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

My main points of why I am against State colleges being free for students within that state 1) College is not meant to teach students to be independent 2) Most colleges recruit in their own state 3) Students dont always pull through in college 4) "If education is a priority to get our economy running again the way we need it to, then the education of our youth is a top priority"- If true, making state colleges give out free tuition might not be the best approach 5) Outsourcing 6) Where would schools get funding? - 1 - The Pro claims that college is meant to teach students to be independent. This may or may not be slightly true, but college is designed to help students and adults alike specialize in a particular career field to become more competitive on the job market. The resources needed to specialize an individual in a specific field of work is rather large. You need teachers who are experts in the field, modern technology to teach the material effectively, materials to experiment in the subject you are studying, books, food, dorms, etc. All of this costs money, and it costs a sh*tload of money too. If state colleges were forced to give out free tuition to students, then the quality of education those students would recieve would decline due to a vast drop in funds available to provide the best education. - 2 - The argument here is that colleges should give free tuition to students in the same state as the college, however most colleges recruit or accept students from the state they are situated in, meaning that if colleges were to give free tuition to in state students, most colleges would lose close to 50% of its funding, other smaller colleges though would lose all of their money sicne small colleges rely almost exclusively on in state recruiting. San Jose State University for example is made up of 93% in state students, meaning that if in state students were granted free tuition, than colleges like SJSU would lose over 90% of its funding. The same would happen to other colleges including as well, meaning that only the largest and most massive colleges could potentially survive the financial burden placed on them by free instate tuition, but smaller colleges would not fare so well. - 3 - College is not a right, it is a priviledge. College is a privilege, not a right that each and every person deserves. College is a tool to anyone who wants to work hard at what they do and work well at it to succeed. It is not something that should be given out to those who dont want it or are not motivated to go for college, college is a goal in life, it is not a guarantee. Every year, both schools and the government alike spend a combined billions of dollars in aid to students who end up failing or dropping out. College is not just a tool to use for accomplishing something, COLLEGE IS WORK. College is work, work, work, and more work than some people can ever be prepared to handle, and many of them cant. If college tuition were free, then the government would have to pay for tuition of students, many of whom would end up dropping out or flunking out which would cost the government billions, every year. http://insight.mprnews.org... http://thinkprogress.org... http://www.thefiscaltimes.com... http://www.washingtonpost.com... - 4 - Education as an economical priority. The Pro claims that education and its success reflects the economic progress this nation could achieve. That is true. The Pro believes that the best way to boost education performance is to eliminate tuition from students within that state going to that college. That is a catastrophic way of solving the problem. Its no secret that the US is lagging behind other countries education wise (but we are in the top 10% in brains compared to all other countries at all times) however the US education problems does not lie within the colleges, it lies partially in high schools and middle schools, something the government also funds and does a rather poor job of doing so. Another problem with education here in America is the immigration integration problems that cause schools to lag behind to help them integrate. A third issue is that there may be environmental or social behaviors at play causing students to lose work ethic or become less interested in academics. My point is there are many ways we can improve the education of American students, but making college free for a large chunk of the population doesnt solve the answer, may only have limited success, and would place a massive financial burden on the taxpayers whose funds might be given to a college kid who ends up dropping out or flunking out. There are other ways to solve the educational system here in the US, free tuition is certainly not a realistic answer. http://www.psychologytoday.com... - 5 - Inequality among students. Take an Asian student who lives in Alaska who has a 3.3 GPA, he wants to attend Stanford University in California and has the financial means to do so. Now take a white student in California who has a 3.3 GPA, he wants to attend Stanford also and has the financial means of doing so, but because of free tuition, he doesnt have to pay a dime to get in. Stanford only accepts 7%, meaning they have a huge amount of power in deciding who they get to accept into their school...... So if you were running Stanford who would you choose, the student who will pay you the $50,000+ in tuition, or the student who wouldnt pay at all? What Im getting at is that free tuition to in state students may backfire on them as colleges with very low acceptance rates could discriminate against those who would not pay in favor of those who would pay. This scenario would make it considerably harder for students in one state to go to a college in the same state since colleges can simply recruit harder for students outside state lines, leaving those within the state out of luck. Money drives everything in colleges and unless the government just subsidized all tuition payments in the US (which would be suicide for the budget), then colleges could make location outside the state a huge priority in evaluating who is accepted and who does not. 7 - Where would schools get funding? If all tuition payments to in state students were eliminated, the financial meltdown would affect the quality of education one would otherwise receive at even the most prestigious of universities. Therefore if in state tuition was eliminated, but colleges were still required to provide the same standard of education to those students, then the money that would have been supplied by tuition would now have to be replaced by money from somewhere else, and there is only one other candidate for funding all of this, taxpayers. If education tuition's were removed but colleges needed to still give the same quality of education, then it would be taxpayers shelling out billions and billions of dollars to finance students to major in stuff such as liberal arts, music, art, theater, or other things which the taxpayers might not care for. There is also the fact that many of the dead-beat students who do receive all this money end up dropping out or flunking out of college, and now that person's tuition paid for by taxpayers just went down the drain. State colleges should not give free tuition to in state students. If they did the quality of education would deteriorate unless the government paid for everything, and if that happened then taxpayers would now be paying billions for people to major in arguably useless majors, that is if they even pass the class at all....