Pros and Cons of Free College Tuition
Many states in the United States have been advocating for adopting free college tuition to improve higher education to create a workforce with the necessary skills to compete effectively in modern society. The investment in this policy will increase the availability of qualified professionals in the economy. Free college tuition has both benefits and disadvantages, and thus, there is a need to evaluate the policy based on the cost and benefit analysis.
One of the pros of free college tuition is that it leads to an increase in the colleges that could not afford to pay high amounts of tuition fees. The increased enrollment will help the students from low-income households get access to college education, which improves the economy’s literacy levels. Offering free college tuition will reduce the burden on parents because significant income was invested in colleges, which leads to an increase in the disposable income for the households. The families will get extra money to make investments, which leads to the growth of the economy. The policy will also benefit the economy by increasing the output of educated professionals to meet the demand for an expert workforce in the economy.
An increase in the output of quality and skilled professionals will reduce the demand for foreign workers and serve an important role in economic activities. During times of economic growth and expansion, the industries will rely on the expert workforce to expand the economy. An efficient and effective workforce from the policy will help to enhance optimum output. Other economic benefits of a free college education are increasing the economic level of productivity and reducing unemployment because jobs for educated professionals are always available. College graduates can also create their jobs easily. Free tuition policy will increase households’ mobility because there is no cost of switching from one college to another.
However, free college tuition has some disadvantages, such as the indirect costs borne by society. The cost involved is paid by an increase in taxes on the citizens. Some political parties, such as the Republicans, do not support free tuition colleges because it would increase taxation. The policy will lead to an increase in the number of college movers that causes a significant increase in the demand for college infrastructure and other critical facilities required to deliver education. The free college tuition will strain the facilities, causing the colleges to focus on maintaining students’ basic needs rather than investing more resources into research and development programs. Colleges should focus on innovation to help society in advance. However, the free college will challenge the college administrators and management to allocate more resources to research and innovation programs.
The worsening faculty to student ratio will impact the quality of college education. The teaching staff will be unable to meet every student’s needs because of the growing population of students in the colleges. The colleges will also be heavily dependent on the central governments to get adequate funds for the institutions’ effective functioning. The reliance on the governments might lead to a delay in receiving funding that will affect the students’ delivery of college education. To sum up, the pros of free tuition college outweigh the cons. Thus, the states should collaborate with the federal government to implement such policies because it enhances the economy’s growth by increasing the number of skilled and educated professionals.

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