should post secondary education be free

The Postsecondary Education Conundrum

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June 5, 2013

Postsecondary education in the United States faces a conundrum: Can we preserve access, help students learn more and finish their degrees sooner and more often, and keep college affordable for families, all at the same time? And can the higher education reforms currently most in vogue—expanding the use of technology and making colleges more accountable—help us do these things?

Since the 1960s, colleges and universities have worked hard to increase access to higher education. Fifty years ago, with the industrial economy booming—as Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose, and Michael McPherson write in the latest issue of the Future of Children —only 45 percent of young people went to college when they graduated from high school. Today, they note, at least 70 percent enroll in some form of postsecondary education. Women, who once accounted for little more than a third of the college population, now outnumber men on campus, and minorities and the poor have also seen many barriers to a college education fall. Certainly, we still have work to do—for example, advantaged children are still much more likely than children living in poverty to go to college, and to attend elite institutions when they do. Yet the gains in access have been remarkable.

Over the past decade, critics have increasingly questioned the quality of college education in the U.S. In particular, they have pointed to low completion rates—only about half of the people who enroll at a postsecondary institution complete a degree or certificate within six years. Yes, there are many reasons that students attend such institutions, but even among those who report that they aspire to earn at least a bachelor’s degree, only about 36 percent do so.

Most recently, the loudest debates in higher education have been about cost. When people talk about the cost of postsecondary education, they usually mean tuition. The most alarming recent increases have been in the “sticker price,” or the published cost of attending an institution. Sticker prices for full-time in-state students at public four-year colleges and universities increased 27.2 percent between 2007 and 2012, according to the College Board. But only about one-third of full-time students pay the sticker price; the other two-thirds of full-time students pay the “net price,” which is the sticker price minus grants and other forms of aid. On average, the net price is 70 percent less than the sticker price. Even so, the net price of college has also increased steeply, by 18 percent over the same five years.

Many people take the sharp rise in tuition costs as evidence that institutions of higher education are inefficient and growing more so—in other words, that colleges and universities are spending more and more money to deliver the same education. They argue that if we aggressively adopt technology and strengthen accountability, we can make colleges and universities more efficient, whether that means providing the same education for less money, or a better education for the same cost.

But, in truth, tuition—whether we’re talking about sticker price or net price—doesn’t really tell us how much a college education costs. As McPherson, who is president of the Spencer Foundation, pointed out recently at a conference at Princeton, an institution’s total expenditure per student is a much better measure of the cost of a college education. Based on 2012 data from the College Board, expenditures per student, especially at public institutions, have been relatively flat over the past decade, increasing by about 6.4 percent at four-year public institutions and actually decreasing at two-year public institutions. Tuition itself accounts for only a part of the total expenditure per student. At public institutions in particular, the rest is made up largely by state subsidies. What has changed in recent years is that state subsidies have fallen precipitously, meaning that parents and students are shouldering more of the cost through rising tuition payments. From 2000 to 2010, the portion of total expenditures covered by tuition at public institutions went from just over one-third to just over one-half, with subsidies falling accordingly. If we look at the cost of college this way, it’s unlikely that growing inefficiency is the main problem facing institutions of higher education; in fact, they are educating more students than ever and doing so at roughly the same cost per student. Nonetheless, few people expect state subsidies to rebound to their former levels. If college is to remain affordable, state institutions must seek ways to lower their cost per student so that they can keep tuition in check.

What are the prospects, then, that technology and accountability can help us rein in the rate of growth in tuition? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t clear.

Policymakers like to focus on advances in technology as a solution for the tuition crisis because a major component underlying the cost of a postsecondary education is the cost of paying the faculty. As long as the wages that faculty members could earn in other parts of the economy continue to increase, there will be upward pressure on the cost of educating students. But if we could use advanced technology to let each faculty member teach more students, we could lower the cost of a college education. However, no one wants such an increase in productivity to reduce the quality of the education that students receive. Therefore, if technology is to help us solve higher education’s quandary, it must provide education at a lower cost without lowering its quality.

We have scant evidence of whether e-learning is comparable in quality to traditional classroom instruction. However,  the best research so far suggests that in large lecture classes, at least, especially those that cover introductory material in some subjects, students learn just as well online as they do in “chalk and talk” classes. We know even less about the long-term cost of teaching in this way. On the one hand, once we pay the start-up and transition costs associated with adopting new technology and training faculty how to use it, the cost per student is likely to fall because faculty will be able to teach more students in larger classes. On the other hand, the best evidence about technology comes from its use in large lecture classes; we know much less about its effectiveness in smaller, typically more advanced courses, which are more expensive to teach by definition. We also have virtually no evidence about technology’s effectiveness in some disciplines, particularly the humanities. If technology can’t deliver the same education that students get in the classroom, what may look like a decrease in cost may actually be a decrease in quality. Thus before we know whether widespread adoption of technological tools is truly a promising approach to reducing the cost of a college education, we need more and better evidence about how these tools affect student learning, in which settings and for whom they work best, and how much they cost to implement and maintain.

Accountability

Policymakers are also talking about accountability as a way out of the postsecondary conundrum. Most public institutions receive state subsidies based on the number of students they enroll. Enrollment-based funding gives these colleges and universities a huge incentive to increase access, but far less incentive to boost completion rates and other measures of student success. On the heels of the movement to increase accountability in K-12 education, a lot of people, including President Obama, have been calling to make colleges and universities more accountable, most notably by tying some portion of state or federal funding to student completion or other measures of success—for example, how many graduates find jobs. Many states have already tried this, but the results have been disappointing (though it must be said, as Davis Jenkins and Olga Rodriguez write in the Future of Children , that much of the research on performance funding thus far has been qualitative rather than quantitative). One reason that performance funding hasn’t worked well may be that the percentage of aid that states have tied to performance has been quite low, meaning that institutions have had little to lose if they fail to meet performance targets. As a result, some reformers are calling for an even stronger connection between funding and accountability. Fair enough, and probably worth a try, but the bottom line is that we have yet to find solid evidence that tying appropriations to student success will produce the results we desire. And caution is in order: Unless such an approach is implemented and monitored carefully, it will create a perverse incentive for institutions to restrict admission to the students who are most likely to do well, thus potentially reversing the gains in access that we’ve worked so hard to achieve.

Despite the caveats I’ve presented here, I believe that both technology and accountability have their place in any effort to solve the postsecondary conundrum.

In the case of new technological tools to expand teaching productivity, we need to carefully study their effect on student learning, institutional stability, educational quality, and cost. It’s going to take some tinkering to build new models of technology-supported teaching that work as well as or better than a traditional classroom education, and we should not hesitate either to try promising approaches or to abandon those that fail to make the grade.

When it comes to imposing stronger accountability, we need comprehensive data systems and other ways to gather information that will give us a clearer, more scientifically sound picture of institutional performance than do the rough measures we use now, such as completion rates. Furthermore, measures of quality should never be the only criteria through which we reward or punish postsecondary institutions, not only because expanding access must remain a priority, but also because it is extremely unlikely that we will ever be able to capture all of postsecondary education’s beneficial outcomes through large-scale data. 

In the end, however, technology and accountability alone will not solve the postsecondary conundrum. As tuition costs rise, parents and prospective students are starting to question the value of the postsecondary institutions they’re considering, seeking better information about quality and completion rates, and making decisions based on hard financial realities. This kind of pressure from prospective students and their families is likely to be the most effective incentive of all.

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Student Opinion

Should College Be Free?

Do you think other states should follow New Mexico in making higher education tuition-free? What would that mean for society?

By Callie Holtermann

Do you plan to go to college? Are you or your family concerned about paying for it?

In the past three decades, the average cost of attending a private college in the United States has tripled — landing at around $50,000 per year.

Should college cost this much? How would our society change if college cost nothing at all?

Amid declines in enrollment , states including Texas and Michigan are experimenting with plans to reduce or eliminate tuition for many students. Starting in July, New Mexico will go a step further: It will completely cover tuition for all state residents who attend public colleges and universities.

In “ What if College Were Free? This State Is Trying to Find Out. ,” Simon Romero writes about the state’s plan, which received bipartisan approval:

As universities across the United States face steep enrollment declines , New Mexico’s government is embarking on a pioneering experiment to fight that trend: tuition-free higher education for all state residents. After President Biden’s plan for universal free community college failed to gain traction in Congress, New Mexico, one of the nation’s poorest states, has emerged with perhaps the most ambitious plans as states scramble to come up with their own initiatives. A new state law approved in a rare show of bipartisanship allocates almost 1 percent of the state’s budget toward covering tuition and fees at public colleges and universities, community colleges and tribal colleges. All state residents from new high school graduates to adults enrolling part-time will be eligible regardless of family income. The program is also open to immigrants regardless of their immigration status. Some legislators and other critics question whether there should have been income caps, and whether the state, newly flush with oil and gas revenue, can secure long-term funding to support the program beyond its first year. The legislation, which seeks to treat college as a public resource similar to primary and secondary education, takes effect in July.

The article continues:

Other states are assembling their own programs: The University of Texas System created a $300 million endowment in February that expands tuition assistance for thousands of students. Michigan provides free college to residents who were essential workers during the pandemic, while also covering tuition at community colleges for people ages 25 or older. Reflecting challenges before and during the pandemic, some initiatives have not produced the desired results. Even after California recently expanded free tuition opportunities, enrollment at its community colleges fell by nearly 15 percent in 2021 from a year earlier. The push for tuition-free higher education comes amid a broader enrollment crisis in the United States. Total undergraduate enrollment fell by 6.6 percent from 2019 to 2021, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Students, read the entire article , then tell us:

What do you think of New Mexico’s plan to provide tuition-free college to state residents? Do you think college should be “a public resource similar to primary and secondary education,” as New Mexico is treating it? Do you think that your state should adopt a similar plan? Why or why not?

Do you want to attend college? Why or why not? How does the cost of higher education factor into your thinking?

Do you think everyone should go to college — or do you think there should be more alternatives to higher education? If so, what should they be and why?

Why do you think universities across the United States are facing declines in enrollment? Do you think plans to make college less expensive or entirely free are the right way to increase enrollment?

Do you think making college tuition-free is worth the cost? (As the article points out, the money for the first year of the New Mexico program largely comes from pandemic relief funds. After that, legislators will need to draw funds from other sources to keep the program going.) Is it more realistic to do what states like Washington and Tennessee have done and limit tuition assistance to community colleges, exclude some residents because of family income or impose conditions requiring students to work part time?

Mr. Romero describes New Mexico’s initiative as “unusually inclusive,” given that it extends free tuition to inmates, unauthorized immigrants and some Native Americans from neighboring states. Why do you think New Mexico’s legislators decided it was important to make members of these groups eligible for free tuition? What might be some of the long-term effects of free college for all?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column . Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Callie Holtermann joined The Learning Network as a senior news assistant in 2020. More about Callie Holtermann

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College & Careers

Postsecondary education should be a right for all

Lia Izenberg

May 6, 2021.

The pandemic is exacerbating an already wide chasm in opportunity and access to higher education in the Bay Area — and across the United States.

Before the pandemic, only 22% of students from low-income communities nationally earned a postsecondary degree, compared to 67% of their peers from high-income areas.

In the nine-county Bay Area, for adults age 25 and older, only 29% of Black and 22% of Latino people hold bachelor’s degrees compared with 60% of their white peers.

That was before the pandemic, and now it seems that even fewer California students are taking the steps to enroll in college during the coming year, and possibly beyond. According to a  recent EdSource article , college financial aid applications from students under 18 are considerably down compared to prior years, with just 314,855 students under age 18 submitting an application (27,522 fewer than in 2020) as of February 15.

One core issue contributing to this degree divide is the lack of access to high-quality college counseling for students, particularly those in low-income communities. Chronic low spending on counselors has led to extremely high counselor-to-student ratios.

In 2011, high school students received an average of only 38 minutes of college advising in their high school career. Since then, some districts that have invested in more counselors have seen improvement in college-going rates as a result, but these investments require tough trade-offs and are harder to make for lower-income districts that tend to have smaller budgets. California is 21st in the nation in per-pupil spending despite its high cost of living, which means districts have to make their dollars stretch farther.

In affluent communities, accessing support to plan postsecondary education isn’t a question — it’s a given. There, well-resourced high schools typically have robust college counseling programs, parents hire private college coaches or students already know what colleges they want to apply to and how to do so.

At this moment when the nation is paying more attention to deeply rooted inequities, we have an opportunity to reimagine what effective preparation for a postsecondary education can look like. We should focus on investing in postsecondary access and success in school districts that have not historically had the resources or vision to do so for every child . Postsecondary education should be the baseline expectation for all students.

This means systematically ensuring that every child, regardless of apparent interest, has access to a high-quality curriculum, advising, mentoring and data that help them make informed decisions about their futures and to apply, enroll and matriculate to a postsecondary institution.

