Free College Tuition Essay

The late Nelson Mandela once said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Consequently, Mandela’s words endure the test of time and the price of higher education contuse to steadily increasing moreover, free tuition at public colleges and universities has developed into a controversial topic of discussion. Even though those in opposition of free college tuition do have several compelling arguments, some of the most important dynamics to consider and further investigate are; the fact that several countries have already progressed in the direction of free higher education, several more have policies enacted to do so, and most significantly, it is important to examine how these countries have transformed …show more content…
Dwight D. Eisenhower eloquently protested “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” The lesson to be learned by the former president is that a certain level of equality should be maintained in a country established upon the pillar of democracy. The importance of granting opportunities to those who will otherwise never have them is important in order to prevent American society from becoming a system in which the playing field will always be titled in the favor of the wealthy (who will almost always be able to afford the advantaged of higher education). There is a substantial dispute to be made through these observations which is; the American dream should be obtainable and being born in one social class should not prevent social and economic advancement. According to Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, one of the ten reasons countries fall apart is “A tilted playing field”. In their article , Acemoglu and Robinson discuss the down fall of South Africa where blacks “ were condemned to work as unskilled laborers in the mines and in agriculture – and at very low wages, too, making it extremely profitable for the elite who owned the mines and farms”(Acemoglu and Robinson).The article goes on to discuss how this system of oppression failed to improve living standards of the majority of its citizens for nearly two …show more content…
The opposition extracted one thing correctly, the offset cost for students will have to be redistributed, nevertheless this allows every American citizen the opportunity to pursue the proper education and training necessary in order to most efficiently contribute to the economy and advance their social status. In Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell discusses the idea that economics span to “higher and nobler concerns”, such concerns include standard of living, social equality, in addition to the well fare of the nation. Sowell elaborates on this subject by declaring, “Of course there are non-economic values. In fact, there are only non-economic values. Economics is not a value in and of itself. It is only a way of weighing one value against another.” One inference that can be extracted from Sowell’s statement is that the value of a college education extends far beyond its dollar