Free tuition (Assign)

Free tuition

Harris

February 16, 2020



Tuition can be expensive, take the DIPR program for an example, the tuition can reach up to about 10k for the whole two-term course. With costs that can reach a lot more than just the DIPR programs, it can get troublesome for people financially.

Will Free tuition help those who can’t afford to attend college?

I believe free tuition can help those who financially cannot attend a college course they desire to take. Completely free school tuition, however, could cause issues. William Watson wrote a blog on free tuition stating it would be better if the cost of tuition was raised.

He brought up articles referring to the implementation of Free tuition in 1970’s England.

The articles stated that enrollment steadily increased while the budget for the University did not. This could result in the university stretching itself thin as more and more students joined and a lot of the extracurricular activities would be cut due to the budget being less than they could afford.

While that was the case for the Universities in England, there is an example of another approach to free tuition. Nash McQuarters gave a speech on TedxTulsaCC about free tuition.

The Tulsa Achieves program allows students who excelled in high school to get free tuition into the college. The main worry about a system like this is sustainability and Tulsa college has thought about that. There are three main components that help keep the Tulsa achieves program running as well as manageable so there isn’t too much of an overflow for students and the college itself:


Funding

The program is funded through a portion of appropriated Property Taxes, which also requires the student to be from Tulsa County.


Education

If you graduate high school with a 2.0 point average you’re eligible for this program,


Community

The community supports and invests in its youth and aims to create a better future for them

implementing something like that in Victoria could work for our youth and young adults alike. Not all Universities or Colleges need to implement this program, but it would open the door for those who are good students willing to learn and further their education.

McQuarters shares statistics showing that Tulsa Achieve students had a higher rate of success compared to those who had paid for the same program.

With the barrier of educational success, the program can allow those students who want to excel to do so without too much worry on financial support. With the main tuition cost still in place, universities and colleges can maintain their budgets, and provide extracurricular activities and events that would otherwise be lost if tuition was dropped.




In conclusion, tuition is necessary to maintain many facilities and services colleges and universities require. But, if there was a program like the Tulsa program it could help many students succeed where they wouldn’t have otherwise with the price blocking the way.




Link to TedTalk with Nash McQaurters “Can Tuition-Free college change a community?” https://youtu.be/fy7Pw9-J4Lo




Link to William Watson’s Blog “Forget what you learned in the maple spring higher tuition would be fairer tuition” https://www.fraserinstitute.org/blogs/forget-what-you-learned-in-the-maple-spring-higher-tuition-would-be-fairer-tuition