There are many nonprofit and community-based programs that are working toward this goal; 10,000 Degrees and Destination College Advising Corps , for example, both do their work embedded within school buildings, and organizations like the Northern California College Promise Coalition are working to build momentum toward our shared goal of postsecondary success for all.

At OneGoal , the organization I head in the Bay Area, we offer a three-year program that starts as a G-Elective — one of the requirements for entry to the University of California and California State systems — during junior year, and continues through senior year and the first year of post-secondary education.

One of the students who participated in the course was Jorge Ramirez, now a freshman at Sacramento State. He told us that before knowing what his options were, he did not plan to go to college because he wasn’t motivated to enroll, and, more important, he didn’t see how he would find the funds to do so.

After he enrolled in the course in 2018, he learned about the FAFSA , a form to apply for college financial aid from the federal government, and the entire college application process. While he originally wanted to study engineering in college, he discovered his passion once in school and is now working on getting his bachelor’s degree with the goal of becoming a social worker.

Our experience suggests that by embedding postsecondary planning into the school day, along with equipping educators to act as mentors and supporters to students’ journeys, students like Jorge can have an equitable opportunity to attain their postsecondary aspirations.

But reversing chronic divestment requires systematic in vestment. We must take action now. That will require parents and community members backing and supporting school board members who place a high priority on postsecondary attainment.

It will also require looking closely at their school or district’s strategies for promoting postsecondary success, and advocating for plans that provide all children with support to pursue higher education.

As we’ve seen so clearly over the last year, the people’s voice matters. I hope that people all around the country will rise up to demand that postsecondary preparation be integrated into all schools as a matter of equity, and look forward to the day when a postsecondary degree or credential is a right for all.

Lia Izenberg is the executive director of OneGoal Bay Area .

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our  guidelines  and  contact us .

To get more reports like this one, click here to sign up for EdSource’s no-cost daily email on latest developments in education.

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Daphne 3 years ago 3 years ago

As a high school teacher I have told my students that if I were graduating high school now, I would not go to 4 year college. It is not a guarantee to a good job anymore. Trade school and job experience are better investments, as is military service.

Robert Jaurequi 3 years ago 3 years ago

Excellent article!!!

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• Paying for College

Should College Be Free? The Pros and Cons

Types of Publicly Funded College Tuition Programs

Pros: why college should be free, cons: why college should not be free, what the free college debate means for students, how to cut your college costs now, frequently asked questions (faqs).

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Americans have been debating the wisdom of free college for decades, and more than 30 states now offer some type of free college program. But it wasn't until 2021 that a nationwide free college program came close to becoming reality, re-energizing a longstanding debate over whether or not free college is a good idea. 

And despite a setback for the free-college advocates, the idea is still in play. The Biden administration's free community college proposal was scrapped from the American Families Plan . But close observers say that similar proposals promoting free community college have drawn solid bipartisan support in the past. "Community colleges are one of the relatively few areas where there's support from both Republicans and Democrats," said Tulane economics professor Douglas N. Harris, who has previously consulted with the Biden administration on free college, in an interview with The Balance. 

To get a sense of the various arguments for and against free college, as well as the potential impacts on U.S. students and taxpayers, The Balance combed through studies investigating the design and implementation of publicly funded free tuition programs and spoke with several higher education policy experts. Here's what we learned about the current debate over free college in the U.S.—and more about how you can cut your college costs or even get free tuition through existing programs.

Key Takeaways

• Research shows free tuition programs encourage more students to attend college and increase graduation rates, which creates a better-educated workforce and higher-earning consumers who can help boost the economy. 
• Some programs are criticized for not paying students’ non-tuition expenses, not benefiting students who need assistance most, or steering students toward community college instead of four-year programs.  
• If you want to find out about free programs in your area, the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education has a searchable database. You’ll find the link further down in this article. 

Before diving into the weeds of the free college debate, it's important to note that not all free college programs are alike. Most publicly funded tuition assistance programs are restricted to the first two years of study, typically at community colleges. Free college programs also vary widely in the ways they’re designed, funded, and structured:

• Last-dollar tuition-free programs : These programs cover any remaining tuition after a student has used up other financial aid , such as Pell Grants. Most state-run free college programs fall into this category. However, these programs don’t typically help with room and board or other expenses.
• First-dollar tuition-free programs : These programs pay for students' tuition upfront, although they’re much rarer than last-dollar programs. Any remaining financial aid that a student receives can then be applied to other expenses, such as books and fees. The California College Promise Grant is a first-dollar program because it waives enrollment fees for eligible students.
• Debt-free programs : These programs pay for all of a student's college expenses , including room and board, guaranteeing that they can graduate debt-free. But they’re also much less common, likely due to their expense.  

Proponents often argue that publicly funded college tuition programs eventually pay for themselves, in part by giving students the tools they need to find better jobs and earn higher incomes than they would with a high school education. The anticipated economic impact, they suggest, should help ease concerns about the costs of public financing education. Here’s a closer look at the arguments for free college programs.

A More Educated Workforce Benefits the Economy

Morley Winograd, President of the Campaign for Free College Tuition, points to the economic and tax benefits that result from the higher wages of college grads. "For government, it means more revenue," said Winograd in an interview with The Balance—the more a person earns, the more they will likely pay in taxes . In addition, "the country's economy gets better because the more skilled the workforce this country has, the better [it’s] able to compete globally." Similarly, local economies benefit from a more highly educated, better-paid workforce because higher earners have more to spend. "That's how the economy grows," Winograd explained, “by increasing disposable income."

According to Harris, the return on a government’s investment in free college can be substantial. "The additional finding of our analysis was that these things seem to consistently pass a cost-benefit analysis," he said. "The benefits seem to be at least double the cost in the long run when we look at the increased college attainment and the earnings that go along with that, relative to the cost and the additional funding and resources that go into them." 

Free College Programs Encourage More Students to Attend

Convincing students from underprivileged backgrounds to take a chance on college can be a challenge, particularly when students are worried about overextending themselves financially. But free college programs tend to have more success in persuading students to consider going, said Winograd, in part because they address students' fears that they can't afford higher education . "People who wouldn't otherwise think that they could go to college, or who think the reason they can't is [that] it's too expensive, [will] stop, pay attention, listen, decide it's an opportunity they want to take advantage of, and enroll," he said.

According to Harris, students also appear to like the certainty and simplicity of the free college message. "They didn't want to have to worry that next year they were not going to have enough money to pay their tuition bill," he said. "They don't know what their finances are going to look like a few months down the road, let alone next year, and it takes a while to get a degree. So that matters." 

Free college programs can also help send "a clear and tangible message" to students and their families that a college education is attainable for them, said Michelle Dimino, an Education Director with Third Way. This kind of messaging is especially important to first-generation and low-income students, she said. 

Free College Increases Graduation Rates and Financial Security

Free tuition programs appear to improve students’ chances of completing college. For example, Harris noted that his research found a meaningful link between free college tuition and higher graduation rates. "What we found is that it did increase college graduation at the two-year college level, so more students graduated than otherwise would have." 

Free college tuition programs also give people a better shot at living a richer, more comfortable life, say advocates. "It's almost an economic necessity to have some college education," noted Winograd. Similar to the way a high school diploma was viewed as crucial in the 20th century, employees are now learning that they need at least two years of college to compete in a global, information-driven economy. "Free community college is a way of making that happen quickly, effectively, and essentially," he explained. 

Free community college isn’t a universally popular idea. While many critics point to the potential costs of funding such programs, others identify issues with the effectiveness and fairness of current attempts to cover students’ college tuition. Here’s a closer look at the concerns about free college programs.

It Would Be Too Expensive

The idea of free community college has come under particular fire from critics who worry about the cost of social spending. Since community colleges aren't nearly as expensive as four-year colleges—often costing thousands of dollars a year—critics argue that individuals can often cover their costs using other forms of financial aid . But, they point out, community college costs would quickly add up when paid for in bulk through a free college program: Biden’s proposed free college plan would have cost $49.6 billion in its first year, according to an analysis from Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Some opponents argue that the funds could be put to better use in other ways, particularly by helping students complete their degrees.

Free College Isn't Really Free

One of the most consistent concerns that people have voiced about free college programs is that they don’t go far enough. Even if a program offers free tuition, students will need to find a way to pay for other college-related expenses , such as books, room and board, transportation, high-speed internet, and, potentially, child care. "Messaging is such a key part of this," said Dimino. Students "may apply or enroll in college, understanding it's going to be free, but then face other unexpected charges along the way." 

It's important for policymakers to consider these factors when designing future free college programs. Otherwise, Dimino and other observers fear that students could potentially wind up worse off if they enroll and invest in attending college and then are forced to drop out due to financial pressures. 

Free College Programs Don’t Help the Students Who Need Them Most

Critics point out that many free college programs are limited by a variety of quirks and restrictions, which can unintentionally shut out deserving students or reward wealthier ones. Most state-funded free college programs are last-dollar programs, which don’t kick in until students have applied financial aid to their tuition. That means these programs offer less support to low-income students who qualify for need-based aid—and more support for higher-income students who don’t.

Community College May Not Be the Best Path for All Students

Some critics also worry that all students will be encouraged to attend community college when some would have been better off at a four-year institution. Four-year colleges tend to have more resources than community colleges and can therefore offer more support to high-need students. 

In addition, some research has shown that students at community colleges are less likely to be academically successful than students at four-year colleges, said Dimino. "Statistically, the data show that there are poorer outcomes for students at community colleges […] such as lower graduation rates and sometimes low transfer rates from two- to four-year schools." 

With Congress focused on other priorities, a nationwide free college program is unlikely to happen anytime soon. However, some states and municipalities offer free tuition programs, so students may be able to access some form of free college, depending on where they live. A good resource is the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education’s searchable database of Promise Programs , which lists more than 100 free community college programs, though the majority are limited to California residents.

In the meantime, school leaders and policymakers may shift their focus to other access and equity interventions for low-income students. For example, higher education experts Eileen Strempel and Stephen Handel published a book in 2021 titled "Beyond Free College: Making Higher Education Work for 21st Century Students." The book argues that policymakers should focus more strongly on college completion, not just college access. "There hasn't been enough laser-focus on how we actually get people to complete their degrees," noted Strempel in an interview with The Balance. 

Rather than just improving access for low-income college students, Strempel and Handel argue that decision-makers should instead look more closely at the social and economic issues that affect students , such as food and housing insecurity, child care, transportation, and personal technology. For example, "If you don't have a computer, you don't have access to your education anymore," said Strempel. "It's like today's pencil."

Saving money on college costs can be challenging, but you can take steps to reduce your cost of living. For example, if you're interested in a college but haven't yet enrolled, pay close attention to where it's located and how much residents typically pay for major expenses, such as housing, utilities, and food. If the college is located in a high-cost area, it could be tough to justify the living expenses you'll incur. Similarly, if you plan to commute, take the time to check gas or public transportation prices and calculate how much you'll likely have to spend per month to go to and from campus several times a week. 

Now that more colleges offer classes online, it may also be worth looking at lower-cost programs in areas that are farther from where you live, particularly if they allow you to graduate without setting foot on campus. Also, check out state and federal financial aid programs that can help you slim down your expenses, or, in some cases, pay for them completely. Finally, look into need-based and merit-based grants and scholarships that can help you cover even more of your expenses. Also, consider applying to no-loan colleges , which promise to help students graduate without going into debt.

Should community college be free?

It’s a big question with varying viewpoints. Supporters of free community college cite the economic contributions of a more educated workforce and the individual benefit of financial security, while critics caution against the potential expense and the inefficiency of last-dollar free college programs. 

What states offer free college?

More than 30 states offer some type of tuition-free college program, including Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington State. The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education lists over 100 last-dollar community college programs and 16 first-dollar community college programs, though the majority are limited to California residents.

Is there a free college?

There is no such thing as a truly free college education. But some colleges offer free tuition programs for students, and more than 30 states offer some type of tuition-free college program. In addition, students may also want to check out employer-based programs. A number of big employers now offer to pay for their employees' college tuition . Finally, some students may qualify for enough financial aid or scholarships to cover most of their college costs.

Scholarships360. " Which States Offer Tuition-Free Community College? "

The White House. “ Build Back Better Framework ,” see “Bringing Down Costs, Reducing Inflationary Pressures, and Strengthening the Middle Class.”

The White House. “ Fact Sheet: How the Build Back Better Plan Will Create a Better Future for Young Americans ,” see “Education and Workforce Opportunities.”

Coast Community College District. “ California College Promise Grant .”

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. “ The Dollars and Cents of Free College ,” see “Biden’s Free College Plan Would Pay for Itself Within 10 Years.”

Third Way. “ Why Free College Could Increase Inequality .”

Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. “ The Dollars and Cents of Free College ,” see “Free-College Programs Have Different Effects on Race and Class Equity.”

