State Colleges should be free for the students that live in that state

You have some very good arguments, but I still believe that making state college free for those who live in the state could work. 1) I have to disagree with your point about college not teaching student independence. College does not only prepare you in your career choice. Many students go into college not even knowing what they want to do with their lives. Most of the college experience is adjusting your lifestyle and becoming an adult. And the adjustment of living away from home usually has a major effect on a student's grades and performance. College is supposed to teach one to be a well-rounded adult in society. In college, you have to make your own choices. Your parents are not around to tell you when to do your homework or when to eat dinner. These are things you learn to do on your own. Therefore, you learn independence throughout the course of your college experience. This does not take away from the fact that college is preparing you for your career. College is more than just classes. It is an all-around experience that everyone should get to have. 2) I understand that colleges recruit students from their state. But if students were granted free tuition to attend college, the money to fund the school would be coming from a state or federal program that would fund these schools. Therefore, they would not be losing their funding but be getting from somewhere else. Also, I stated that only the tuition would be free. There are many other expenses that go into college other than just the tuition. There is the price of books, dorming expenses, and meal plan expenses all that the students have to pay for themselves. With all of these expenses put together, the schools would have enough funding to be run properly. 3) You are right college is work but not everyone has the financial ability to afford to attend college. Everyone does have the right to go to college if they want and get a higher education. Just because someone doesn't have the money to go to college does not mean they are not hard workers. If someone had the chance to go to college for free and get a degree and make a better life for themselves, they would defiantly work hard for it. For some people, yes college is too hard and they end up dropping out. And if this be the case, that person would pay the government the money that the tuition was for the time they spent at college. This would give the person a reason to keep their grades up and work hard. Even today when students are on scholarships, they are expected to keep their grades at certain point to remain getting funding. This would be just the same except the government would be funding it. 4) Education has a very prominent effect on the economic progression. If more people go to college because it is free, we will have more educated people making decisions for the country, inventing new things, and getting us further ahead of other countries like China. We want to have as many highly educated people in the United States as possible. Getting an education should not be so out of reach for so many people. 5) Just because the college tuition is free, it does not mean that everyone can go. There will still be a lot of competition. In the example you gave, both students had the same gpa. No two students are ever completely equal. Colleges must look at not only the gpa, but the SAT scores, class rank, sports and clubs they participated in, and any volunteer work they did. There is always something that makes one student a better candidate than another. And once again, even if the student that was chosen was from in state, the school would not be losing funding because the money would be coming from a state or federal program. 6) Yes the taxes would be increased. What one pays for an education does not have a bearing on the quality of it. One gets out of an education as much as they put into it. You might to go the most prestigious school in the country, and not work hard enough to keep up with the work. These schools would still have highly qualified professors that will give their students the greatest education possible. Once again you make the point that if a student drops out of school, the tax payers would have wasted their money. If this be the case the student would then pay the government back for the money that they used while trying to get a degree. College may not be for everyone and it is very hard work, but one should not be discouraged from going to college just because they do not have the financial means to do so.