than one trillion dollar student
loan debt is frightening and many are questioning the value of higher education as a result
(Cubberley 21). The free college education system is supposed to removing the barrier of tuition
would go a long way in providing greater access and opportunity (Cubberley 22). Even though this
sounds great, but someone has to pay for the tuition, this idea is also known as the business term
TANSTAAFL. This means There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch, what this is saying is that if

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something seems like it is free, then there is always a cost that someone had to pay which could be
indirect or hidden. In the case of the free college education system that free term means taxes. In Bernie
Sanders plan for a free college education system it is said that has called for $750 billion in federal funds
over ten years to eliminate tuition at public four-year colleges (Kelly 39) and also another $350 billion
over ten years to provide tuition-free community college. With this 1.1 trillion dollar plan to eliminate
college tuition, this will greatly increase the tax on the American people. Because of this tax increase on
the people, the Tuition that Bernie Sanders is try to get rid of, is just transforming in to taxes. This
contradict the entire propose of the free college education system, and bring up the problem can people
afford the extra cost of college when there is such a high tax to pay for the free college tuition? As a
freshman in college there is much more money spent other than college tuition. There is books, class
room supplies and food, these things all cost money outside of the college tuition. With the high tax that
will be in place the people would not able to afford these thing which brings back to the problem that
some people cannot afford college.
By having a free college education system, this will increase the tax rate tremendously of the
American people and also create more problem for the middle and poor class people. The United States
economy is run by the middle class, its the largest class and produce the largest amount of revenue. With
the high taxes generated by the free college education system the middle class will have less money to
spend in their community. This will cause unemployment rate to increase, because people not to make big
finical decisions like getting married or buying a new house. All of these things affects the economy in a
bad way. Also in Bernie Sanders plan for a free college education does not specify on what the school
spends the money on. Kelly said Transferring costs away from students onto taxpayers would lower
tuition prices while allowing schools to continue operating under their current wasteful cost structures. An
influx of new funding might actually lead them to pay less attention to cost-effectiveness than they do
now. If everybody is receiving tuition on the taxpayer dime, schools dont have to worry that students will
flee to a lower-cost option.(Kelly 40). With this free college education system schools will use the 1.1

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trillion dollars on unnecessary building and constructions instead of the school using it for the students.
Kelly is also saying that school would stop being cost effect since there being pay by the government
regardless of how much they spend. The school wouldnt have to worry about anything because the
student will chose the lower cost schools because of financial situations they are in. This will just add on
the tax payer and cause the American people to pay more taxes. This is just another example of why the
free college education system hurts the economy, hurts the middle class Americans, and cause more
problems than solutions.
With the free college education system the government will be giving the colleges the money for
their financial needs. Author Kelly said Free college would entail an unprecedented expansion of
federal power over public colleges (Kelly 40). This means that the government would have control over
the entire education system from pre-school to grad-school the government would control it. With the
government controlling the education they would make universal standard across the College Board. This
also could be a big problem with the government corrupting the education system. The government would
have the potential to feed the American people lies secretly. Author David P. Haney talk about how the
government would treat the school like business by saying Our government tends to invest in systems
(No Child Left Behind, federal regulations, and ratings systems), not people, despite our founding tenets
based on Enlightenment principles of individuality (Haney 1). The free college education system will
give huge amount of control over the people and only care about numbers instead of the quality of the
education. This means the government will create systems that show good numbers to the public to make
them happy but the education would be at an easy standard. Currently I am a college student that has been
though the education system that government has created for high school. I was in the AP program for
calculus, chemistry, and physics, in theses class were unqualified teachers that haven been though the AP
teaching course or havent even taught an honors course in there career. The teacher didnt have any help
from anybody or had anybody to show them what to teach, so they had to come up with the material on
their own. This is just an example that the government would not care about the education system. With