University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. “ College Promise Programs: A Comprehensive Catalog of College Promise Programs in the United States .”

Rising tuition, student debt weigh heavily on post-secondary students

'it's so hard to get out of university and just start your life with so much debt already,' says undergrad.

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Everything seems to be getting more expensive. Food, gas and housing prices are on the rise while paycheques are slow to keep pace. The CBC News series  Priced Out  explains why you're paying more at the register and how Canadians are coping with the high cost of everything.

Facing ever-rising tuition as well as higher prices for food, housing, and other necessities, post-secondary students in Canada are concerned about the debts that loom after graduation. 

Five students told CBC News about their costs of living and the financial pressures worrying them.

Nicolas Avendano, Toronto

Program: Architectural technology, Centennial College

Tuition: $8,000-9,300/term | Housing: $1000/month | Food: $300-350/month | Transportation: $100-150/month | Books: $250/year | Internet $40/month | Phone: $66/month

Nicolas Avendano tries to live as frugally as possible. 

The 28-year-old shares a downtown Toronto basement apartment with a roommate, favours free activities when meeting friends and cooks meals at home after shopping for sales at the supermarket. His parents, living in the U.S., help him with tuition and housing, but he also works a fast-food job to help cover the bills. 

Yet the Colombian-born international student faces tougher decisions these days. Pay for public transit or walk? Start eating smaller breakfasts or perhaps smaller meals altogether?

"There are times when I just say, 'Maybe I won't go out, because I don't have money for that,'" noted the college student.

• Province fixing loan gap after Dalhousie nursing students struggled to pay rent

Avendano believes post-secondary tuition should be more affordable — especially in face of other costs rising so substantially — in order to be accessible to more students. 

Education "shouldn't just be a thing that you can access because you have the money or the economic standing in order to achieve," he said. "I think that's definitely one of the reasons why society is becoming so stratified between the rich and the poor."

Nor should students be forced to live in total deprivation, he added. 

"There's a lot of criticism against young people for wanting to lead full, meaningful lives instead of just working and studying every single day, non-stop."

Dane Monkman, Winnipeg

Tuition, books & transportation: $4,000-8,000/year (3 terms) | Housing: $600/month | Food: $300/month | Internet: $50/month | Phone: $120/month

In Winnipeg, 26-year-old Dane Monkman is a graduate student advocating for lower tuition rates. In the 2018-2019 school year, University of Manitoba students saw a tuition hike of 6.6 per cent . For three consecutive years afterward, students saw annual increases of 3.75 per cent .

"During the pandemic we're seeing an increase in tuition every year," Monkman said. "That's obviously coming at a time where things are getting worse — and a lot of the time that causes a barrier for students to access post-secondary education."

Monkman, who is a member of Peguis First Nation, knows he is lucky to have his tuition and textbooks funded by his band. He also shares his off-campus living costs with his partner, but he recognizes other students may not have those kind of financial supports.

• Students at 4 Alberta universities protest tuition increases, budget cuts in 'Day of Action' Friday

Monkman maintains that those in positions of power are making decisions regarding tuition that minimize the chances of lower-income students ever reaching those positions themselves.

"They essentially are kicking away a ladder that will prevent further students from getting into these sort of same jobs or these same positions of power to make decisions."

Monkman has family members who have chosen not to pursue a higher education due to the financial strain it would place on themselves and their families. Some are just out of high school and unable to fathom attending university due to the cost, he said. 

"That's really unfortunate because it should be a right for everyone."

Yasmin Gardy, Burnaby, B.C. 

Tuition & transportation: $7,500/year | Housing: $1700/month | Utilities: $35/month | Food: $400-600/month | Books: $240/year | Internet: $70/month | Phone: $60/month

For students who live in B.C., pressures like rent and food are huge financial concerns.

Yasmin Gardy, 33, chose to live in the Edmonds neighbourhood in the city of Burnaby due to its proximity to campus. With rent as high as $1,700 per month for housing, she took out loans to pay for both her tuition and living expenses.

"I reached out to receive some financial support from the Jewish community here in Vancouver," said Gardy.

Gardy, who emigrated to Canada alone 10 years ago from Israel, turned to the Hebrew Free Loan Association of Vancouver. It's helping her stay afloat in her last term before graduation. 

• PRICED OUT International students in Metro Vancouver turn to food bank as prices keep climbing

As for food, another major financial constraint, Gardy again turned to her community for support. This past January, she registered for the food bank for the first time after things became difficult. She now regularly makes an appointment to pick up the basics such as bread, eggs, cheese and vegetables.

"I [had] an opportunity to go to their location and pick up a basket that helps me, as well to reduce the expenses of food for a month," Gardy said.

It's her hope that the government expands the range of financial supports and resources available to students. 

"The biggest one is if it's possible to plan toward having higher education be something that is available for free for citizens and permanent residents."

Gaayathri Murugan, Corner Brook, N.L. 

Tuition: $5,000-$6,000/term | Housing and internet: $1,700-2,100/term | Food: $1,000 per term for meal plan, $150-300/month groceries | Transportation: $200-300/month | Books: $100-200/term | Phone: $40/month

The number of international students studying in Canada has risen for years, representing nearly one-fifth of university enrolments  until just before the pandemic, according to Statistics Canada. 

Yet most don't truly understand just how expensive school is for international students, says visual arts student Gaayathri Murugan — including those domestic classmates sitting next to her at Memorial University.

That the 22-year-old pays so much more to sit in the same classes came as a surprise to them, said the fourth-year student, who took out a loan in India to pay for her studies in Canada and works several part-time jobs and volunteers on campus. 

• These MUN students are grappling with the rising cost of living along with tuition increases

Many don't know international students can only work a maximum of 20 hours per week during school, she pointed out, or that they're explicitly excluded from opportunities such as Canada Summer Jobs, a federal program matching students with summer work experiences. 

"I really feel like international students are treated like cash cows and it's just not very fair to us because we are also just trying to get an education," said Murugan, who's hoping to find work in Newfoundland's arts sector upon graduation. 

"It's so hard to get out of university and just start your life with so much debt already."

Colin Crawford, Montreal

Tuition: $4,760/year (3 terms) | Housing: $500/month | Food: $400-450/month | Transportation: $50/month | Books: $200/year | Utilities: $500/year | Internet: $60/month | Phone: $50/month

"It's just more and more expensive to be a young person in the world," says Colin Crawford, a Concordia University PhD student who shares an off-campus apartment in Montreal.

After working a few years to pay off the student loans for his undergrad, the 28-year-old has been able to secure scholarships to pay tuition for his graduate and doctoral studies. He's held multiple jobs to cover everything else, juggling being a teaching and research assistant with part-time gigs at local cafes, for instance. 

With another two years to go in his program, he worries about further tuition increases along with a precarious job market post-graduation. 

• U.S. to forgive loans for 100,000 students who went to ITT Tech

Young people are pushing the traditional markers of "becoming an adult" to their 30s and even 40s, said Crawford, who is working to start a Canadian branch of The Debt Collective to lobby for free post-secondary education and the cancelling of student debt. 

Younger generations are taking longer to even think about starting a family or owning a home, he said, because "so many people are driven into debt or just kind of getting by, paycheque to paycheque."

With files from Deana Sumanac-Johnson and Nazima Walji

Related Stories

• Memorial University to double tuition to $6K a year, ending 22-year freeze

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Why Education Should Be Free: Exploring the Benefits for a Progressive Society

Written by Dan

Last updated February 13, 2024

The question of whether education, particularly higher education, should be free is a continuing debate marked by a multitude of opinions and perspectives.

Education stands as one of the most powerful tools for personal and societal advancement, and making it accessible to all could have profound impacts on a nation’s economic growth and social fabric.

Proponents of tuition-free education argue that it could create a better-educated workforce, improve the livelihoods of individuals, and contribute to overall economic prosperity.

However, the implementation of such a system carries complexity and considerations that spark considerable discourse among policymakers, educators, and the public.

Related : For more, check out our article on  The #1 Problem In Education  here.

Within the debate on free education lies a range of considerations, including the significant economic benefits it might confer.

A well-educated populace can be the driving force behind innovation, entrepreneurship, and a competitive global stance, according to research.

Moreover, social and cultural benefits are also cited by advocates, who see free higher education as a stepping stone towards greater societal well-being and equality.

Nevertheless, the challenges in implementing free higher education often center around fiscal sustainability, the potential for increased taxes, and the restructuring of existing educational frameworks.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Free higher education could serve as a critical driver of economic growth and innovation.
• It may contribute to social equality and cultural enrichment across communities.
• Implementation of tuition-free higher education requires careful consideration of economic and structural challenges.

Related : For more, check out our article on  AI In Education  here.

The Economic Benefits of Free Education

Free education carries the potential for significant economic impact, notably by fostering a more qualified workforce and alleviating financial strains associated with higher education.

Boosting the Workforce with Skilled Workers

Free education initiatives can lead to a rise in college enrollment and graduation rates, as seen in various studies and practical implementations.

This translates into a larger pool of skilled workers entering the workforce, which is critical for the sustained growth of the economy. With more educated individuals, industries can innovate faster and remain competitive on a global scale.

The subsequent increase in productivity and creative problem-solving bolsters the country’s economic profile.

Reducing Student Loan Debt and Financial Insecurity

One of the most immediate effects of tuition-free education is the reduction of student loan debt . Students who graduate without the burden of debt have more financial freedom and security, enabling them to contribute economically through higher consumer spending and investments.

This financial relief also means that graduates can potentially enter the housing market earlier and save for retirement, both of which are beneficial for long-term economic stability.

Reducing this financial insecurity not only benefits individual lives but also creates a positive ripple effect throughout the economy.

Related : For more, check out our article on  Teaching For Understanding  here.

Social and Cultural Impacts

Free education stands as a cornerstone for a more equitable society, providing a foundation for individuals to reach their full potential without the barrier of cost.

It fosters an inclusive culture where access to knowledge and the ability to contribute meaningfully to society are viewed as inalienable rights.

Creating Equality and Expanding Choices

Free education mitigates the socioeconomic disparities that often dictate the quality and level of education one can attain.

When tuition fees are eliminated, individuals from lower-income families are afforded the same educational opportunities as their wealthier counterparts, leading to a more level playing field .

Expanding educational access enables all members of society to pursue a wider array of careers and life paths, broadening personal choices and promoting a diverse workforce.

Free Education as a Human Right

Recognizing education as a human right underpins the movement for free education. Human Rights Watch emphasizes that all children should have access to a quality, inclusive, and free education.

This aligns with international agreements and the belief that education is not a privilege but a right that should be safeguarded for all, regardless of one’s socioeconomic status.

Redistributions within society can function to finance the institutions necessary to uphold this right, leading to long-term cultural and social benefits.

Challenges and Considerations for Implementation

Implementing free education systems presents a complex interplay of economic and academic factors. Policymakers must confront these critical issues to develop sustainable and effective programs.

Balancing Funding and Taxpayer Impact

Funding for free education programs primarily depends on the allocation of government resources, which often requires tax adjustments .

Legislators need to strike a balance between providing sufficient funding for education and maintaining a level of taxation that does not overburden the taxpayers .

Studies like those from The Balance provide insight into the economic implications, indicating a need for careful analysis to avoid unintended financial consequences.

Ensuring Quality in Free Higher Education Programs

Merit and quality assurance become paramount in free college programs to ensure that the value of education does not diminish. Programs need structured oversight and performance metrics to maintain high academic standards.

Free college systems, by extending access, may risk over-enrollment, which can strain resources and reduce educational quality if not managed correctly.

Global Perspectives and Trends in Free Education

In the realm of education, several countries have adopted policies to make learning accessible at no cost to the student. These efforts often aim to enhance social mobility and create a more educated workforce.

Case Studies: Argentina and Sweden

Argentina has long upheld the principle of free university education for its citizens. Public universities in Argentina do not charge tuition fees for undergraduate courses, emphasizing the country’s commitment to accessible education.

This policy supports a key tenet of social justice, allowing a wide range of individuals to pursue higher education regardless of their financial situation.

In comparison, Sweden represents a prime example of advanced free education within Europe. Swedish universities offer free education not only to Swedish students but also to those from other countries within the European Union (EU).

For Swedes, this extends to include secondary education, which is also offered at no cost. Sweden’s approach exemplifies a commitment to educational equality and a well-informed citizenry.

International Approaches to Tuition-Free College

Examining the broader international landscape , there are diverse approaches to implementing tuition-free higher education.

For instance, some European countries like Spain have not entirely eliminated tuition fees but have kept them relatively low compared to the global average. These measures still align with the overarching goal of making education more accessible.

In contrast, there have been discussions and proposals in the United States about adopting tuition-free college programs, reflecting a growing global trend.

