College Should Be Free: Student Loan Debt

College is recommended for most to be successful in life. But most of the time, it can cost way more than what you have. A lot of the time, whether it is the cost of the books, class, or the cost of a dorm room, a college student can feel belittled by the high prices for essentials that you would need to attend a class. College should be free to all because some of your smartest students might not be able to afford it. A lot more people will be thrilled to attend, and it would cut down the total amount of student loans drastically. Those reasons, along with many others, are why college should be free. The costs of going to college have risen a lot in recent years, so much that many are opting not to go to college, while those who do are often brought down with student loan debt that follows them through life (and some of the time into retirement). 

Yes, for a student in high school, who is at the top of their class, it should be easy to get accepted into colleges of their choice. That part isn’t the problem. The problem is that the same student can't pay for the classes, books, and transportation that they would need due to the fact that their family can't afford it all. Colleges will most likely say that all the costs are a way for the younger generations to learn how to handle finances as an excuse to keep all of the costs exactly how they are. According to www.collegeraptor.com, some students drop out of college due to the fact that they do not have the ability to pay for tuition for all four years. Additionally, the website states that if there is a tuition-free college, then this could improve college graduation rates.

 Most likely, it's the people who were top class (and even a little lower) in high school who would have no other reason to not graduate. On www.studentdebtrelief.us, it is said that we are wasting our best resources. It's an example of why we are as stated in this quoted sentence right from their website, “High school students with the best grades, particularly when they come from a house with a low income, are not necessarily the ones who go to the best schools. Even though some might have been the most successful students in high school, they often see little choice but to go to lower-rated, more affordable colleges. That’s if they are able to go to college at all.” These same students who have to settle for lower-rated colleges could have been the ones to contribute to some type of medical breakthrough, some type of breakthrough that could have helped your or your friend's kid. 

The next reason college should be free is that it could drastically cut down the total amount of student loans. According to www.cnbc.com, in 2018, there was 70 percent of college students graduated with an extraordinary amount of student loans. The same website also says that over 44 million Americans all together hold nearly $1.5 trillion in student debt. Roughly, that means that one of every four American adults is paying off student loans. On the other hand, places like Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Mexico, Germany, and Finland are examples of countries that do not charge for tuition. Education is viewed as an investment in the future of the country rather than a give-away program. The percentage of the GDP that countries with free colleges spend on education is not much more than what the United States is spending with our current system. The US spends around 1.36% of our GDP on education higher than high school. Finland spends 2.08%, Norway spends 1.96% and Germany spends 1.35%. Studies show that student loan borrowers now graduate with an average of $37,172 in student debt. That’s about the same as a down payment on a home, buying a new Ford F-250, buying a brand new 3Audi A4, and even paying for a wedding. This is really something to think about. Do we really want to be setting our “Future” up for failure with all of these debts that they will owe? If the costs of colleges were cut down or just completely disappeared, then they would be able to pay off something that is actually reasonable or have none at all. 

The third reason as to why college should be free is because a lot more people will be thrilled to go to college. As discussed earlier, the people with lower incomes will be thrilled and feel like a weight has been released off of their shoulders knowing that they can attend college and don’t have to worry about what type of debt they may accumulate. They can now actually graduate college instead of having to drop out or not go to college at all. Free college education could open up even more of these opportunities for intelligent students who want to go to college but cannot afford it. Even though the work will for sure still be very hard, students will have to study really hard, it wouldn’t be much of stress knowing that there are little to no expenses they have to worry about. They can now buy a house instead of an apartment, buy a car, explore the world, and actually contribute more to the economy. 

Now on the flip side, there could possibly be some troubles where there are a lot more people who would sign up for college that arent actually serious about going but just need to get their parents off their backs or whatever the case may be. This could lead to campuses having an overpopulation of students who want to attend their campus. Most likely, this won't be the case, since there may or may not be some expenses for college and the work that would be too overwhelming for someone who isn't serious about going to college. Currently, college can be way too much for some people and that shouldn’t go unnoticed. College should be free because some of the smartest kids coming out of high school might not be able to pay all the costs. A lot more people may be thrilled to attend college with reduced prices, and a free college could drastically cut down the amount of debt..