Essays

Healthy Cycle: ENGL 1 Persuasive Essay

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Healthy Cycle: A Case for Free Tertiary Education

Although tertiary education has remained an important goal for many young people's futures, over time it enforces a greater financial impact on their choices and lives. This is one reason that college students value the idea of "free" tertiary education (costs covered by taxpayers). At this time, most costs are paid by the students via loans and forms of financial aid. Despite the aid available, many still do not have access to those funds due to competition and individual status. Due to these financial limitations, tax-funded tertiary education would allow more people to enroll in college, accumulate less debt, and become more skilled workers with overall higher incomes.

Matthew P. Ison, a doctoral student, analyzed multiple studies conducted across several campuses. Through these studies, he determined that scholarship-based programs have increased second-semester registration rates (Ison 16). Ison notes that research done with various forms of financial aid shows that overall decreasing the financial cost for students is a "viable policy initiative to increase enrollment in American higher education" (Ison 17). The presence of any financial aid helped to hold onto returning students, keeping them in college, and getting them one step closer to completing their degrees. Beyond this, David Deming, a writer for the New York Times, suggests that the future promise of zero tuition would be an effective incentive for low-income students to enroll in college (Deming). Either completely cost-free or through the application of grants, scholarships, and other smaller forms of financial aid, taxpayer-funded tertiary education allows for more financially disadvantaged students to enroll or continue their post-secondary education. The ability to use financial aid helps to distract from one of the main deterrents of college: the price. With scholarships and such, people can see themselves having a future and can focus on learning rather than how they will pay for that education.

However, without the ability to use government-provided financial aid, many students resort to borrowing money via student loans. According to Genevieve Melford, the director for a financial security program, "70 percent of today's college students cannot enroll without borrowing..." (Melford). Along with this, it will take the average borrower about 20 years to pay off this accumulated student debt (Bustamante). These students not only begin to accumulate consumer debt very early on in their adult life, but their student debt can persist for decades. This long-lasting debt can begin to negatively affect the economy when the individual spends less on consumer goods while they focus on paying off their loans. If this negative impact continues for lengthy periods, it can lead to a recession (Roos). This can develop into a cycle of people over time taking out loans and being unable to contribute to the economy for long periods of time. By enabling low-cost or free, taxpayer-funded tertiary education, students will not have to tether themselves to impactful student loans that will follow them well past their college years into their professional careers.

Students become more skilled workers and larger contributors to a healthy cycle of low-cost tertiary educations when more people have access to post-secondary schools and no student debt on their shoulders. College graduates that have earned their bachelor's degree are projected to earn about 66% more than those that only have their high school diploma. It's also projected that these same students will earn $1 million more over their lifetime compared to high school graduates ("College Affordability"). Studies have also gone to show that those with college degrees experience many positive effects including higher wages, various health gains, and being less likely to be involved with crime (Ison 18). The implementation of taxpayer-funded tuition and programs for students to receive financial aid allows these students to continue their education and earn their degrees without digging them in a hole of debt that can also impact the nation's total debt. Since they're able to earn more money through higher paying jobs that require more skilled workers, they can put money back into a cycle that helped them via their taxes. This, in turn, aids current and future students in their educational endeavors.

As tuition prices and discussions of taxpayer-funded post-secondary education erupt, so does conversation from opposing ideas. One such idea is the "student-as-consumer" metaphor. It's debated that tertiary education should be treated as a consumer good, something the individual should invest in and carry the financial weight of on their own, rather than a public good (Ison 4). Although this metaphor allows individual institutions to control their costs, it features major disadvantages for the individual. This metaphor misplaces the short-term satisfaction of a person's fleeting wants with the lifelong educational benefits they will receive through their time attending a college (Cheney, et al.). This metaphor ignores the complex reality of life, the long-term needs of financially impaired students, and what their access to low-cost or free, taxpayer-funded, college can do for their future.

Tertiary education will continue to be a goal for most young people; however, it doesn't have to be one that takes a lifetime to achieve. Implementing various forms of financial aid and lowering the costs of tuition for post-secondary schools can allow more people to achieve this goal quickly and with ease. Additionally, it starts to fund a cycle of graduates that will gain from their degree and experience while putting monetary funds back into the economy which will further "free" tertiary education. When put into practice, this system can work to not only help those currently in or considering college, but also their future children, grandchildren, friends, strangers, and everyone in between.

Works Cited

Bustamante, Jaleesa. "Average Cost of College [2020]: Yearly Tuition + Expenses." EducationData, 14 Nov. 2020, educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college.

Cheney, George, et al. "Should We Buy the 'Student-As-Consumer' Metaphor?" "Student-As-Consumer" Metaphor, mtprof.msun.edu/Fall1997/Cheney.html.

"College Affordability and Completion: Ensuring a Pathway to Opportunity." College Affordability and Completion: Ensuring a Pathway to Opportunity | U.S. Department of Education, .

Deming, David. "Tuition-Free College Could Cost Less Than You Think." The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 July 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/business/tuition-free-college.html.

Ison, Matthew P. "The Viability of Tuition-Free Community College." Educational Policy, Aug. 2020, doi:10.1177/0895904820951119.

Melford, Genevieve. "Solving the Consumer Debt Crisis." The Aspen Institute, 4 Apr. 2019, www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/solving-the-consumer-debt-crisis/.

Roos, Dave. "How Debt Works." HowStuffWorks, HowStuffWorks, 11 Dec. 2007, money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/debt-management/debt3.htm.