While the United States has not federally mandated free college education, there are initiatives, such as the Promise Programs, that offer tuition-free community college to eligible students in certain states, showcasing a step towards more inclusive educational opportunities.

Policy and Politics of Tuition-Free Education

The debate surrounding tuition-free education encompasses a complex interplay of bipartisan support and legislative efforts, with community colleges frequently at the policy’s epicenter.

Both ideological and financial considerations shape the trajectory of higher education policy in this context.

Bipartisan Support and Political Challenges

Bipartisan support for tuition-free education emerges from a recognition of community colleges as vital access points for higher education, particularly for lower-income families.

Initiatives such as the College Promise campaign reflect this shared commitment to removing economic barriers to education. However, political challenges persist, with Republicans often skeptical about the long-term feasibility and impact on the federal budget.

Such divisions underscore the politicized nature of the education discourse, situating it as a central issue in policy-making endeavors.

Legislative Framework and Higher Education Policy

The legislative framework for tuition-free education gained momentum under President Biden with the introduction of the American Families Plan .

This plan proposed substantial investments in higher education, particularly aimed at bolstering the role of community colleges. Central to this policy is the pledge to cover up to two years of tuition for eligible students.

The proposal reflects a significant step in reimagining higher education policy, though it requires navigating the intricacies of legislative procedures and fiscally conservative opposition to translate into actionable policy.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section addresses common queries regarding the prospect of free college education, its impact, and practical considerations for implementation.

What are the most compelling arguments for making college education free?

The most compelling arguments for tuition-free college highlight the removal of financial barriers, potential to increase social mobility, and a long-term investment in a more educated workforce , which can lead to economic growth.

How could the government implement free education policies without sacrificing quality?

To implement free education without compromising quality, governments need to ensure sustainable funding, invest in faculty, and enable effective administration. Such measures aim to maintain high standards while extending access.

In countries with free college education, what has been the impact on their economies and societies?

Countries with free college education have observed various impacts, including a more educated populace , increased rates of innovation, and in some instances, stronger economic growth due to a skilled workforce.

How does free education affect the accessibility and inclusivity of higher education?

Free education enhances accessibility and inclusivity by leveling the educational playing field, allowing students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to pursue higher education regardless of their financial capability.

What potential downsides exist to providing free college education to all students?

Potential downsides include the strain on governmental budgets, the risk of oversaturating certain job markets, and the possibility that the value of a degree may diminish if too many people obtain one without a corresponding increase in jobs requiring higher education.

How might free education be funded, and what are the financial implications for taxpayers?

Free education would likely be funded through taxation, and its financial implications for taxpayers could range from increased taxes to reprioritization of existing budget funds. The scale of any potential tax increase would depend on the cost of the education programs and the economic benefits they’re anticipated to produce.

Related Posts

About The Author

I'm Dan Higgins, one of the faces behind The Teaching Couple. With 15 years in the education sector and a decade as a teacher, I've witnessed the highs and lows of school life. Over the years, my passion for supporting fellow teachers and making school more bearable has grown. The Teaching Couple is my platform to share strategies, tips, and insights from my journey. Together, we can shape a better school experience for all.

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Trade Schools Home > Articles > Should College be Free?

Should College Be Free? Pros, Cons, and Alternatives

By Publisher | Last Updated May 9, 2022

It's a question that might be more relevant today than ever before: Should college be free in America? Many people have very passionate opinions on the matter. Maybe you're one of them. But this question deserves a lot more than a simple yes or no answer. It deserves an open mind and a balanced exploration of the potential benefits, drawbacks, and alternatives.

After all, America's future is at stake. And nearly everyone agrees that education is one of the biggest factors that will determine the nation's fate going forward. So we have to get it right. Although some people might feel that the current system of higher education and vocational training is working well, many other people believe that it needs at least a little bit of improvement in one way or another.

College affordability is often among the top concerns. When the cost of attending college, university, or trade school is too high, a lot of students simply choose not to pursue a higher education. And that leaves many of them ill-equipped to find good employment, let alone attain the American dream. But high costs also leave some college graduates with levels of debt that hamper their abilities to attain at least a middle-class lifestyle.

So, should college be free? Is that even possible? Keep reading, and decide for yourself.

• A few basic facts
• Why should college be free for everyone?
• How might the government pay for free public college?
• Does free college work well in other countries?
• Could free public college work well in America?
• Why college should not be free for everybody
• Are there better alternatives?

This article contains affiliate links. We are compensated with a small commission, at no extra cost to you, for sales made through the links.

First, a Few Basic Facts

The concept of publicly funded education goes all the way back to America's Founding Fathers. In 1785, John Adams wrote: "The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and must be willing to bear the expense of it."

And, believe it or not, there actually was a time in the nation's history when people could attend public colleges for free. The Morrill Act of 1862 enabled land-grant colleges to be created by states on federal lands so that higher education could become available to Americans in every social class. The aim was "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life."

In the early days, students could often attend public land-grant colleges without paying any tuition. That was possible because only a relatively small percentage of Americans actually attended college. But as enrollment grew over the years, so did the funding requirements in each state. And that led to public colleges eventually charging tuition and raising their fees as enrollment grew and state funding slowed.

Today, the cost of attending many public colleges is so high that a lot of students simply can't afford to go. As a result, far fewer students from lower-income families attend college than those from upper-income families. That is in spite of the fact that the federal government continues to supply financial aid to eligible students, including Pell Grants (which don't have to be repaid).

Here are some other important facts to keep in mind as you explore the question of whether or not college should be free:

• In 2019, the total amount of student loan debt in America was estimated to be over $1.6 trillion (more than 20 percent higher than it was just four years earlier). And student loans are, by far, the most dominant type of financial aid. And according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) , over 60 percent of students who completed undergraduate studies in the 2015-2016 school year had taken out at least one student loan.
• According to the Lumina Foundation , more than $80 billion is spent each year by the federal government on post-secondary financial aid. And College Board statistics show that in the 2018-2019 school year, government spending represented over 60 percent of all student financial assistance in the higher education sector.
• According to College Board, in the 2019-2020 school year, the maximum federal Pell Grant covered about 59 percent of the average cost of going to a public four-year college or university. Compare that to 1973 when a Pell Grant covered over 75 percent of the cost, according to the Lumina Foundation. So, what about two-year colleges? Is community college free if you get a Pell Grant? Well, it used to be. But the Lumina Foundation says that a Pell Grant only covered about 60 percent of the cost of attending community college in 2013.
• The NCES found that close to 17 million students were enrolled in American post-secondary schools in the fall of 2017, which was 3.6 million more than in 2000. Roughly six million of those students attended two-year colleges.
• According to NCES estimates from 2017, young adults in America earn 62 percent more if they have a bachelor's degree than if they only complete high school.
• The Inequality.org project reports that since the mid-1900s, America's top one percent of income earners have increased their portion of the country's income by more than double.
• If you don't account for grants and scholarships, then, in total, about $254 billion is spent on college tuition each year by post-secondary students (based on calculations using data for the 2017-2018 academic period). That number comes from the NCES and is for all types of post-secondary institutions. Tuition at public colleges and universities accounts for nearly $103.5 billion of that total.
• A few tuition-free colleges already exist in the U.S. (A tuition-free college is a post-secondary institution that doesn't charge tuition to its students but still may charge other fees, including room and board.) For example, Alice Lloyd College, Berea College, College of the Ozarks, Deep Springs College, Warren Wilson College, and Webb Institute offer free tuition. However, you may have to meet certain conditions, such as being a resident of a particular region, working on campus, attending full-time, or coming from a low-income family.
• The past decade has seen the creation and proliferation of free online courses through non-profit organizations and massive open online course (MOOC) providers like Coursera . However, there are often limitations, including how much of a subject is available to study, what types of certifications may be awarded, and if there is a fee to access the provider's services (while the course may be free, you may need to pay for exams or other parts of course access).
• Free college is something you can take advantage of by attending the United States Military Academy, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy, Merchant Marine Academy, or Coast Guard Academy. Just keep in mind that each of the military academies is highly selective, so admission is very competitive. You also have to agree to serve as an officer in the service you've chosen for several years after graduation.

Why Should College Be Free for Everyone?

Proponents of free college believe that it would benefit the entire nation, not just the individual students who take advantage of it. They see it as both a private and public benefit. After all, more and more of today's jobs are knowledge-based or require advanced technical skills. So a better-educated workforce would help fill many of the skills gaps that prevent America's economy from growing faster.

Plus, since more people would be able to attain employer-desired credentials, more people would be able to take the good-paying jobs that often go unfilled. And that could result in billions of additional dollars circulating throughout the economy since people tend to spend more money when they have higher incomes and little or no debt. It could also mean that the government would take in a lot of extra tax revenues, which could go a long way toward paying for free public colleges.

But the issue of why college should be free isn't just an economic one. It's also a moral and philosophical one. Do we want every American, regardless of social standing, to have an equal opportunity to reach his or her potential? That's what this country is supposed to be about, yet social mobility has been eroding for the poor and middle class. And without easy and affordable access to quality higher education for everyone, the collective intelligence and goodwill of the nation could also erode. America might become even more socially divided.

Ultimately, many people believe that a college-level education should be an absolute right, so long as you have the ability to benefit from it. Put another way, perhaps free education is a concept that shouldn't be arbitrarily limited to K-12 students. Here are some of the other commonly cited reasons why college should be free:

• There might be a lot fewer Americans who need to seek other forms of public assistance.
• People would have more freedom to contribute their talents, try new ideas, and pursue the lives they want if they didn't have to start off in debt or stay stuck in a low-wage job. That could lead to happier people. And happier people could lead to a happier, more prosperous nation as a whole.
• A better-educated population could result in smarter decision-making at every level of society, which could lead to faster progress in solving our most difficult, collective challenges.
• Students would be able to focus more on their studies rather than worrying about how to scrape together enough funds for each upcoming school term. As a result, more of them might graduate on time, ready to take on important jobs in their communities.
• Many of America's top-performing high school students never apply to the most challenging colleges and universities even though they have the ability to succeed at them. They often come from minority and low-income households and end up pursuing more affordable, less-selective schools instead. And that helps create a widening gap between wealthier families and those that are less affluent.
• Although it benefits many students, the nation's existing financial aid system currently fails to provide an equal opportunity to every qualified American.
• Graduating with high amounts of student loan debt has been shown to reduce a person's chances of owning a home, getting married, having children, and accumulating wealth.

How Might the Government Pay for Free Public College?

Technically, free college isn't really free. Someone does have to pay for it. In the case of public college, that means taxpayers. But some economists believe that every American who wants to could go to college for free if the federal and state governments made a few reasonable changes. They don't see the concept as a fantasy. They see it as a very realistic option. Some of the ideas that they've put forward include:

• Closing corporate tax loopholes that allow companies to legally avoid paying their full share of taxes
• Increasing the tax rates for America's wealthiest millionaires and billionaires
• Implementing new taxes on speculative Wall Street transactions
• Diverting most of the public money currently spent on student financial aid toward making all public colleges and universities tuition-free instead
• Decreasing the military budget
• Cracking down on wasteful government spending

If you only count the money doled out in federal grants, it costs about $2.8 billion each year to make college tuition-free (or close to free) for over 585,000 low-income students at public colleges and universities in the U.S. (based on data from the NCES for the 2016-2017 school year). However, grants alone are often not enough to cover all of a student's fees and expenses. So the federal government also offers work-study programs as well as subsidized and unsubsidized student loans, which can sometimes be difficult to repay.

Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont and a 2020 presidential candidate, has put forward a proposal to make college free. Under the proposed plan, it would cost $2.2 trillion (spread over 10 years) to eliminate tuition at public universities, colleges, and trade schools and cancel all outstanding student loan debt. However, the plan would only cover tuition and fees, not books, room and board, or other expenses. If his plan ever gets enacted, Sanders will pay for free college by passing a separate bill that taxes speculative Wall Street sales transactions. Other 2020 presidential candidates like Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, and Kamala Harris also proposed various plans for free tuition at public colleges (for at least some students) and/or some kind of debt relief for students.

NCES data shows that during the 2017-2018 academic year, the average cost of attending an undergraduate post-secondary institution in the U.S. was $23,835. That number includes tuition, fees, and room and board. More than 20 million students were enrolled at all types of post-secondary schools (both public and private). So it would cost at least $480 billion each year to pay for free college for all undergraduate students, regardless of the institutions they attended.

But nobody is really proposing to make college free for everyone. Those who choose to attend private colleges or universities are generally left out of this discussion. Most proposals only focus on covering tuition for students at public schools of higher education. And getting free college tuition means that you don't have to pay for your courses, but you do have to pay for your other educational and living expenses.

Does Free College Work Well in Other Countries?

The answer appears to be yes. But that might depend on whom you ask. So where is college free in other parts of the world?

As of the 2017-2018 school year, at least seven countries offer tuition-free public higher education (at the bachelor's and master's degree levels). For example, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Sweden have free college education. So free college, in Europe especially, has proven to be a popular idea.

