Potter 1

Angela Potter
College Composition, pd 1
Mrs. Cramer
24 March 2017
Why Affordable College Tuition Can Work
Should college tuition be free? This has been debated since former President Barack

Obama proposed, "free community college to responsible students for two years". This struck a

nerve in those who pay taxes to provide this "free college tuition", saying that it should not be

this way, college tuition should never be free. If college were to become affordable to everyone

we would not have to spend as much money for those on welfare, or the military as a whole,

students would not be in debt for the rest of their lives, and we would be able to build up the

country economically.

First, some people have stated that the military is becoming weaker than it once was and

that the military is in need of a higher budget.1 It is said that our ships are falling apart or that we

do not have enough money or materials to build more aircrafts, but these are rumors. Looking

into the U.S federal budget spending overview: 8% of our discretionary spending goes to

education, while 49% goes to the military (Rate).2 Education is important, it feels that we are

spending a massive amount on our military, as if we are fighting another world war, but we are

not. We have the strongest military in the world, there is no need for 49% of the spending to

belong only to our National Defense. Recently, on March 16, 2017, President Donald Trump

created "blueprints" of his economic plan. He has decided that education funding needs to be cut,

along with EPA, transportation, and housing (Thrush). More of our taxes will be given to

1
Conduplicatio- figure of repetition where a keyword is repeated at the very beginning of
successive sentences.
2
Logos- an appeal to logic; to persuade an audience by using reason/evidence
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increase our defense (Thrush). What wars are we fighting? Why is this more important than

education?

Meanwhile, in other charts, it is shown that 25% of our taxes go to those who are on

welfare (Rates). Americans complain endlessly about people who are on welfare. If we allowed

college to be affordable to everyone we would not have a high number of people on welfare as

we do now. We would be allowing those people to become productive members of society and to

improve themselves and our economy (Josephson). Furthermore, if the budget for the National

Defense was cut where 15% of discretionary spending was given to education, we would be

giving more people chances to better our country and make something of themselves. Taxes

given to pay for welfare would go down and finally be given to those who are actually in need of

the help.

Next, we may be able to build up our country economically in an incredible way.

Providing an affordable high quality college education would have an extensive number of

citizens working to help boost our country's GDP. "By 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require a

bachelor's or associate's degrees, or some other education beyond high school" (David). If we are

able to find those willing to do the STEM courses, making college affordable to them will help

the government immensely pertaining to our economy's productivity rate, and how much is

produced from America. Anyone can argue that not everyone will want to take on the STEM

occupations and we are not able to force them into taking these courses. However, if we offered

these types of courses at a more affordable cost, this will most likely that draw in more attention.

Mainly the blue collar workers are who help the economy, they are able to do this more

efficiently now due to their high level skill in result of proper education (Staff). Blue collar

workers are those who do the manual labor. The ones who create everything as requested by
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those who run the businesses. In result of their education and skill we are able to build our

economy; without education we would not be able to have such skilled men and women to do

this work for our country.

Lastly, students are in debt for the rest of their lives with how much college costs. If a

person is studying to become a doctor, they in no way should be given a debt of thousands of

dollars that will take them until they are 40 years old to pay off. They are saving people's lives,

why should they have a massive amount of debt pushed onto them for benefiting those around

them? It used to never be this way, college used to be much less expensive between the 1940's

and 1970's (Morris). The government used to have programs that helped students tremendously,

for example the GI Bill, and the Perkins Loan Program (Morris). Our taxes need to aid those in

need of a high quality education without worrying about the massive amount of debt that will be

put on them in the end. Who will want to go to college knowing that their whole life will be

spent paying back student loans? "Public four-year tuitions have been increasing 3.4 percent each

year between 2005 and 2015" (Morris). We are not investing as much into education as we used

to be, we are depriving these generations from pursuing what they are most capable of.

Some say that there are forgiveness plans for student loans, in which the student loans

will lower if you are qualified. However, "students who take out college loans but don't graduate

are three times more likely to default than borrowers who complete" (College). This means that

these students were not able to meet the student loan due date within 270 days (What..). Which

will result in the students not being protected with Federal forgiveness, their interest rates will go

insane and rise3 then their credit will be at an all time high. If you do not have money, it is almost

impossible to go to college (What..). "9 percent of students from the lowest income bracket

3
Personification- giving human characteristics to something that is nonhuman
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obtain a bachelor's degree by age 24, compared to 77 percent of the wealthiest" (Morris). This is

not fair to those who are intelligent enough, and those who want to change and make something

of themselves, but are not able to afford to go for a higher level of education because of how

expensive it is now.

In conclusion, if college was able to be affordable to everyone, no matter what class, we

would not be required to spend as much as this country does for welfare or the military. Students

could pay off their debt easier, and we would be able to have a better economy for our country.

This seems to be said as if it is simple, but there is no correct answer if college should be free,

not free, or affordable. Nothing seems to work in our government in which someone will not

complain. This goes down to the bottom line that college should in no way be free, life is not a

free ride, but it is necessary to give every person a chance at life. To give a person a chance at

life, college should be made affordable. It seems that college is not about how good of grades

you earn, it is about how much money you and your family has, or if you excel at a sport. Those

who come from low income families, yet receive distinguished honor grades deserve to have an

affordable, high quality education most of all. We as a country have a long way to go for

affordable, higher education.

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Works Cited
"College Affordability and Completion: Ensuring a Pathway to Opportunity." U.S Department of
Education, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.
David A. Bergeron and Carmel Martin. "Strengthening Our Economy Through College for All."
Center for American Progress. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
Josephson, Amelia. "The Pros and Cons of Free College." SmartAsset. N.p., 15 Sept. 2016. Web.
15 Mar. 2017.
Morris, Catherine. "Pay It Forward." Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, vol. 32, no. 23, 17
Dec. 2015, pp. 12-13.
Rate Limited. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2017.
Staff, Investopedia. "Blue Collar." Investopedia. N.p., 26 Dec. 2006. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
Thrush, Glenn, and Coral Davenport. "Donald Trump Budget Slashes Funds for E.P.A. and State
Department." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Mar. 2017. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.
"What Does It Mean to "default" on My Federal Student Loans?" Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2017.