To access extended pro and con arguments, sources, and discussion questions about whether public college should be tuition-free, go to ProCon.org.
Free college programs come in different forms but generally refer to the government picking up the tab for tuition costs, while students pay for other expenses such as room and board. At least 38 states have existing or proposed variations of free college programs. Tuition at public four-year institutions more than doubled over the past thirty years, and the average student loan debt more than doubled from the 1990s to the 2010s, according to the US Department of Education. There are currently around 17 million students in undergraduate programs in the United States.
College tuition is set by state policy or by each individual institution. Some colleges, especially federal land grant schools, had free tuition beginning in the 1860s. And some states had tuition-free policies at state colleges and universities for in-state students well into the twentieth century. According to Ronald Gordon Ehrenberg, PhD, Professor at Cornell University, “Public colleges and universities were often free at their founding in the United States, but over time, as public support was reduced or not increased sufficiently to compensate for their growth in students and costs (faculty and staff salaries, utilities etc.), they moved first to a low tuition and eventually higher tuition policy.” About 2.9% of American 18- to 24-year olds went to college for the 1909-1910 school year, compared to 41.2% for the 2016-2017 school year.
Federally, free college programs have been in effect for military personnel since the 1944 GI Bill. At least 26 other countries have free or nearly free college tuition: Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Panama, Poland, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, and Uruguay.
According to a Sep. 2017 poll, 63% of Americans support making public colleges and universities tuition-free.
PRO
- Tuition-free college will help decrease crippling student debt.
- The US economy and society has benefited from tuition-free college in the past.
- Everyone deserves the opportunity to get a college education.
CON
- Tuition-free college is not free college and students will still have large debts.
- Taxpayers would spend billions to subsidize tuition, while other college costs remained high.
- Tuition-free college will decrease completion rates, leaving students without the benefits of a full college education and degree.
This article was published on Mar. 19, 2019, at Britannica’s ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source.