One reason why is that countries with free college education tend to have lower levels of student debt among their graduates. For example, according to the European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE) , in Finland, the average college student loan amounts to $1,200, which is used mostly for living expenses while in school. In Norway, the average student loan is worth $9,381. But that is still less than the U.S. average, which is $15,510.

Plus, another compelling fact about free colleges in Europe is that those nations don't generally spend that much more on higher education than the U.S. does. For instance, the EENEE reports that as a share of national GDP, the U.S. spends about 1.36 percent on post-secondary education. But Finland and Norway only spend 2.08 percent and 1.96 percent of their nations' GDP, respectively.

But here's something you may not know: Public college education is not free in the UK, although it used to be. As of 1998, public university is not free in England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland. That's because providing free public university was actually shown to reduce the quality of higher education and lessen access to educational opportunities for lower income students due to necessary caps on enrollment. So, in many ways, it did the opposite of what was intended, according to the Brookings Institute . Free higher education is not a concept that works everywhere.

Instead, the UK now has a system in which public universities charge tuition, but students don't have to pay anything up front. Payment is deferred until after graduation, and every graduate is automatically enrolled in an income-based repayment program. So graduates only have to pay an affordable percentage of their incomes once they start earning above a certain threshold.

College is not free in Canada. However, college and university students in Canada tend to pay less for their education than students in the U.S. since public post-secondary schools are heavily subsidized by the provincial, territorial, and federal governments. So the tuition is often lower. But many Canadian students still take out loans. In fact, according to EENEE data, the average student loan in Canada is worth $4,421, which is still far below the American average.

Could Free Public College Work Well in America?

An article by the Pew Charitable Trusts states that Arkansas, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee offer free college tuition to at least some students who attend public post-secondary institutions. (In some of these states, there are restrictions on who is eligible and/or specific requirements or conditions that have to be met by prospective students.) New York was the first state to make public college and university tuition-free for residents who come from families that earn $125,000 or less per year. Several other states are considering similar kinds of legislation. So free public college might not be such a radical idea.

Plus, other programs around the country are demonstrating that providing people with free college can be very beneficial. For example, consider the Kalamazoo Promise in Michigan, which has been in effect since 2006. Essentially, all students who have been continuously enrolled in the Kalamazoo Public Schools (KPS) district since kindergarten—and successfully graduate from high school—are eligible to have 100 percent of their tuition and fees covered (at the undergraduate level) at any public college or university in Michigan that accepts them.

The Kalamazoo Promise also covers high school graduates who have been continuously enrolled in the KPS district for shorter amounts of time. In those cases, students can have 65 percent or more of their tuition and fees covered, depending on how long they've been enrolled. And students are given up to 10 years to use the scholarship after graduating from high school.

The impact has been positive. According to one report , from 2006 to 2013, the percentage of KPS graduates who earned a college-level credential within six years of completing high school rose from roughly 36 percent to about 48 percent. And the impact has been the greatest on the district's low-income students who have increased their probability of attending and completing a four-year college education by over 50 percent.

Why College Should Not Be Free for Everybody

Opponents of free college tend to believe that such an idea would simply be too expensive for the federal and state governments to maintain long-term. As a result, Americans may have to start paying much higher taxes. And that, they say, could hurt the economy since people might have less to spend or invest.

In addition, countries like the U.S., Canada, South Korea, and Japan have already proven that free higher education isn't necessary for building some of the world's most educated workforces. And free public college, by itself, would likely not be enough to promote the big improvements in social mobility that are needed throughout America. That's especially true when you consider the responsibilities of adult and non-traditional learners who often have challenges that aren't just strictly financial in nature.

Many opponents of free college are especially against the idea of making community colleges tuition-free. They point to national statistics indicating that public community colleges are often dead ends for students. For example, only about 25 percent of first-time, full-time students at public two-year colleges earn associate degrees, diplomas, or certificates within three years of starting. And only 16 percent of them go on to earn bachelor's degrees within six years. (In contrast, 62 percent of students at private, non-profit two-year schools—and 61 percent of students at private, for-profit two-year schools—graduate within three years.) Those numbers come from the NCES.

So making community colleges free could have some negative consequences for non-traditional students who often benefit from attending private colleges or vocational schools. If the U.S. government diverts more funding toward making community colleges tuition-free, then students attending private schools could potentially lose access to federal financial aid since that might be one of the trade-offs. They would then need to decide whether to attend free public schools that may be a lot more crowded or provide less effective (and less convenient) training.

Here are a few other reasons why some people oppose free college for everyone:

• With more people choosing to attend public colleges because of their tuition-free status, many schools might have to create wait lists or expand the ones they already have. State budgets could become strained, which might lead to cuts and decreased access to the programs that students want to take.
• Public colleges and universities might become less worried about wasteful spending since they won't have to compete with other schools on cost. And that could strain public budgets even further.
• Many students would still have to borrow money for their living expenses as well as for books and supplies. So they wouldn't get to leave school completely debt-free.
• Students might take their college education less seriously if they don't have to pay for it. So graduation numbers might drop, or the people who do graduate might not be as well prepared for the workforce.
• Students may not learn to become as financially literate or independent as they should be, choosing instead to stay dependent on government programs whenever possible.
• If a lot more people are able to earn college degrees, then the value of those degrees could decrease. And that could lead to a rising number of workers who are underemployed based on their qualifications.

Are There Better Alternatives?

Maybe some kind of middle ground exists. Maybe making public colleges free for everyone isn't the best way to solve the affordability problem. At least, that's what some people believe. They point out that other options have been shown to work well and that those options might be a lot less expensive for American taxpayers.

For example, consider the possibility of an income-based repayment system. For some former college students in the U.S., that is already a reality. They are able to have the repayment of their student loans tied to a small percentage of their incomes. And if they earn below a certain threshold, then they don't have to make any payments. After 20 to 25 years, whatever is left on their loans is written off, as long as they have consistently kept up with all of the payments that were due. The problem, currently, is that this option is only available to low-income people who can prove that they are experiencing financial hardship.

But what if loans with income-based repayment were available to every student? You would be able to attend college, university, or trade school without having to pay for tuition while enrolled. Then, after you left school, you would only have to pay an affordable percentage of what you earned (or, if you didn't earn much, pay nothing at all until your income rose). The more money you earned, the quicker you would pay off the loan. And if your income stayed low, you would have the peace of mind of knowing that your loan obligations would eventually expire.

That's exactly the type of system that Australia uses through its Higher Education Loan Program (HELP). Plus, no interest is applied to the program's student loans. And for those earning incomes above a reasonable threshold, the repayment percentage ranges from only four to eight percent, which is very affordable. On average, it takes just over eight years for an Australian graduate to repay a HELP loan. Of course, many loans will never be fully repaid (roughly 17 percent of them). But the system has been designed to allow for that.

With a system like HELP, college graduates have the freedom to take on lower-paying jobs while they get established. And it provides an incentive for aspiring artists, writers, musicians, philosophers, and other visionaries to pursue an education and develop their talents without worrying about the costs. After all, the world needs such people. Our future would be bleak without them.

So an income-based repayment system represents a compromise. Certainly, taxpayers would still have to help fund it since not all loans would be repaid. But the tax requirements would likely be much lower compared to what a tuition-free system would require. And such a system would also put some of the onus back on students. It would remove important obstacles to higher education without removing accountability or a sense of ownership.

Other ideas and alternatives to free public college that have been put forward by various people include:

• Greatly expanding the existing Pell Grant program while cutting back on student loans
• Investing in a better system of youth-development and community-development programs
• Discouraging the distribution of merit-based financial aid to wealthy students and using that money to provide more opportunities for poor and middle-class students instead
• Developing a larger and more robust apprenticeship system for skilled trades training and other vocational areas
• Establishing better incentives for employers to provide more extensive on-the-job training rather than depending on the higher education system to supply fully qualified workers
• Providing more incentives to colleges, universities, and trade schools to lower their costs and keep them low
• Establishing a more extensive system of national service that enables young adults or career-changing adults to learn new skills, become part of something bigger than themselves, and network with other people while helping to solve some of the biggest challenges in the nation's communities—all in exchange for discounted or tuition-free college
• Investing in better pre-college education that teaches students, in greater detail, about all of the realistic options that are available to them
• Investing in better financial education for everyone so that all students become financially literate and know how to make money work for them before attending college or getting their first jobs
• Providing more public support, including research and development funding, to innovators who are creating online, low-cost, and customized alternatives to traditional institutions of higher education

What's the Best Way Forward for Students Right Now?

Like other students, you might have a lot of options available to you. But the longer you wait to begin your post-secondary education, the more opportunities you may be missing out on. So even though "Should college be free?" is a question worth debating, the best action to take right now is probably to investigate the many helpful possibilities that already exist.

Why not check out some of the career-driven programs in your area just to see how you might benefit from them? Generate a list of nearby schools right now by putting your zip code into the following search tool!

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Should post-secondary education be free?

I’m sure all of us currently enrolled in post-secondary education, or those who will be attending soon, have noticed it is a financial investment. Post-secondary education is undeniably expensive. It is a huge investment we make at such a young age and must pay off in loans as we attempt to navigate the workforce after graduating.  

The question is — should post-secondary education be free? This is an issue that appears to not be discussed frequently.  

Post-secondary education costs begin with application fees. I remember last year when I applied to universities, there was a $100 fee just for them to consider admitting me! I was surprised  that the application had a fee attached.  I was paying a university without the guarantee of being accepted into a post-secondary program. 

Once accepted, the fees start adding up. There is the cost of tuition, textbooks, and for many  students,  residence and meal plan fees. One of the fees that many people overlook, or forget about, is the cost of textbooks. Textbooks tend to be very expensive. ,  which is disappointing as it is not common for professors to use the same textbooks each year.  

Yes, there is the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) which provides funding  for students; however, this is not available to every student as it is not a guarantee that one will be eligible for funding.  

This can create financial stress for students and could cause some to drop out of post-secondary education, or not even begin it. Not every student deemed ineligible for OSAP funding is in the financial state to pay for university by themselves.  

With these factors in mind, post-secondary education should be free. This would promote equality for students, as anyone could apply, no matter their financial status. There would be academic requirements to be admitted but that would be the sole requirement — and no additional fees or outrageous tuition costs. Not to mention with the financial barrier removed, more people would be able to obtain a Bachelor’s degree. 

Perhaps Canada should replicate the post-secondary education system in Sweden and Denmark, where it is free! However, there would still be costs to attend post-secondary programs. TThe cost of rent, food, and other miscellaneous costs would still be there. Unfortunately there will always be additional costs, no matter the situation.  

Despite these points made, is it important to remember that post-secondary education is an enormous investment and obtaining a degree  can positively impact our lives. It allows us to gain further knowledge, and learn about the world around us, as well as getting prepared for the workforce and being able to obtain a fulfilling career.  

But for now, as Canadian post-secondary education is not free, we must continue to work hard in our studies and continue with our degrees. It is truly an investment for our futures.

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Matt Barter

Why post-secondary education should be free.

Access to post-secondary institutions results in a more educated and healthy population. It can lead to lower costs for the healthcare and prison systems. The provincial government is stuck in the mindset of what is best to do short-term, for economic reasons, rather than what’s best for the long-term well-being of the population.

Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) has been the most accessible university in Canada for many years, with a history of making access a priority due to its affordable tuition rates. But in recent years, the provincial government cut over $30 million in funding for MUN’s operating budget. As the administration does not want to give up their big salaries and the perks they feel entitled to, their immediate solution has been to increase revenue via student fee hikes.

Tuition for Newfoundland and Labrador students was frozen for a long time. However, in 2017, the administration implemented new fees, including the Student Services Fee ($50) and the Campus Renewal Fee ($50 per three-credit course up to a maximum of $250). The mandate of MUN to educate the people of the province was lost. We have moved backwards.

In 2019, the administration proposed a model of tuition that they referred to as a “progressive” model, where tuition will be raised for everyone, but there will be grants for students who cannot afford it. Essentially, it seemed to be the idea of taking money away from the more well-off students and giving it to less-advantaged students. It is not the university’s role to redistribute wealth in society. The main issue with their proposed model is deciding who qualifies for grants and who does not. There are already several cases where students do not qualify for student aid because their parents’ income threshold is too high. Therefore, they have to find other methods to obtain the money needed, such as working long hours. Some even opt not to attend university. Many students at MUN use the food bank because they are in so much debt due to tuition that they cannot afford to put food on the table.

On July 9th, 2021, in addition to the newly implemented fees, new president Vianne Timmons announced that the university will more than double tuition for new NL students who enroll in Fall 2022 from $2,500 per year to $6,000 a year. Current students will pay tuition at the current rate but with a four percent annual increase from Fall 2022 to 2025 until 2026, when it will be adjusted to the new level. This is despite Vianne’s promise to current students on May 3rd, 2021, that tuition will remain unchanged; she stated, “There will be no student who is presently enrolled in Memorial that will be compromised.” Vianne lied!

