Society & Politics

No, the US does not need "free" college, here's why (Here's what it DOES need, though).

No, the US does not need


It's a big topic nowadays, especially with the recent protests. Free college in the US seems to be something the youth keep crying out for. There's a lot of debate, and rightfully so, since the US secondary education system is one of the best in the world and has millions of people within its system. So, does the US actually need free college? I think it does not. Here's why:


The cliché but very real argument: Nothing is actually free.


When people say they want "free" college, what they're saying is that tuition for public universities should be payed for entirely by taxes, for every single student in the US that chooses to go. The justification is that secondary public education is a right like primary education. Primary education is already payed this way, and is one of every state's largest, if not the largest expenditures they all have. The point is, if we want "free" public education, we're all going to have to pay for it with increased taxes.


Well that can't be so bad, right? Countries like Denmark, Sweden, etc. have free education. We could do that, right? Let's get something straight here: Not even the most affluent people in the US taxed heavily will be able to cover the full costs unless many other sacrifices in government spending are made elsewhere. Yes, Sweden can afford to give free education to all of its students. However, keep in mind that Sweden is also a country with less than (or just equal to) 10 million people, while the US has 32 times that population at 320 million. There are about 20 million college attendees in the US, compared to about 400k in Sweden. Sweden's citizens also pay some of the highest rates in the world, with some paying 50-55% of their income for taxes. Meanwhile, some US citizens only pay about ~40% or less in comparison. So, if we are to have free education, note that our tax rates are going to go up, probablly significantly. If you're okay with that, the more power to you. The only problem is that this is a country that started a war with the world's most powerful nation over a very small tax. Lastly, remember that Sweden's students have a lot of debt once they graduate. I won't bore you with explaining why here, but here's the link that does: Wait, Swedish students have loan debt?


Well if our government can afford to fight two wars, they should be able to afford free education! Yes, they should, but they can't actually. Those two wars and other spending are why the US is now $18,600,000,000,000 in debt and rises thousands every second. It's actually quite fascinating to watch it rise. Anyways, my point here is that we only take in about $3 trillion in Federal tax revenue per year but already have $18.6 trillion that needs to be paid off somehow. It's going to cost about $75 billion per year for free tuition for every student and better refinancing options for those that already have loans. If we want loan forgiveness, that's an extra $1 trillion right there. So, the grand total would be $1 trillion + $75 billion per year, every year. Currently the US deficit in government spending is about $430 billion.


So, what are our options? Well, first we're goning to have to cut spending somewhere. Where? I think we all agree the military should be our first priority. So, let's spend only about a 1/6th of what we do on our military now, with only ~$100 billion being spent per year. Well, it certainly helped. We're now only at about -$23 billion in deficit per year rather than -$433 billion. That's still not enough though...so I guess we can either cut from Medicare/Medicaid ($1 trillion), or social security (~$890 billion), or maybe Welfare & Food stamps (~$300 billion), or what about benefits for some of our veterans? ($250 billion). Oh...wait, we're not supposed to cut spending from those places, those are all already government money that's meant to help us. I guess that leaves us only one other option: Raise taxes, a lot. So we can finally afford the free education now! Yayyyyy! Expect not really. There's still that $18.6 trillion that needs to get payed off somehow, and let's not forget we need a lot of infrastructure improvements (~$100 billion per year), and create paid maternity/medical leave (~$4 billion per year) too. Those are actual important programs that a lot of people, Republican or Democrat, agree we need. So darn. This is gonna suck y'all...


We get it. It's not going to be cheap. So why shouldn't we make it free anyways?


Well, for starters, secondary education might be "right" to some, but not everyone benefits from it like most public goods. You see, some people choose to go into the workforce, go to technical/private schools, or don't actually want to go to (or can't handle the schoolwork of) a public university. These people are still going to be paying a lot of taxes (again, not just the affluent could pay for this, the masses will have to as well) and they're not getting any benefit from it. You get the education for free while they pay for it. If you're an older adult who managed to climb your way up the ladder instead of going to a university, you're going to pay for others to go to school. If you're someone who already payed off your loan debts...you're goning to be paying for the education of others. As you can see, this isn't really fair to them, and trust me, it's goning to leave a bitter taste in many people's mouths that you're getting something highly-valuable for free while they pay for it.


Secondly, education is free already. Wait, what? Yes. If you're someone who's poor, the government already offers you a free education through grant money. Not only that, but the poorer you are, the more they give you. There's also many scholarships around, with many exclusively benefiting only those who are underprivileged, faced hard times growing up, or are minorities. There's many options out there and a surprising number of people that could benefit from them aren't.


Third, just paying tuition isn't going to cover a lot of your costs. My total cost for university per year is about $20k right now, and a surprising $11k of that is just on-campus housing and meal plans that I don't even use. So, my tuition/fees/books only add up to about $9k. That's less than half of my total cost. Next year when I move off-campus as a Junior I'll only be paying tuition (no help from parents after that point either lol, but luckily I've saved up several thousand). Either way, if you're someone who get's free tuition, you're still going to need loans or money from somewhere to pay for the housing/food if you plan to live on campus like many do.


So what should be done then?


