This would save young Americans from going into crippling debt, but it would also make a university degree completely unaffordable for most. However, in the age of the Internet, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t get an education.
Consider the long term impact of this. There are a lot of different ways such a situation could go, for better and for worse.
Education is how people get out of poverty op. The issue is that the US has a dog eat dog fuck the poor mentality that keeps the ladders out of poverty out of reach then blames them for their situation. The only thing that should determine whether you get into college should be your capability to do the work or not. Not what is or is not in your bank account.
The actual solution is to make college free given academic benchmarks are hit and institute mechanisms to keep costs under control that go beyond “how can we maximize profit?”
The benchmarks have to be weighted in order for this system to be fair across income levels. Also, making college free benefits well-off students more than poorer students. So many public schools offer full rides for low-income students, especially if they are first-generation students.
I was low income. This idea that the poor have enough aid is so divorced from reality. But youre right, the academic requirements probably should be weighted according to demographic because the rich are so heavily showered with resources by their parents. But youre wrong about free college benefitting them more than the poor.
How long ago were you in college? From my friends’ experiences, the lower income ones have had a really easy getting their educational expenses covered through grants and first-gen scholarships offered by my university. This does ignore living expenses, but strictly from a university perspective, they get more money than they pay.
I started college in 2005, had to leave because things happened in my life halfway through then finished my degree in 2020. So I have an idea of what it was like over the last 15-20 years as I worked on my degree. But by all means continue telling me what it is like to go through something you have never experienced yourself.
Glad you were able to graduate. That being said, invalidating my friends’ successes is pretty shitty. I was only speculating whether things got better or worse.
Regardless, after skimming through some more recent articles, I still don’t think making colleges universally free would help inequality long-term. The rich will still find some way of getting an advantage by, for example, attending private schools with legacy admissions. With our current system, public and private universities are treated the same except for their sticker price, and any publicly funded “free university” program would more than likely only cover public universities and limit choice.