Higher Education Needs To Be Free Now

Edith Guzman

Ms. Yeganegi

Advanced Composition

3 March 2016

Higher Education Needs To Be Free Now

Richard Eskow wrote “Colleges and universities must also produce the musicians, writers, philosophers, scientists, and visionaries of tomorrow.” College has always been this magical place I would hear of growing up that was just the best thing I could ever imagine. There are commercials on tv that would speak of scholarships and teachers speaking of student loans. The harsh truth hit me one day in middle school when I realized that my parent’s legal status affected me much more than I thought. We aren’t the wealthiest of families, but I was determined to get the grades need to go to college without making my parents and myself getting into dept. The same dept. that so many of my teachers are still trying to pay off even after years of college. Higher education should be free because it is now becoming a requirement and not a luxury, it is not always useful after three years of working in one job; free higher education is the moral way to go.

Just as everything else in life education prices are also changing. When the first elite colleges were founded the cost was nearly free, but since 1980 there has been a 400% increase in the cost, which means it has rose faster than any other industry. Thousands of teens from lower income families are not able to go to college despite aspiring to be better and make a change in their communities. Often times this is not the case because life is not a fairy tale and dreams don’t always come true in spite of what these privileged born people may say. Out of ten people from low income families only one of them will be able to earn a bachelor’s degree. These statistics don’t mean that we are lazier than higher income families it just shows that we are being denied our own rights to education simply because of money. Money doesn’t buy happiness they say, but who will be happier? The mother who went to college and can afford to buy her kids their school supplies or the mother who works as a housekeeper all day yet still cannot afford to pay for her even her first born child’s college tuition?   This land of opportunities is not living up to its name.

There is the argument that free higher education would be a terrible thing for our economy, but is this really true? “More is being spent on subsidizing things like athletics or administration costs” said Rebecca Burns.  If the money which is being provided to colleges and universities is not being well spent on education why even keep giving them the money? Instead of students applying for student loans or scholarships the money should go directly to the institutions, but be towards the actual education. Less and less employees are asking for just the high school diploma, instead they are asking for higher education and experience. The price for our deserved education more important now than it was just twenty years ago; it’s also the highest it has ever been. Why should we keep on living in poverty with our nation’s economy plummeting even more when just some simple changes could change this country for the better?

“People can figure out how to pass college tests if they can master what the professor wants.” If this is the case why must college even been made such a big requirement? If the few who get full ride scholarships or just have the money to pay their years of college simply have to do that why can’t we all? If we work hard all through elementary, middle, and high school only to bump into a wall after graduation because of money, why can’t this change? Why is it easier to pass gun laws than it is to help out to less privileged of The States? Why are we discussing whether or not drug use should become legal when there is something bigger that needs to change? It needs to change now.

Works Cited

"College Affordability and Completion: Ensuring a Pathway to Opportunity." College Affordability and Completion: Ensuring a Pathway to Opportunity. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.

Eskow, Richard. "Free Higher Education Is a Human Right." Campaign For America's Future. N.p., 14 Mar. 2014. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.

"Why Can’t College Be Free?" - In These Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2016.