Ideal College Education

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College education is beneficial for everyone and should become an affordable option. Not only does a college degree expand opportunities for jobs for most people, colleges’ liberal arts education is desirable to achieve an open-minded, educated populace. However, since colleges are expensive and often lead to debts, people are either being driven away by high tuition costs or being eaten up by the student loan system. It is a common goal for most people to make college more affordable. To achieve this goal, Bernie Sanders has proposed taxing the wealthy “one percent” of people to make more room in the budget for higher education. Although I agree with Sanders’ ideal of accessible college education, I do not think that taxing the one percent …show more content…
The first reason is that employers usually look for people with a college degree. The job market has become very competitive and people with only high school degrees are not getting hired to jobs they might have been hired to in the 70s for example. So in this case, college is a welfare choice. Expanding higher education availability is good for the general population. Furthermore, universities generally include liberal arts requirements unlike high school or trade schools. The liberal arts is good for everyone because it teaches people how to be open-minded. Although liberal arts is not as immediately apparently useful as STEM it is still needed in the United States as democracy depends on voters who are open-minded and educated. Finally, education should be more accessible since it is a good choice for the future of the American people. Furthermore for many college students college is a way to prepare to become an …show more content…
According to the New York times, inflation is the main cause of rising college tuition. However that doesn’t explain why college costs have gone up so much since according to inflation it should still be affordable. The Times says that it is because although spending has increased in public education, it hasn’t increased in a way that makes tuition affordable. The government is spending more on many different colleges rather than spending more on each college. Furthermore universities themselves are to blame - college administration has gone up by 221% and these administrators are often paid 7 figure

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    This is a topic that has been brought up frequently in the political campaigns for the white house, which means that two or more different opinions exist. Business CEO and governor Robert Duckeson best explains this in his article “Rising College Costs Threaten America’s Future and Require Shared Solutions”. Duckeson explains throughout his article why government funded tuition is ideal. As stated by Duckeson, “Many institutions- public as well as private- are stepping up efforts to increase revenues from fundraising, auxiliary enterprise income, and other non-student sources. Institutions can further reduce the load that tuition must carry to achieve institutional revenue goals” (3). The context of this statement is an important part of his argument. Duckeson emphasizes the importance of University input. Through government-funded tuition, Universities put students in the ideal situation of no student debt. With no student debt, this proves to be a cost-effective solution for the student, however, not for the government. "The cost of educating an undergraduate student in a particular subject area is roughly the same at Pennsylvania State University, a public institution, as it is at Cedar Crest College, a private one is flat-out wrong” (Hochner, par. 4). Professor of Hochner of the University of Philadelphia examined this solution. Every institution charges a different amount for a reason, the reason being their individual needs. These individual needs cannot all be paid for by the National government. David Feldman a professor of Economics and Department Chair for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia agrees with Hochner. “A major driver of tuition is the actual cost of providing the service. This is what the schools themselves spend on their programming for students, and this is where we begin the story of the cost of attendance” (par. 4). They argue that…

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    are not privately controlled. Colleges like Yale and Harvard obtain most of their money from the endowments given to students by the rich or wealthy who support them, most likely being their parents. (Ehrenburg 36). However other colleges receive money in other ways. They operate on federal standards and receive aid for following these standards The college is allowed to raise its prices due to the validity their name carries. For example, Harvard can set its prices much higher than a community college because of the fame and competition required to attend it0. They are not concerned for the quality of their education, nor the well being of their students who could face large debt. While the demand for a college degree is growing almost exponentially, the capacity for students in college grows at nearly nowhere that rate. Colleges can charge whatever they like because their seats will always be filled. In 1998 students attending colleges that charged less than charged less than $20,000 per year on tuition and room and board was only 5.5%, (Ehrenburg 5). This figure has increased dramatically. Colleges start with low pricing to attract a large audience. The colleges have always been running at maximum capacity. In general, classes are always filled to the maximum capacity. The cost/credit hour can be raised due to limited space in each individual class session. They don’t have to keep their prices low due to other colleges being full as well. The profit of the colleges has come completely at the expense of the students. The average college student spends about $18,000 on tuition and room and board, while only spending $2,100 a year on person expenses.…

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