As a result of MUN’s decision to increase tuition, the government ended the 21-year tuition freeze by cutting the $68 million grant they provided the university with to cover the tuition freeze. Instead, they expanded the province’s grants and loans program, which will cost them significantly less at around $18 million annually.

The value of an undergraduate degree is now equivalent to what a high school degree used to be. Research by several sources states that over 70 percent of jobs now require some form of post-secondary education, with that number steadily increasing. Without the education necessary, people are stuck with low-paying, insecure employment, some even without sufficient wages to cover living expenses.

The idea of decreasing fees at MUN for the students of this province, even perhaps to the point of elimination, is not a radical idea and has existed in the past. In March of 1965, then Premier Joey Smallwood announced free tuition for those in the province. However, there were flaws in Premier Smallwood’s proposed plan.

Commentator Rex Murphy, who was involved with the student council at the time, gave a speech about the concerns that students had regarding the plan, which only included first-year students. According to The Gazette, “Mr. Murphy’s speech received much media attention, and Mr. Smallwood was asked to comment on the matter. Amongst cutting words for Mr. Murphy, he appeared to make a shift in policy, announcing that free tuition for second-year students was in the works. By October, the premier had established a plan which granted free tuition to all Newfoundlanders; students were even offered ‘living salaries’ which ranged between $50 and $100.”

An article in The Muse titled “JOEY’S DREAM – FREE TUITION” states that, on Tuesday, October 5th, 1965, Premier Smallwood announced his plan for free tuition in MUN’s gymnasium that was filled to capacity with students and faculty. It was also broadcasted to overflow areas, including the Little Theatre and Dining Hall. Premier Smallwood received a standing ovation and cheers.

Free post-secondary education is not a new idea nationally either; World War II veterans were given free tuition after the war years. Most places with free post-secondary education have done so through a federal initiative, like Sweden and Norway.

The federal government should be contributing more to education costs, and it needs to be a priority. Canada needs to introduce a more progressive tax system of income tax by putting an end to offshore tax havens, closing tax loopholes, and increasing taxation on the rich. Public services in Canada are in desperate need of funding, and everybody should be paying their fair share. While tuition costs are only one barrier, it is an important place to start.

Matt Barter  is a fourth-year student in the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty at Memorial University of Newfoundland, majoring in Political Science with a minor in Sociology. He enjoys reading thought-provoking articles, walks in nature, and volunteering in the community.

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3 responses to “why post-secondary education should be free”.

Thanks Matt!

Used this article to help with my argumentative essay. Very informative, thank you.

I’m the daughter of 2 World War 2 veterans. My mother had overseas service just after World War 2 in Europe was ended. That for men was supposed to mean that that military personnel could stay in the military. @Sandra However, in my mother’s case, when she was demobilized in Vancouver, B.C.,, she was told to go to university, that there would be jobs for women in the peacetime military! She went to U.B.C. and found her living accommodation would be in a quonset hut! First year, she was lucky enough to find a babysitting job with a well-to-do family so she got free room and board from that family. In 2nd year, the family had moved on so she rented a room and ate weiners and white bread for most of the year! She said once, “The men could get construction jobs, but for the women there was nothing.” She dropped out in the Septemeber of 3rd year when she married and moved to northern Ontario. Then, Veterans Affairs, when she asked if VA would support her when she wanted to return to university by correspondence after her children were in school, replied that married women would not be supported. That letter is now in the Military Communications Museum in Kingston in Elizabeth (Beth) Wagner’s collection. Discrimination on the basis of gender? Discrimination on the basis of marital status? Very real until very recent times. I think the free tuition was great for veterans, but obviously, without enough money to get even basic necessities while the veteran studied, diabled veterans and female veterans had little chance of finishing their degrees. (My mother did finish her degree in 1963 by doing 3 correspondence courses from UBC and attending a summer session there. Obviously, committed students need financial help. I would also point out that in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1965, high school only went to grade 11 whereas in Ontario at the time high school went to grade 13 so Smallwood’s offer on free tuition and $50 or $100 a month wouldn’t cover a student’s expenses very adequately, right? It didn’t match what Ontario spent on its students at the time. And dare I say, I taught in Newfoundland high schools in 19 77 through 1978, and the teachers were very poorly educated compared to the teachers who taught me in the 1960s in Kingston, Ontario, the physical plant was inadequate as well, and there were almost no extracurriculars available when in Ontario we had a 45 minute activity period available after regular school every day!

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Canada should provide free post-secondary education for everyone

Apr 20, 2023 | OP-ED , Opinion

Access to education is an essential aspect of creating a healthy society. That is why public education from Kindergarten to Grade 12 education is a right for residents of Canada with some exceptions.

That same right should apply to post-secondary education.

Education is expensive and there would be significant costs to restructuring the funding of post-secondary. However, the benefits would significantly outweigh the costs and the price of inaction is far greater.

Student debt affects the entire economy, not just struggling students. The average student debt at graduation including undergraduates and graduates was $26,075 in 2015. That adds up to more than $18 billion in total student debt which takes an average of nine to 15 years to pay off.

The cost of living continues to rise and debt puts a significant strain on young graduates, which in turn affects the health of the entire economy.

This also exacerbates existing inequalities and limits the social mobility of graduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Education is an investment in the future of our society. We need to ensure all young people are given the tools they need to succeed and be financially stable as they navigate into the workforce.

This is not a novel concept. Free post-secondary education has been implemented in various forms across the world. More than 39 countries have made it free or almost free and several extend that right to international students as well.

While Nordic and central European nations like Finland and Germany are commonly mentioned, there are examples from every continent, including Argentina, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines and Fiji.

Another aspect to consider is Canada’s exploitation of international students.

Data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows there were 807,750 international students holding valid study permits in 2022. These students pay an average of $36,100 per year for undergraduate studies, compared to an average of $6,693 for domestic students.

International students are often recruited with false promises of the ‘Canadian dream’ only to find their reality is much different.

Canada’s treatment of international students is unjust and they are being used to supplement and prop up a failing system that is suffering from decades of underfunding.

The Ontario Auditor General reported in 2021 there has been a trend of increased international student fees offsetting decreased public funding and tuitions paid by domestic students.

Not only are education institutions failing our students, they are also failing our faculty.

There is no shortage of labour disputes in recent years tied to insecure employment, low wages, workloads, class sizes and academic freedom. After several high-profile strikes, not much has changed.

Our education system is not working. Structural change is needed and part of that is redefining our cultural values around higher education.

Post-secondary education should be focused on creating the conditions for the success of each generation and ending the exploitation of international students and faculty.

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Should Post-Secondary Education be Free?

A dialogue between hugh mackenzie and kelly foley.

Hugh Mackenzie, economist and research associate at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, says yes.

Free tuition would redress a massive intergenerational inequity created over the past 30 years. In 1990–91, average university tuition in Canada was $1,464; adjusted for inflation, that would be $2,541 in 2019–20. Today the actual average undergraduate tuition is $6,463. A generation that gave itself tax cuts and paid for them in part by dramatically increasing tuition has imposed a substantial economic burden on the generation that came of age after 2000.

Free tuition would recognize the escalating expectations for education in our modern economy and labour market. Canada’s approach to public education funding has not kept up with those changes. The legislature of Upper Canada provided for public funding of elementary and secondary education in the 1850s. By the 1920s, the mandatory school leaving age was increased to 16. Other than a modest increase in the leaving age to 18 in most provinces—essentially, requiring high school completion—our approach to post-secondary education funding is stuck in the economy of a century ago.

Free tuition would break down class- and income-related barriers to Canadians’ pursuit of a full range of economic opportunities. The combination of income-tested grants and loans that today purport to address those barriers do nothing of the kind. For most middle-and lower-income families, the sticker price of a post-secondary education is prohibitive, stories of students accumulating massive debts are frightening, and the promise of relief against those debts, based on the experience of the past 30 years, is irrational.

Free tuition would address the disturbing phenomenon of young people delaying family formation and foregoing home ownership because of overhanging education debt.

Free tuition would provide significant economic benefit to Canada. Post-secondary graduates are more productive, earn higher incomes, pay more in taxes, use fewer healthcare services and are less likely to depend on social assistance. Higher post-secondary participation rates are associated with higher living standards, better health outcomes and enhanced social and community engagement. Every Canadian is better off.

Free tuition would address Canada’s crisis of low participation in professions. High tuition in programs such as medicine, dentistry, law and business administration make those professions increasingly available only to upper-middle-income and high-income students. At a time when our society seeks to diversify professions and other well-paid occupations, the barriers erected by high tuition work in the opposite direction.

Making post-secondary education free would be an investment in Canada’s future. It would increase participation and help improve education standards. And by reducing dramatically the burden of debt borne by graduating students, it would support exactly the kind of entrepreneurial risk-taking that is so important for the future of our economy.

Kelly Foley, University of Saskatchewan associate professor of economics, says no.

Youth in Canada who have grown in the highest-income families attend and complete university at much higher rates than youth in lower-income families. This fact has been well documented. To the extent that it reflects inequality of opportunity, the relationship between family income and university enrolment should be cause for concern. There are also good reasons to believe that this correlation represents an inefficient allocation of public resources.

In the interest of equity and efficiency, should university be free for everyone? I argue no. In the context of the current policy environment, eliminating upfront costs such as tuition for everyone will likely benefit high-income youth the most. It’s also a very expensive way to support and encourage low-income youth to enrol in university and is unlikely to substantially change the composition of university graduates.

Imagine a path leading to university enrolment. Steps along the way include getting good grades, finishing high school, applying and being admitted into university. At path’s end, just before entering university, lies a fence. Paying tuition and other direct costs opens the fence’s gate. Removing the metaphorical fence and making university free for everyone would benefit the students who were already willing and able to pay for university, among whom high-income youth are overrepresented.

The other beneficiaries of free university depend in part on who’s sitting on the “tuition fence.” To meaningfully change the relationship between family income and university enrolment, most people on this fence, or margin, would have to be from low-income backgrounds. Although changes in tuition have larger effects on enrolment among low-income students, the most important barriers these students face occur earlier along the path to university.

Research suggests that before students ever reach the barriers posed by the costs of applying for and enrolling in university, disadvantage and less “skills investment” in early childhood can represent a brick wall. Low-income families, lacking resources, tend to invest less in early skills development. Thus, the link between family income and university enrolment is largely, though not entirely, driven by factors that wouldn’t be ameliorated by making university free.

The development of skills and aspirations starts at birth. Skills investments made later in life are less effective, which suggests it could cost more to overcome the consequences of childhood disadvantage than to improve access to early childhood resources. Until youth are no longer trapped behind a “brick wall” that prevents them from even considering post-secondary education, untargeted free university will benefit those who need it least. Moreover, this policy would divert public funds away from the more effective strategy of supporting children from lower-income backgrounds at pre-school, primary and secondary school ages.

Hugh Mackenzie   responds to Kelly Foley.

Canada’s debate over rising college and university tuition has been ongoing for nearly 30 years. It’s not an accident that this period has coincided with wave after wave of tax cuts that have reduced the capacity of governments to pay for public services. In this context, it’s not surprising that arguments against tuition relief for students often amount to carefully disguised arguments in support of constrained fiscal policies. That is certainly true here.

To start with, the relationship between tuition and income is a red herring. It is a fact that participation in post-secondary education in Canada is positively related to family income. It is also widely accepted that the cost of post-secondary education is not the only barrier faced by students from lower-income families and that those barriers begin long before the point of decision about whether or not to attend a college or university.

That doesn’t mean, however, that tuition isn’t a barrier to participation by lower-income students in post-secondary education. And the point might have more weight if we were actually taking seriously the obstacles facing lower-income students earlier in their academic careers. We are not. In fact, the programs and supports that might address these obstacles have been victims of the same downward pressures on public services spending that have driven up college and university tuition.

High tuition is a real barrier to both enrolment and program completion for low-income students. For a low-income family, the sticker price is a real shock. And for low-income families who have become all too accustomed to support programs that evaporate in fine print or disappear abruptly as rules change or are simply eliminated in the name of cost-cutting, programs that offer financial support don’t help overcome that barrier.

For lower- and moderate-income families, attending a post-secondary institution starts to look like a shift from education to social assistance.

As tuition keeps increasing, the line that defines the cost barrier keeps moving up the income scale, with the result that families that might have been able to manage tuition costs a generation ago now face barriers that they will struggle to overcome despite having incomes above the cut-off for financial support.

This squeeze is most apparent in professional programs (e.g., business, engineering, medicine, law) for which tuition has increased even more rapidly than for regular programs. The children of middle-income families are being priced out of the professions, with potentially profound implications for Canadian society.

