Free College Tuition

"Middle-class [students] are dropping out of college at higher rates than ever before. So helping middle-class kids " is not a bad thing." says Sara Goldrick-Rab, a University of Wisconsin professor, In an article in the Star Tribune called Who Benefits the most from "free" college tuition? http://www.startribune.com... Maura Lerner Star Tribune, January 29, 2015 at 9:31 AM. Web. February 8,2016 at 5:12 PM. It is because I agree with the words of Sara Goldrick-Rab that we Stand on the Pro Side of today"s resolution. Resolved: In the United States, students should be guaranteed two years of free tuition to a community or technical college. In order to better understand my position in regards to today"s debate, we offer the following three contentions. Contention 1:Associate's degrees can increase lifetime earnings Written By Jennifer Cheeseman Day, And Eric C. Newburger, in their article The Big Payoff:Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work Life Earning,written on February 3,2015 Day, Jennifer Cheeseman., and Eric C. Newburger. The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-life Earnings. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, 2002. 2002. Web. 3 Feb. 2015. Synthetic estimates of work-life earnings dramatically illustrate the differences that develop between workers of different educational levels over the course of their working lives.As shown in Figure 3, for full-time, year-round workers, the 40-year synthetic earnings estimates are about $1.0 million (in 1999 dollars) for high school dropouts, while completing high school would increase earnings by another quartermillion dollars (to$1.2 million). People who attended some college (but did not earn a degree) might expect work-life earnings of about $1.5 million, and slightly more for people with associate's degrees ($1.6 million). Over a work-life, individuals who have a bachelor"s degree would earn on average $2.1 million " about one- third more than workers who did not finish college, and nearly twice as much as workers with only a high school diploma. A master"s degree holder tops a bachelor"s degree holder at $2.5 million. Doctoral ($3.4 million) and professional degree holders ($4.4 million) do even better With degrees to increase earnings, more people will benifit, from free tuition. Therefore causing America in general to become richer and well better off. Contention 2: Free Community college will help increase diversity on campus. Turck, Mary. An Author for Al Jazeera. In her article "Obama"s free tuition proposal advances equality of opportunity." Written on Feb. 6, 2015. http://america.aljazeera.com... "Critics also argue that Obama"s proposal would subsidize middle-class students who can afford to pay for tuition. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. First, getting more middle-income students into community colleges will diversify the student bodies. Economic and racial integration produces better education for all students. The increase in enrollments at community colleges of middle-class students, who are likely to transfer to four-year institutions, would increase pressure to improve the academic quality of education in the two-year programs. Improving academic offerings in community colleges would increase the chances of all students to transfer to and succeed in four-year institutions." With more diversity on campus students will learn that diversity isn"t a bad thing, and this will improve problems such as discrimination. So for this reason my partner and I agree that there should be free college tuition. Contention 3: Most young adults have no college education Steinberg, Sarah A. An author for"America's 10 Million Unemployed Youth Spell Danger for Future Economic Growth." Written on June 5, 2013. Center for American Progress. Center for American Progress, 5 June 2013. Web. "The majority of these disconnected young adults do not have a college education. Nearly 1 million have not graduated from high school, while 1.9 million have a high school diploma. Another 790,000 have dropped out of college without gaining a degree, which places these young adults in a perilous financial situation if they took out student loans to pay for their education"researchers have found that borrowers who drop out of college are four times more likely than graduates to default on their student loans. " If we make college free, more students will have the ability to complete college and there will be more graduates. It is for these reasons that I urge a Pro vote today ` Thank you for your time.