Higher education is vital to having a literate, professional workforce. It allows people to gain the skills and knowledge needed for highly specialized careers, from operating energy reactors to performing surgery. Much of post-secondary education in the United States is privately owned, and students pay tuition fees to attend. Making post-secondary universities free to attend and opening up their accessibility to all would give everyone the ability to pursue specialized work. It would massively benefit society and accelerate research and study in every known scientific field.

Universities usually offer majors in a diverse range of subjects, such as the humanities, natural science and the arts. People who pursue these majors can then go on to make important contributions in their fields and shape their landscape. The fact that this essential practice is inaccessible to hundreds of thousands of potential students due to the cost of tuition holds society back. Other economically developed countries have implemented tuition-free universities, such as Norway, Germany and Sweden.

Tuition fees and the for-profit system of higher education only serve to allow corporations to pocket students’ money. Unlike other goods that cost money, tuition is not a tangible asset that has any material value. Instead, it is a fee charged for entry into university, which at some private universities is unaffordable for thousands of applicants who would otherwise be accepted based on their academic portfolio. This is not in the interest of staff and professors at universities either, who would rather teach engaged students than those who were sent by their wealthy parents simply to complete an education.

Making college cost-free would, in fact, enable the United States economy to grow. With additional people now able to go through college, job shortages in critical areas like nursing, teaching, electrical work and technician—all high-demand jobs in Minnesota—would be filled. Students’ indebtedness after completing college, at levels on average which are notoriously high in the United States, would cease to be an issue. That would put more money in the pockets of students to use in the economy, as well as make housing and other necessities in reach.

Free university is a step toward strengthening our workforce and opening academic possibilities for all humanity. It’s a dream for millions living across the world. It is not a matter of capacity or resources, but instead a competition for profit among private universities. Treating people’s degrees as a commodity to be bought on a market, with no assurances about their return on investment, debilitates our workforce’s potential. If everyone could access college and obtain their degree, public-sector jobs would quickly be filled. With new scientists, engineers and thinkers, discoveries could be made everywhere. The only obstacle is the chase for profit.

For almost 50 years now, it has been nearly vital to have a college degree to have a successful career in almost all areas of the workforce. As of right now, more than 30 states have made free attendance to all two-year community colleges a reality, and during his term, former President Joe Biden has made it clear he plans on making free community college a nationwide policy. However, making college free in the United States isn’t a good idea, and here’s why.

The first reason is that free college isn’t entirely free. Even rates outside of tuition can amount to more than 16,000 dollars a year on things like housing, food, school resources and transportation. So if schools are fully waiving the tuition fee to supposedly benefit students with the ability to thrive in the higher education system, but those who do not have the means to get there, they aren’t actually fully covering the cost that is required to be a student at most universities. One of the largest arguments for free college in the U.S. is that it’s more equal and fair to all, no matter your economic standing. But the current system is being developed right now, and does not take into account the cost of everyday living of a college student. Those lower-income students still aren’t going to be able to benefit from it as much as students who can afford to live more comfortably, even though ideally in the current system being devised, it should be the other way around. 

Reason two: Where will the money come from? To start, let’s do some rough math. Right now, the average cost of tuition for an in-state public college is $9,000 a year, and let’s just say you want to go to college out of state, the average tuition cost is $30,000, which is a lot more. There are currently 19.1 million college students in the United States, and for the sake of argument, let’s just use the most conservative number. So, $9,000 for more than 19 million students, that would come out to the government paying more than 200 billion annually to cover the cost of all tuition fees alone. Our current tax system will not allow for that much annual spending on top of what the government already pays for every year, and many Americans would not like their taxes to shoot through the roof, and therefore would not support this idea. 200 billion dollars is only considering in-state tuition as well, to cover the cost of 19 million students paying average out-of-state tuition rates, the money the government would have to spend to cover that all would be more than 500 billion dollars a year — an impossible amount.

This leads me to my third reason, which is that the quality of education in the higher education system would significantly decrease. We’ve already established that the amount the government would have to cover to have college be free was an extremely expensive amount, but that was only taking into account the average student. 34 of the top 50 colleges in the nation have yearly tuition fees over $50,000 per student, and we’ve already established that it would be almost impossible for the government to cover the average tuition of $9,000. So when students pay 50,000 plus dollars a year for tuition, they expect the best education in return, but if colleges were no longer receiving the same amount of money from the government as they do from their students every year, they would no longer be able to keep up the same education programs they would normally have. They would not be able to pay their staff the same amount, campus facilities would significantly decrease in quality, and the general quality of education would decrease, not to mention there would be much less funding for athletics, something else very important to many colleges around the country. The system would negatively benefit students who have enough money to pay for better post-secondary education, or students who excel academically but aren’t as financially supported and can’t hope to receive the level of education now that college is free. 

Universally free college in the United States would never work, but there are ways to make it more affordable and efficient. The price for the average student rose 64% from 2002 to 2022, and 32 states spent 1500$ less on public colleges in 2020 than they did in 2008. While making college free and replacing student loans with inflated taxes for everyone isn’t a solution, we should be trying to make colleges spend their money more effectively, make sure they receive more funding from the state and become more financially efficient.