Life without College Debt

Every year, thousands of young students are graduating from high

school with no idea what theyre going to do with the rest of their lives.
Some, are off to college, while quite a few are not. One of the biggest
reasons as to why students arent going to college is that they arent able to
due to the high costs of tuition. President Obama however, has a solution to
that. Our president recently announced that he is going to propose a new bill
that allows students to earn a two year degree from community colleges, for
free. College is a bad investment, everyone knows that. But with President
Obamas new proposal to pay for 2 years of community college through
federal and state funding, better education might be a more realistic dream
than it seems.
Obama proposes that we receive two years of community college for
free, funded by both the federal and state government. In the U.S.,
Tennessee and Chicago both have free college policies that work. Tennessee
proposed and passed the nations first free community college bill, offering
an opportunity for a free two year degree to all state residents, regardless of
merit or need. The intention of this is to increase the amount of skilled
workers they have, since they are facing a current decrease in skilled
workers. Ironically as it is, there are thousands of college graduates who
have specific degrees but no job. the problem? Students feel overqualified
for the jobs that are available. Someone with a masters in robotic
engineering isnt going to take a job at a steel mill. The other problem? Not

enough students get degrees in areas that are so short staffed, so to say.
Many students get degrees in nursing, general biology, business, accounting,
and a few others. However, very few students get degrees in coding, or
computer sciences. So where do we find the balance that we need in order
to boost our economy and provide everyone with decent paying jobs?
Germany offers many free undergraduate and graduate degrees in
english for american students-for free. Why? various reasons, such as
repopulation and economy raise. How? Since Lower Saxony made their
college tuition free and the entire country offers university level education
for free, institutions that offer these commodities have been unable expand
in order to properly service these students. With about 400,000 new students
a year and only enough space to house 230,000 students, it leads to multiple
students in single room housing and no expansion of classrooms. But where
does the rest of the money needed to pay for the teachers and electricity
and internet access come from? Taxes. Germany has higher taxes which
helps fund the universities and their needs, making them able to provide a
free higher education. So not only are students receiving top notch
education, but theyre doing it for free and getting to experience a new and
different culture all at the same time. America however, doesnt offer
anything even remotely near to what Germany and many other European
countries can. In America, we charge for community and university college at
exorbitant rates, offer little tuition assistance to a small percentage, some
scholarships, and the rest of the incoming college students have to fend for

themselves while the work part time jobs, apply for grants and loans, and do
what they can to just scrape by. Not only do we charge for higher level
education, but its difficult to ensure that students are getting the proper
education in grade and high school. As a country, the efficiency of our funds
is really not efficient at all, with the formula for school funding based off of
student attendance and campus size, instead of what it takes to properly
teach students. In more cases than one, many high school students suffer
because their peers skip class, which cuts their schools funding. So how can
we expect our country to offer proper higher level education when we cannot
rely on our people to teach our youth right?
Theres a simple solution to this whole educational problem in all
reality: raise the taxes. In prior years, California state voters have proposed
and voted on a proposition that cut taxes, which took tax money straight out
of school funding. We cannot properly afford an education for the future of
America, yet we can fund the Iraq War? Im sorry for interjecting my personal
opinion so blatantly but that is pure bullshit. Raise taxes. Cut military
funding. You could take thousands of dollars out of the militarys bank
account and still leave it with more than enough to innovate and forward our
nations source of protection. Do not say that there isnt enough money to
raise poverty levels, to teach our students better, to make an actual future to
look forward to. This country needs to learn how to redistribute the wealth of
our nation in order to survive. Free higher education would do that. By
making a college education free, students that want to go to college actually

can. And not just community colleges. San Jose State. University of Southern
California. University of California Berkeley. Free. All free. Of course, charge
for room and board if they choose to dorm, make textbook fees existent but
reasonable, but have the credits that students pay for free and raise the
taxes so we can support our students and children in their pursuit of
education. By doing so, we close the wealth gap, raise poverty levels, and
enter more skilled workers into the job force. If we can afford drones and to
send men to the space station right outside of the earths atmosphere, then
we can afford to educate the young men and women who aspire to build
those drones and explore outer space.
Now, there are a lot of issues with what was just proposed. Recently
the DOJ faced a financial crisis and nearly ran out of money while waiting for
Congress to vote on the bill that would grant more funding. So how can I say
that the military has too much money, and that we can take from their
funding? Because according to About News and several other sources, the
projected military spending for 2016 is $786.6 billion, whereas the projected
educational spending is only $79.9 billion. If we rounded up by .2662 billion
dollars, the projected military spending is around 10 times greater than the
projected educational spending. If we just cut the military spending in half
and gave it to schools, we could easily protect our country and educate the
students for the future. If we educate them properly now, we could accept
more students into the military, have more Albert Einsteins to create a new
innovative weapon, and more Martin Luther King Jrs. to spread peace and

love. Another major argument as to why we dont have great educational

opportunities is because we would then have to raise the taxes of the normal
american citizen. So raise the taxes. Tax the hell out of the wealthy, tax the
hell out of the comfortable. their posterity will thank us for it. Think about it.
Tax us heavier now, spend more on education, close the wealth gap, rid the
U.S. of a large percentage of poverty. We could raise the minimum wage,
therefore raising the poverty level. Mothers and fathers could spend less
time working three jobs and take better care of their children. Obesity levels
would be down since parents wouldnt have to feed their kids McDonalds
three times a week because thats all they can afford. The standard of living
could be so much greater. So tax us. Tax the wealthier more, because they
wouldnt even touch that money if it werent for taxes. Tax the middle class,
because they want to see their children succeed. Tax the impoverished,
because it will help them in the long run. Is the money in our pockets really
worth the failure of our country?
There is a lot we need to do in order to better our country. Education
needs to be better, crime rates lower, living wage instated, and so much
more. What has been proposed above wouldnt be an easy feat to
accomplish. Actually, it would take years to make possible, and years to take
effect. But is that time and money spent a bad idea? No. By bettering the
education system, a vast majority of the negative externalities, such as
crime and drug rates, poverty, and unemployment, would follow suit in
becoming less and less negative and actually lowering because of the influx

of skilled workers. So why do we argue about giving more money to the

schools and a better education to our children? Why do we argue about
universal health care and living wage and poverty levels? Is it because were
greedy? Because were scared of where those changes might take us?
Because were too comfortable positions in society weve assumed?
Whatever the reason, there is no good answer as to why we should withhold
free higher education from our students?

Works Cited
About News. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/military_budget.htm>.
Bussiness Insider. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2015. <http://www.businessinsider.com/whygermanys-free-college-education-is-actually-not-that-great-2014-10>.
CNN Money. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
<http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/26/pf/college/college_tuition_cost/>.
Republic 3.0. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2015. <http://republic3-0.com/tennessee-promise-freecommunity-college-for-all-students/>.
Scholarships.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015.
<https://www.scholarships.com/resources/campus-life/college-costs/tuition-and-fees/>.
USA today. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2015. <http://college.usatoday.com/2014/10/26/same-as-itever-was-top-10-most-popular-college-majors/>.