None of this considers the financial impact on students and recent graduates. Students struggling financially to stay in their post-secondary programs end up working long hours in part-time jobs, undermining their chance of success, and are more likely to fail to complete their programs. Graduates often enter an uncertain job market with mortgage-like debts, delaying family formation and limiting housing choices.

Those who support the status quo fail to acknowledge that the financial barrier presented by post-secondary tuition is a moving target, inviting the question of where, if anywhere, the upward march of tuition will, or should, stop. Was it right, in Alberta, when tuition made up 10 per cent of college and university revenue in 1989? Did Alberta have it right in 2018, when the tuition share reached 24 per cent? Or does Ontario have it right, at its 2018 level of 43 per cent?

Over the past 30 years there has been a massive intergenerational shift against young Canadians as their elders have chosen to pay themselves, in the form of tax cuts, at the expense of their children’s and grandchildren’s economic futures. This calls into question the claim that concludes the pro-tuition side of this argument: that relief from tuition “would divert public funds away from the more-effective strategy of supporting children from lower-income backgrounds at preschool, primary and secondary school ages.”

The fact that the question is posed as an either–or proposition amounts to a declaration that this intergenerational transfer is sacrosanct, and that in this context, when faced with a choice between providing tuition relief or supporting low-income students earlier in their lives, the choice will be to do neither.

And that brings us back to the fiscal policy issue that is the real driver of high-tuition in Canada. For 30 years, increases in post-secondary tuition have been the path of least resistance for governments looking to create fiscal room for tax cuts that have undermined our ability to pay for public services. The consequences for the future of young Canadians are profoundly negative. And in an economy in which our most important asset is the quality of our workforce, the consequences are profoundly negative for Canada as well.

Kelly Foley responds to Hugh Mackenzie.

I share Hugh Mackenzie’s concerns about the many “class- and income-related barriers” in Canada that serve to perpetuate advantage and disadvantage across generations. I am less optimistic that eliminating tuition would make a difference. More importantly, I fear that free tuition could make matters worse.

Students from low- and middle-income families do face important financial barriers that public policy should address. However, eliminating tuition would not remove the need for a fair and effective student aid policy. Although, as Mackenzie points out, on average, tuition and fee increases have outpaced inflation in recent decades, and for most undergraduate programs living expenses are a large part of students’ annual budgets. For example, the University of British Columbia budgeting tool suggests that an out-of-province single student living in a shared residence room should expect more than $14,000 for living expenses per academic year.

For some groups, these non-tuition costs are even larger. Lone parents and those who live in remote areas are among the most underrepresented in Canadian universities, and have substantial costs that are not affected by tuition fees. Thus, whether or not we have free tuition, we need a financial aid policy that removes barriers for students who otherwise do not have access to funds to cover their direct costs.

Tuition paid by youth from high-income families, who are over-represented in university, leaves more funds to provide targeted grants that are large enough to cover tuition fees and living expenses for high-need underrepresented groups. Recently, in Ontario, the Conservative government enacted a reversal of that principle, by reducing tuition and eliminating grants that covered tuition on a sliding scale that depended on family income. This disproportionally benefits high-income families.

Mackenzie also argues that free tuition would make every Canadian better off because post-secondary education is associated with social benefits as well as better health and labour market outcomes among graduates. I agree that there are likely some spillovers such that people who do not attend university benefit from those who do, but it is not obvious those benefits are particularly large relative to the cost of free tuition.

With respect to labour market outcomes, it is only true on average that post-secondary graduates earn more than those with a high school diploma. The variance, or range, of earnings within education groups is larger than the difference in average earnings between different levels of educational attainment. In other words, the highest incomes among high school graduates can be larger than the lowest among post-secondary graduates.

University is not a golden ticket. It is a risky endeavour and is not the best choice for everyone. Indeed, the very fact that some people easily repay their loans, while others are crippled by the same level of debt, suggests that university does not pay off financially for everyone. The riskiest part of deciding to go to university, in terms of financial cost, is whether one’s future earnings will be large enough to compensate for the earnings and work experience that are forgone while in school. Every dollar that is used to eliminate tuition could be used instead to develop insurance against such earnings losses.

Truly addressing inequality of opportunity that transmits across generations requires more fundamental changes to our educational system. Eliminating tuition will not get the job done, and is not the best way to invest public funds in education if the goal is to reduce inequality. There are so many other ways in which public funds could be used to greater effect.

At the top of my list, I would put redressing the resource gap between First Nations on-reserve and provincially funded K–12 schools. This means not just equalizing ongoing funding levels but also making up for years of inadequate capital investment. More generally, the issue of inequality in high school resources does not get enough attention in Canada, leaving so many important questions unanswered. For example, in how many and in which high schools in Canada is calculus only offered via correspondence courses? Mitigating these and other inequalities that occur at the elementary and secondary level will be more cost-effective and the benefits will be more broadly distributed.

Why not do both? Why not simultaneously make equity-enhancing investments in elementary and secondary schools, and make university free? Although I do not believe that the benefits of eliminating tuition outweigh the costs, there is a far more important reason not to make tuition free in the current policy environment. The barriers that occur during elementary and secondary school—the brick wall—would prevent many disadvantaged youth from taking advantage of free tuition. As long as inequality of opportunity exists at educational stages that precede university in a child’s life, eliminating tuition will disproportionately benefit those who have also experienced more opportunity in elementary and secondary school.

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Post-secondary education must be free for everyone, says Green Party

TORONTO — The financial burden of student debt is at historic levels, according to the Canadian Federation of Students. The Green Party of Canada believes that universal access to quality post-secondary education and skills training is a right, not a privilege. Moreover, post-secondary education is part of Canada’s treaty obligations to Indigenous People and a key focus for reconciliation.

A Green Party government will make college and university education free for all Canadian students. It will forgive the portion of existing student debt held by the federal government,  remove the two per cent cap on increases in funding for Indigenous students and ensure that all Indigenous youth have access to post-secondary education.

“We need to completely re-evaluate our approach to funding post-secondary education and skills training in Canada,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. “In order to have an informed and discerning citizenry, every student must have the option to pursue post-secondary education, no matter what income bracket they are in. Too many graduates begin their adult lives with crushing debt loads while lost opportunities face those who simply forgo higher education because they cannot afford it.”

Ms. May noted that many universities are caught in a spiral of fund-raising to provide education of diminishing quality. Dramatic funding cuts dating back to the 1990s mean universities have come to depend on part-time contract instructors, higher tuition fees and fundraising to balance the books. A Green government will reinvest in the system and allocate $10 billion to post-secondary and trade school supports.

“There’s no way we can be competitive globally it we don’t ensure our young people can get the education or skills training they need. That’s why we will make college and university tuition free for all Canadian students.”

This will be funded by redirecting existing spending on bursaries, cancelling tuition tax credits, saving the costs of administering the student loan system, and redirecting the hundreds of millions of dollars of student loan defaults written off every year. Tuition scholarships provided by colleges and universities can be used to offset other student costs.

The Green Party platform will also call for funding in federal-provincial transfers to universities to be tied to a measurable focus on student-professor contact, mentorship, policies of inclusion and tenure track hires. The Party’s Guaranteed Livable Income program will benefit young people by covering the non-tuition costs of education.

“The essential transition to a zero-carbon future presents  abundant opportunities for young people to find secure employment in the green economy of the 21st century,” added Ms. May. “But students need to be able to access the necessary education and skills training now.”

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Rosie Emery Press Secretary 613-562-4916x206 [email protected]

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Post-secondary education in Quebec should be free: study

Researchers from a Quebec institute are proposing that the provincial government take advantage of its rising revenues to introduce free post-secondary education.

In its study published Wednesday, the Institut de recherche et d'informations socioéconomiques (IRIS) claims that tuition fees no longer have a place as a method of financing universities.

The study's authors calculate that free tuition in Quebec would cost $1.2 billion, representing less than 0.009 per cent of total spending in the provincial budget.

Samuel Élie-Lesage, a research associate at IRIS and co-author of the study, says that not only is free education financially viable, but high fees and the prospect of going into debt discourage students from pursuing education, especially the less affluent.

In addition, the need for students to repay their debts may lead many to choose jobs with the highest incomes, regardless of their social utility.

IRIS reports that free or low-fee education is already the norm in several countries, including France, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

Eric Martin, a co-author of the study, recalls that Germany adopted tuition abolition in 2013 to address the financial insecurity of students.

Meanwhile, he notes that in the United States, tuition fees have increased by about 500 per cent since 1985, and student debt has exploded.

Martin says he believes that universities do not need more resources to compete internationally.

In his opinion, this is a concept that legitimizes tuition fee increases under the pretext of underfunding.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 24, 2022.

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Free secondary education in African countries is on the rise - but is it the best policy? What the evidence says

Associate Professor in Education & International Development, University of Cambridge

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When President Salva Kiir announced the abolition of secondary school fees in South Sudan in February 2023, he was following several fellow African leaders.

Ghana , Madagascar , Malawi , Sierra Leone , Togo , and Zambia have all announced free secondary education policies in the last five years. Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa were early trendsetters in this regard.

Despite its popularity with policymakers, parents and other stakeholders, the abolition of secondary school fees in resource-constrained contexts is still a subject of debate.

The African Union , global NGOs like Human Rights Watch and various United Nations agencies are in favour.

Others are sceptical. They highlight financial sustainability and equity implications, especially at the upper secondary level. A report by the Malala Fund, a global education NGO, argued that free upper secondary education “would be regressive in nature” and might not be affordable for low-income countries.

We conducted a systematic review to take stock of the evidence. We conclude that free secondary education can be costly and inequitable in the short run, especially if it diverts resources from primary education. Based on these findings, we recommend a policy of “progressive universalism”: free education should be introduced gradually, starting with the lowest levels.

Setting the scene

Many African countries abolished primary school fees in the 1990s and early 2000s. This led to a major rise in enrolment . But secondary school enrolment rates still lag far behind those in other world regions. Less than half of children in sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary education, compared to around 80% in South Asia and Latin America. High fees and related costs are a major impediment , particularly for children from low-income backgrounds.

The number of sub-Saharan Africa countries with free secondary education policies in place has increased rapidly over the last two decades. Almost half of all African countries now offer fee-free education at the lower secondary level. Almost one in three does so at the upper secondary level. The aim of the recent wave of free secondary education policies is to raise overall education levels – and, ultimately, countries’ broader prosperity and social conditions .

Abolishing school fees is also popular with voters . This may have been on the minds of politicians seeking to win or maintain power.

The cost of free education

There are two major problems with secondary school fee abolition in resource-constrained states. The first is that, in most African countries, the majority of children from poor households would be ineligible for free secondary education. In Somalia, Niger and Mozambique, less than one in five of the poorest children complete primary school .

Read more: Only 1 in 3 girls makes it to secondary school in Senegal: here's why and how to fix it

Moreover, even those eligible for free secondary education are often unable to attend. School fees constitute less than half of households’ education spending in most African countries. Most free secondary education policies do not cover the cost of essential non-fee expenses such as textbooks, school uniforms, meals and transport. Nominally “free” secondary education can therefore be unaffordable for low-income households . This means the benefits of fee abolition would mainly accrue to children from relatively privileged households and not help those who needed it most.

The second problem is that enacting these policies is very expensive. Empirical evidence from Ghana , The Gambia , Kenya and other countries shows that free secondary education policies can substantially increase secondary school enrolment and completion rates in the short run. But they do so at a very high cost: the average expense per senior secondary student is equivalent to that of five primary school pupils .

Considering the precarious financial position of many African states, providing free secondary schooling to the entire population is likely to be fiscally unsustainable.

It may also divert scarce resources away from basic education, which is already chronically underfunded. In Malawi for example, which recently abolished secondary school fees, there are more than 70 students per primary school teacher.

What is to be done?

Access to education is a human right . In an ideal world, the global community would ensure that all children could enjoy a full cycle of free, high-quality education.

Most African countries are far removed from this scenario, however. Policymakers must balance the potential benefits of abolishing secondary school fees against the urgent need for investment in basic education.

In many cases, this would suggest a phased approach to introducing free education, which prioritises public spending on basic education in the short run, while asking wealthier households to contribute to the cost of higher levels of education. A good example is South Africa’s fee-free schools policy, which was designed to increase enrolment in the poorest districts.

Mohammed Alhassan Abango and Leslie Casely-Hayford of Associates for Change, Ghana co-authored this article and the research it is based upon.

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• Sierra Leone
• South Sudan
• South Africa
• School fees
• Free Education
• Schooling in Africa

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7 Reasons Why Education Should Be Free

Besides being the cornerstone of success in a society, many barely understand why education should be free. This blog post covers that and more. 

Education is the only mechanism available to you that allows you to shape your life. It is the most powerful weapon you can take up in the fight against ignorance. Unfortunately, it is mostly used as a tool for economic gain. 