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the government controlling the education system the quality of the education will decrease and the
potential for the government to corrupt the education will increase.
As The United States debt increases and passes the 15 trillion mark, the free college
education system will just add another 1.1 trillion to that debt. This mean that the United States will have
to cut funding in other places. Since the government think more like a business them means they will cut
of money in place like science research, space exploration, and other means that doesnt produce any
profit or help other businesses. This could potentially be bad because this would allow Russia or Europe
to get head in research and possibly allow them to create high profit businesses or weapons. This increase
in debt in the United States could have drastic affects to our economy and to national security. The
American people should be looking for way to decrease the debt because Mike Konczal said American
debt can even American debt can even be an important asset. be an important asset. Theres been what
finance Theres been what finance experts call a safe-asset experts call a safe-asset shortage, or a lack
of shortage, or a lack of dependable debt that can be used for collateral in other economic transactions.
Only lateral in other economic transactions. Only the government can provide debt that is safe the
government can provide debt that is safe from the business cycle ( Konczal 5). By lowing the countrys
debt this allow for a potential recession to happen, and the American people would not get affected as
much. This would also allow the government to bail banks out if they go out of business. By having a free
college education system this would increase the countrys debt which would have a negative effect on
the United State economy.
In today job market there is a demand in some field and there are an oversupply in other job
fields. This is a variation of the Supply and demand idea which is the more you a supply of a service or
product the less of demand or the will to pay for that service or product. In the article The Reality of Free
Community College Cubberley said that should the flood gates open and hundreds, or even thousands,
more students descend on our doorstep, our capacity to serve them will be severely tested (Cubberley
23) even though this is good for the college business it could also affect the demand for jobs. In the free

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college education system there will be thousand more graduates competing for the same job. This will
flood the mark place for companies looking to hire people. This will increases the supply for jobs
opportunity and decrease the value of that education that person has. This mean that if a person is trying
to stand out of a crowd for a job employment they would have to more education, more hands on
experience, and more social skills. Because of this a person will have to pay more money to standout to
get a job which then contradicts the purpose of the free college education. This contradiction defects the
purpose of the free education system because now person has to pay more money to get a job. The free
college education system is now going to make the job market more competitive and make people spend
more money to get a job.
One of the thing that the free college education system is going to affect the most is small
colleges. Author Haney said if state institutions become free or close to free through federal subsidies,
many small private colleges will have to close their doors. That's because they will simply not be able to
compete with the nearly free education offered at a state university down the road (Haney 1). The free
education will make the bigger university more affordable, therefore the student are going to bigger
university instead of a small one. Haney also said that These same concerns don't affect elite private
colleges, which can attract students who pay near the sticker price, or have relatively unlimited
endowments to subsidize costsreduce choices for students, destroy centuries of tradition, and cause
economic harm to already stressed regions(Haney 1). The free college education will destroy tradition
and will limit the choices for student will are wanting a smaller college. This will also hurt small rural
area who depend on the small college for business. This will hurt the microeconomic of those area and
cause them to either move or find another way of business.
The free college education system is going to very cost worthy and create more problem then
solutions. The free education system is going to increase the tax rate among the middle and poor class, it
is going to allow the government to control the entire education system, its going to increase the country
debt by 1.1 trillion dollars, it is going to flood the market of people looking for jobs, and lastly it is going

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to make small college and small rural areas go out of business. I think the education system we have now
has less flaws then a free education system but still needs improvement. Abraham Lincoln said that The
philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

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Citation page
COVERT, B., & KONCZAL, M. (2015). Debt-Fix and Chill. Nation, 301(18), 5.
Cubberley, Fran. "The Reality of Free Community College Tuition." Journal Of College
Admission 227 (2015): 21-23. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
David, Haney, D. P. (2015). A Better Plan for Debt-Free College: Give Money Straight to
Students. Chronicle Of Higher Education, 62(4), 28.
Edwards, H. S., Altman, A., Miller, Z. J., & Thompson, M. (2015). But Can America
Afford This Approach to Solving Student Debt? Time, 186(22), 92-99.
Fraser, Max. "Student Debt And The Next Bailout." New Labor Forum (Sage
Publications Inc.) 25.1 (2016): 104-107. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
KELLY, A. P. (2015). The Cost of 'Free' College. National Review, 67(19), 39-42.
Watson, Bryan D. "Preserving The Promise Of Higher Education: Ensuring Access To
The "American Dream" Through Student Debt Reform." University Of Florida Journal Of Law
& Public Policy 25.3 (2014): 315-330. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Feb. 2016