Manion 1

Daniel Manion

Comp 1

Mrs. Cramer

24 March 2017

A Ticking Time Bomb

"When things are given to people, they often lose value and meaning. People tend to become lazy

and less committed if they haven't had to work for it. When you have to invest your time, money,

and effort into something, one tends to take greater care and pride in it, which in turn gives it

greater meaning and value."

~Unknown

Picture this, you're an eighteen year old kid about to graduate high school and college

was just declared free. Sounds great, right? A free education at one's fingertips without a worry

of tuition in mind. Feel like skipping class? Maybe even fail a semester? No problem it's free

college just take it again. College sounds like a great place.1 Now imagine a couple years down

the road with a college education in hand, a job, family, and just all sorts of things. Then out of

nowhere the taxes are due but they're even larger than the last time and continue to grow year

after year. Why are they doing this? Where is this money even going? Who needs this much

money? Remember those great college years, where you could do whatever you want and have

no worries of going to class or grades or failing. Well someone has to pay for college, who's it

1 Exemplum: an example that depicts a story or such

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gonna be? College tuition shouldn't be free due to the long-term economic effects it would have

on people and the countless students that would take advantage of the system.

First off think about it, if we have free college where does the money go? According to

the multiple sources, they believe that people wanted to take away from federal and state funds.

Unfortunately, there are the people of the world that disagree with the previous statement. Those

individuals believe that there are plenty other ways to pay for the free tuition costs. Like so,

alumni to the college could pay for it which in time could balance the payments therefore

allowing students to get free college. Don't get me wrong, free college is great, but the term

"free" means no cost. Therefore, if alumni are paying for college in the future, after they've went

through, then technically they're still paying for college just not for themselves. Instead they're

paying for the upcoming generations that come and go through each college. It doesn't matter

what plan is decided but in the end tuition is still being paid for.

To emphasize, if free college becomes a thing, it will increase the attendance and

population of college campuses nation-wide. Doesn't that seem fantastic. Everybody can

receive a free education. Our nation would truly strive on this adjustment, with every young

adult being literate at a collegiate level at the very least. A successful idea to help our nation

as a whole. Only one side-effect though, which is that it comes the extensive list of cost for

supplies, research, faculty, and facilities (Marcus).

On the other hand, without the payment of students there is no capital to keep these extras

running and facilitate properly. Where would one receive this high collateral payment?

What? Would people think that with free college that the costs would just vanish into thin
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air?2 More students, less funds, equals one thing, taxes.3 From my sources, Sen. Sanders

proposed an idea to use both of federal and state funds to allow free college to happen in the

U.S.. Millions of dollars would be collected by taxes to fund free tuition (Josephson). That

being if the people of the U.S. don't mind paying more on their taxes, as if it wasn't that much

right now, then free college it is. If that isn't enough, then where else could these colleges

find its capital? Maybe, as Sen. Sanders says, federal funds which in some cases could lead

to our federal budget, or even attack important things like its military funds. To go along with

the effects from free college, there are numerous schools in the nation that are private and

rely extremely on the payments to attend such schools. If tuition gets cleared then it would

destroy them entirely. Their prices were made expensive to allow their facilities and such to

maintain and stay produceful. Colleges wouldn't be able to accomplish free tuition due to its

attack on the economy for the people and businesses that relies on income.

Traditionally, students now a days treat college with respect because they're trying to get

their money's worth out of it. Now take away the payments and such out of the equation and

what's left? Absolutely zero drive to success. Students would love free college, there's no fees,

it's basically a cakewalk, why even try? Surely kids would realize that if they didn't have to pay

for college then there would be no reason to respect the education given to them (Anderson). In

California, studies showed that students that are enrolled in practically free community colleges

happen to not even finish their degrees(Kurlaender). Even students who still pay dont even stick

to college to finish it and earn their degree. Students wouldn't show up to class, do assignments,

2 Hyperbole: an exaggerated statement

3 Asyndeton: absence of a conjunction between parts of a sentence

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or even fail a semester or two. There is no reason to try if the students can just show up the next

year to and repeat the whole process again. Would this laziness stop there? Not a snowball's

chance in hell does it! In fact, this behavior would continue to their next stop in life. The habits

they build in college would most definitely carry on throughout their life. Who knows, maybe

one could be too lazy to pay back their taxes. Maybe it leads to not showing up to his or her kid's

baseball game. Or even to attend that really important business meeting. The nature of people

today starts in their youth years while their brain is still developing and deciding what's

important and what's not. Free college is great and all, but when you observe the behavior

demonstrated by the students and see them take advantage of it, it really adds to the fire of the

people funding for free tuition.

Correspondingly, people, more specifically the parents that ride on hope, think that the

students attending free college would totally give it their all. No doubt some kids would try to do

their best in college but all it takes is that one day where that student doesn't feel like going to

class and sleeps in. Maybe instead it's that one homework assignment or even studying for a test.

All it takes is a taste for laziness and they're hooked on it and won't stop.

Sadly enough if take a look at high school students, who know in their mind that they're

not paying for schooling, you'll see an entirely different side to this story. Look at how they treat

high school, some students hardly try because they know that in the end they're not paying for it

so they don't need to worry about good grades. Without a doubt, a survey of the Bradford Area

High School students would show the amount of those that work towards good grades. The
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results would stutter people on the free college theory. Why would one pay for something if

they're not going to treat it with respect? It's senseless to do something pretty idiotic like that. 4

In closing, declaring free college for students is just an impossible task to do on our

economic base. It just can't configure to modern America, there are too many things that would

be affected negatively that would run down the American people. In addition, the students that

would attend college under the free tuition installment wouldn't respect the education like they

traditionally do. It would be too easy for students to take advantage of the system to even

considered applying it to society. To recap a great saying, when one invests their blood, sweat,

and tears into something that they value, then it truly becomes something worth driving for.

4 Hypophora: it's when a writer raises a question and then immediately provides an answer
to that question
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Citations

Anderson, Ellen. "Pros and Cons of Tuition-Free College." College Raptor. Ellen Anderson, n.d.

Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Josephson, Amelia. "The Pros and Cons of Free College." SmartAsset. Smart Asset, 15 Sept.

2016. Web. 22 Mar. 2017.

Kurlaender, Michal, and Jacob Jackson. "Free college is no panacea." Washington Post, 28 Jan.
2015. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A399226997/OVIC?
u=pl1949&xid=dbbc24c3. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.
Marcus, Jon. "How Free College Tuition in One Country Exposes Unexpected Pros and Cons."

The Hechinger Report. The Hechinger Report, 18 Oct. 2016. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.