Here's what really needs to happen: College tutition needs to be less expensive. Tuition has soared through the roof in only a couple of decades. Why? Why does it cost so much? Public universities are non-profit and all of your tuition is supposed to be re-invested in the school. The reason why public tuition is so expensive is because they know they can take it. People are still going to go there and pay by loans (or whatever) to get their education. So, why not raise prices to pay for more stuff? Universities are paying truckloads of money for these things:



  1. Athletics/Clubs. This is something that sets the US apart from many other countries, we have collegiate sports teams and clubs, and boy do we drop truckloads of money into them. Now, I don't think many think we should get rid of athletics in colleges. In addition to our world-class education, our schools also offer athletics/clubs and that gives people the freedom to do things they never would have otherwise. It also allows people to get their education when they probably wouldn't have been able to otherwise. However, do we really need to be spending as much money as we do on them? The players aren't even getting payed for the millions they bring in for ad/merchandise revenue they bring in the school. There's no reason to be sinking millions into Football stadiums and fancy uniforms (*cough* University of Oregon *cough*). Cutting costs there would really help lower tuition.

  2. The fanciness. I attend a school known as UNCC. Go ahead and look it up, the campus is beautiful! Brand new brick buildings, brick sidewalks everywhere, all the amenities and fun stuff you could want. It's great. It also costs a lot of money to construct such monolithic and beautiful structures. A boring old concrete building campus would honestly suck, but if it meant I pay half as much as I do now in tuition, well, it might be worth it.

  3. Research. Now, this varies school to school, but public universities at their core are made to do research. Whether it's on cancer treatments, new technologies, etc. a lot of schools sink money into their research programs. This is a good thing though, I know it would be awesome if someone from my school discovered a new, affordable, effective treatment for cancer. It also would benefit us all as a whole. Many important scientific and medical discoveries have been and are made at public universities. However, sometimes they spend too much and really end up being wasteful. Some greater efficiency with how research money is used wouldn't hurt.


Student loans are your ally, not your enemy.


Yes, I said that right. It's time we stopped looking at student loans as the greatest evil and rather something good. In fact, many people in the banking/credit industry refer to student loans as a form of "good debt". Here's why:



  1. They're the easiest loans to get, and the easiest to pay off. Auto loans, House loans, personal loans, etc. are all quite difficult to get (cheaply, at least). You have to have a good credit score in order to get a good rate. Well, students entering college don't have credit scores. How will they be able to get money for things like college? Well, college loans (especially the federal ones) are given away like candy. Not only that, but it's really easy to pay them off too. The average student leaves college with $25k in student loan debt. However, let's assume you're going to wind up with $35k like me. The good news is they're really easy to pay off. First, you don't owe a dime until you graduate. Second, the monthly payments are quite low. Let's assume you only pay $350 per month, or 10% of the income of someone making $42k per year after taxes, which is a reasonable expectation for someone with a (good) college degree. Well, it won't even take you 14 years to pay off. That's not that bad at all, especially considering how much a car or house could cost in that same time span. Someone in my major could manage to pay ~$700 a month at 10% salary and be able to pay them off in just 5 years!

  2. They help build your credit score. This is by far the best benefit of student loans. If you make your monthly payments, they're going to help build your credit score. The higher your credit score, the more you can afford. The interest rate of 8% sucks on student loans, however, with a good credit score you could buy a car or house for half of that interest rate (or even a third or a fourth!). Creditors also love to see you paying multiple lines of credit (student loans, credit cards, car payment, etc.) all at the same time, even if it's not much (make sure you're meeting payments though!) This makes you look even better since you're juggling a lot and managing. Some even choose to keep paying their student loans for 20 years even though they could stop paying them much sooner because of this (just know, they pay the loan debt off with a different loan that has a cheaper interest rate) just so they can milk that benefit as long as possible.


The most important tip I can give for student loans is, don't get a useless major. When you were little, your parents told you that you could be anything you wanted. That's true! In this free country of ours' you can be anything you want! However, what they should have said is you can be anything you want as long as you can make money with it. Useless majors that can't get you a job (a decent one anyways) are a terrible investment, no matter how much you want to do it. After all, getting a secondary education is an investment in yourself, so that you may make much more than the guy who still flips burgers at Steak & Shake after 10 years. So, here's a list of useless majors (warning, butthurt may occur):



  • Women's/Gender Studies

  • Liberal Arts

  • Philosophy

  • Psychology

  • Humanities

  • English/Spanish

  • Sociology

  • Journalism/Communications

  • Nutrition

  • Ciminal justice

  • Social Work

  • Film Studies


These majors are useless. You won't get a good job because (1.) They pay so little since no business really has use for these majors and (2.) Too many competitors in the field. Don't give me that, "well I know a friend of a friend who's a [insert major I listed above] and he/she makes [insert salary between $60k-$110k here] a year! That's not useless! ". Guess what? Those people are exceptions to the rule, not the rule makers. Not only that but many of them came from expensive prestigious schools that are either private universities or Ivy league. So you're either going to get a lousy job with these or have to get a totally different job that doesn't have anything to do with your major to make money.


On the other hand, here are some useful majors that will return the investment you put in and help you make not only a lot of money but give you good job security, too. This is important for not living a life pay-check to pay-check and suffocating beneath your loans. Here are the most useful majors:



  • Business, especially concentrated in computers

  • Mathematics

  • Biology

  • IT

  • Computer Science

  • Chemistry

  • Physics

  • Geology

  • Engineering

  • Nursing

  • Anything medical related, really.


These majors make great investments. They're satisfying to work, they pay well, there's good job security, the list goes on and on. Business, STEM (Everything in the middle), medical schooling is a great way to land a job outside of college so you can pay those loans and have enough money left over to save and buy cool stuff! (If you select a useless major and can't find a job or make enough money, it's your own fault since people have been preaching for years to avoid these. Humorously enough it's people in these majors the most who complain about college not being worth it and how the student loan system is messed up).


So everyone, that's why the US doesn't need "free" education. Thanks for listening!

No, the US does not need "free" college, here's why (Here's what it DOES need, though).
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