The rise in the cost of education is one of the biggest problems to hit our world today. The rising costs make it even harder if you have limited means to get educated and compete with those who can afford it. 

This post views reasons why education should be free, and how it helps develop society while improving your standard of living. 

What is Free Education?

Free education is  education without economic cost , tuition, fees, or other products. You could also define it as one controlled or completely funded by the state, free of charge, or free to all students.

Over the past decade, small but devoted groups of people have worked together to make education accessible to everyone. After all, education should be free because it helps you develop your abilities and take part more in society.

Also, free education means expanded access to education by everyone. So, instead of education being available to certain people based on social status, it expands to everyone to ensure that they can attend for free.

Free schooling should always be available to everyone, not fee-based as with most universities and colleges.

What are the Importance of Free Education?

The idea of free education is growing around the world as more and more people realize the importance of free schooling. Some countries provide free education for their citizens, but it is not as common as it should be.

However, free education helps create a better and more productive future for people around the globe. Also, it provides you with the knowledge needed to succeed and allows you to take on challenges with confidence.

1. Education Empowers People to Be Agents of Change

Education empowers us to be agents of change. It is the only sustainable force for global progress and social justice. It should be free because it is also a human right that goes beyond school.

Quality education also extends to you learning beyond the classroom through life experiences.

Also, education is important to create real, sustainable change in the world. It equips you with knowledge and building capacity for marginalized or oppressed individuals. Access to free education can also make positive changes toward a more fair world.

2. It Will Stop the Brain Drain

Brain drain is the migration of skilled workers from one region to another in search of quality life and better standards of living. This includes better education, higher salaries, better healthcare, access to state-of-the-art technology, and better security.

More educated people will stop the brain drain. The human capital theory describes how knowledge is always of value to everyone. This means that if you have acquired knowledge, you hold more value than an ordinary person. 

Hence, access to free education leads to an increase in skilled workers available in your country. A country with more skilled workers will not suffer from brain drain when some move in search of greener pastures. 

3. It Increases the Choices Available to Learners

Free education increases the choices available to learners and reduces the barriers we currently face. The goal of education should be to free us from a controlled and scheduled curriculum and not to limit or define our thinking and creativity.

4. Education Is a Basic Human Right

Education being a human right is a statement confirming that it should be available to all without restriction due to financial, cultural, linguistic, or gender disparities. 

Also, education is a basic right because it is a form of human capital that facilitates capacity building and opportunities in life. It also allows you to live a fulfilling and productive life.

In modern times, uses of this right may include public literacy programs, public libraries, open universities, and free Internet resources .

What are the Benefits of Free Education?

Education should be free and accessible for every individual.

There’s no better way to have the tools and skills needed to succeed in today’s ever-changing world than through higher education. If the government doesn’t invest in human capital, we will end up with a workforce lacking vital job skills.

Also, an under-educated population will bring down the economy. While educational platforms like Coursera and Udemy help by offering free courses to people, more can be done to make it a reality.

Below are some reasons why access to free education is crucial.

1. Access to Free Education Increases Your Opportunities

By removing the financial barrier to education, everyone can enjoy all the gifts and benefits education can offer. Free education will break the poverty cycle and give people the power to get out of poverty. 

2. It Reduces Inequality

Education should be for everyone, despite your financial position. After all, education contributes to success and equality and increases your chances of prospering in a nation.  

Through free education, you will get the same amount of knowledge as others with higher societal standards. You also won’t have to live with such a big gap between you and those who attend expensive institutions.

3. Free Education Leads to Lower Crime Rates 

The argument that a more educated society has fewer crimes is one of the most popular arguments for free public education.

Studying improves human behavior and reduces government costs on law enforcement. This also means lesser costs on damage repairs caused by criminals.

Also, two-thirds of juvenile crimes are from people who lack a high school diploma or proper education. 

4. Free Education Helps Develop the Economy

Education allows a country to grow economically as it becomes more educated. Education equips you with the skills to work in the job market, from entry-level jobs to higher-paying jobs.

The more skilled labor that exists in a country, the more economic growth that country experiences.

5. Free Education Attracts Tourists 

If education is free in a country, that country records a rise in tourists coming to enjoy the top-notch education system. This in turn leads to diversity and economic growth.

6. It Helps Prevent Conflict 

While education is the key to any nation’s success, the lack of access to education leads to ignorance and the rise of conflicts.

Yet, when proper education is free and available for all, we can better handle social and political problems. It also helps us live together peacefully.

7. Free Education Means More Better-Educated Employees 

Education promotes critical thinking, creative development, public speaking, and resourcefulness. 

These skills help businesses to thrive and develop. So not only does free education create informed workers, but it also creates a higher level of understanding among you and your colleagues. 

Businesses benefit by hiring educated staff who are smarter and more productive than uneducated ones. 

What Are the Challenges Facing Free Education?

Challenges facing the actualization of free learning include inadequate facilities, systematic corruption, and insufficient funding.

Also, inadequate support from the community, negligence from the government, and a high level of insecurity contribute to the challenges faced. 

Free education finance is a long-term problem for governments worldwide. These challenges make it difficult for most countries to effect free schooling in the system, as their attention is usually diverted.

Corruption within the system and among the politicians in power also makes the implementation of free education a hard task to perform.

Ways to tackle the challenges facing free education include:

• Combating corruption in the system.
• By preventing acts of terrorism and insecurity that cause damage to infrastructure.
• Allocating more funds to the education sector.
• By helping communities provide more support to combat illiteracy in society.

Examples of Countries with Free Education Systems 

Ideally, the education system should be fair. The rich should not live a better life through education simply because they can afford it.

There are several countries where you can find free higher education such as:

How does education improve your life?

Education helps you by building your knowledge, improving your abilities, and getting you a good job. It also helps in making a decent living and in bringing an overall improvement in your lifestyle. 

Why is education so expensive?

One key reason is educational bureaucracy.

Modern education models are set up to be extremely bureaucratic with different entities controlling various aspects of education. This can stifle innovation and give rise to corruption at all levels of the ecosystem. 

How does the high cost of education affect your standard of living?

It becomes harder for you to have a complete education when schools charge higher fees. While this might not affect people of higher social status, it affects the common man.

As a result, you may have to take out student loans or work many jobs to pay for your education.

What is the greatest advantage of free education?

The greatest advantage of free education is that it is available to all who need it.

A lot of us are not given the chance to receive higher education due to its high cost. However, if education is available to everyone, everyone would have a shot at getting a good job that pays well. 

Also, as a business owner who is better educated, you make wiser decisions for yourself and your employees.

Your employees will also be more informed about the way they work because of their ability to understand. This means that you and your staff can improve the business, maximize profits, and help people.

Does lack of access to free education lead to poverty?

Yes, the lack of affordable or free education leads to poverty for the majority.

Education is perhaps the cornerstone for both children and adults of the future. Because most parents do not have that much money to pay for their child’s education, a college education is often neglected.

Furthermore, as a result of this inability to afford an education, a good job is out of reach leading to poverty. This is a circumstance that no one deserves.

A lack of proper education means limitations to most high-paying jobs. It also means more turn to a life of crime in other to get a better life.

Education is a powerful and important tool for shaping the world. It empowers you and sets you free, allowing you to do anything you want to do in life.

Unfortunately, education is not currently free in most countries but is a business. And like all businesses, education serves to make money.

Effective education should not be a luxury for the rich, it is a necessity in any society, in any culture, and in any country. Also, education isn’t just a workplace skill—it’s an economic and societal driver. It breeds success and helps families succeed. 

Additionally, education leads to new careers, higher wages, a secure society, innovation, tolerance, better healthcare, improved law enforcement, and much more. 

Finally, free education should not be a charity, but rather an investment in human capital. I believe this will lead to economic growth and societal development.

You should also read more about why education is important to society . You will be convinced of the benefits of free learning if you read this.

I hope you found this post helpful. Thanks for reading. 

You may also like:

• Top 11 Reasons Why Education Is Important to Society
• 10 Major Purposes of Education
• What Is Life Skills Education: Importance, Challenges, & Categories
• Benefits Of Education: Why Education Is Important
• A Guide to Liberal Education

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• Events Calendar

Best Should Teach Ceremony on May 2 to honor outstanding educators

Free and open to the public, the event will feature Kevin Gannon, director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence and professor of history at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. Gannon will deliver his keynote "Is It Time to Change Your Mind?" on how might we (re)connect with our agency, and use it to anchor our practices in an ethic of hope. 

Kevin Gannon is the author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto (West Virginia University Press, 2020), and his writing has also appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Vox, CNN, and The Washington Post. In 2016, he appeared in the Oscar-nominated documentary 13th, directed by Ava DuVernay. He is currently co-editing a volume of essays on campuses in crisis, as well as writing a book on “Zombie Ideas” in higher education.

The event, co-hosted by the Center for Teaching and Learning , School of Educatio n, and College of Arts and Sciences , will honor five CU Boulder faculty members, three K-12 teachers from the School of Education’s partner school districts and lead graduate teachers in the Graduate Teacher Program with Best Should Teach Gold and Silver Awards.

The 2023-2024 Best Should Teach Gold Award Recipients include:

• Nabilah Carlon, Chemistry
• Alex Dietrich, Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program
• Deena Gumina, School of Education
• Eyal Rivlin, Hebrew Language
• Annjeanette Wiese, Humanities

Teacher honorees from partner school districts include:

• Lori Hattendorf, Boulder Valley School District
• Karen Mancusi, St. Vrain School District
• Vickie Salazar, Adams 12 Five Star Schools

The Best Should Teach awardees were selected for their embodiment of the beliefs, behaviors, and skills of exemplary teachers. The call for nominations for CU Boulder faculty also include nominations from students from all colleges and schools across campus.

The late, lifelong educator Lindley Stiles and his wife Marguerite Stiles established the Best Should Teach Initiative in 1996 to celebrate excellence in teaching, and Stiles’ inspiring motto is inscribed on the Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Building:

“To those who come, I leave the flame! Hold it as high as you can reach. If a better world is your aim, all must agree: The Best Should Teach.”

• Faculty News

Best Should Teach Lecture & Awards

Monday, May 2, 6 p.m.

University Memorial Center Glenn Miller Ballroom

Free and open to the public

Why students are protesting at Columbia, other colleges over Israel-Gaza war

Protests over the Israel-Gaza war have been spreading and intensifying at college campuses across the country over the past week. Students have been arrested at several schools, including the University of Southern California , Virginia Tech , Yale and Columbia University , during pro-Palestinian and other student protests, and a growing number of encampments have been launched at campuses across the country.

The demonstrations have put more pressure on university leaders — from lawmakers, faculty, alumni and families concerned about antisemitism on campus, and from those who say some institutions have been too aggressive and are shutting down students’ rights to free expression.

College protests over Gaza war

When did pro-Palestinian student protests begin?

Activists have been supporting Palestinian rights for decades, but the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 and the Israel-Gaza war brought renewed urgency to the issue for many students. Over the past six months, student protests have intensified at various points, often flaring up after news from Gaza, such as Israel’s recent assault on a hospital .

What are college students protesting about?

In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack and the ensuing war, students have largely demonstrated in a show of solidarity with Palestinians displaced or killed in the conflict. Protesters, especially at wealthy schools such as Yale and Columbia, have also demanded that their university endowments divest from military weapons manufacturers and defense contractors with ties to Israel, as a show of support for Palestinians.

Where are the protests happening?

Protests have occurred at public and private colleges and universities across the country in recent months, with demonstrations breaking out at dozens of institutions in recent days.

How many students and faculty have been arrested so far?

While students have engaged in protests since the fall, tensions flared again in the past two weeks as some students have occupied campus grounds and offices. At Columbia University in New York, President Minouche Shafik on April 18 called the New York Police Department to break up an encampment that had launched the previous day, leading to the arrests of more than 100 pro-Palestinian student protesters . Shafik said she “took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances.” The move came one day after Shafik testified before a congressional panel.

Within days, “Gaza solidarity encampments” sprang up on other campuses. Demonstrations have led to hundreds of arrests across the country, including at Yale in New Haven, Conn., Emerson College in Boston, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Southern California , and Virginia Tech . Charges were later dropped against most of the protesters at UT-Austin.

What might come next?

With the academic year ending in the coming weeks, the protests are likely to simmer down. Still, college administrators could face more scrutiny beyond their campuses.

House lawmakers, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) have called on Columbia’s president to resign. Columbia’s governing board has voiced its strong support for Shafik. Lawmakers also have called on universities to do more to quell the demonstrations on campus.

The ongoing demonstrations also have some bracing for possible disruptions at upcoming commencement ceremonies . The University of Southern California recently announced it would not hold its traditional main commencement ceremony, citing new security procedures, but would continue with other events.

Ellen Francis contributed to this report.

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