Free Tuition
Lynnea Bruce
February 17th, 2018
For many people, post secondary education is not an option. Even if college or university is a possibility, it’s likely that student loans will be a mandatory part of the process. The average Canadian students debt is estimated to be in the mid to hight $20,000 range. In a BMO survey students said they predicted that they would owe close to $26,300 after graduation. (Sagan, A. 2014) Those debts not only cause financial stress but they prohibit people from getting on with their lives after graduation. Many students don’t understand the consequences of having student loans and the long term effects. Quite often graduates have a hard time finding permanent or long term jobs. That makes it very difficult to pay back those loans especially while trying to keep up with other bills and responsibilities.
“In January 2014, the youth unemployment rate in the country was 13.9 per cent, according to Statistics Canada. In 2013, young people in the Atlantic provinces and Ontario had the highest unemployment rates, according to a report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.” (Sagan. 2014) In January of 2014, according to Statistics Canada, the youth unemployment rate in the country was 13.9 per cent. (Sagan. 2014)
In 2014 Barak Obama announced his $60 billion community college initiative to provide two years of community college for free, to anyone willing to work for it. The White House believes that they could help over 9 million students with this initiative (Dash, S. 2015) Free tuition could be a very good thing when met with certain conditions. In Obama’s free tuition plan requirements would be put in place. Requirements such as, they must be enrolled at least half time, must maintain a 2.5 GPA, must make steady progress to completing their studies and they cannot have an adjusted gross income above $200,000. (Sagan. 2014)
I feel that those conditions should be taken a step further. As unfortunate as it is, money is a powerful motivator. People generally care more when money is at stake. My concern would be that, if students were not paying for their education, they just wouldn’t care as much. Would student still show up for classes or would they feel it unnecessary because they didn’t have a financial commitment to the program. I believe the best condition that could be put into place would be, to have students pay for their schooling upfront with the promise of being refunded on their completion date.
Free tuition would make education a possibility for so many more people. The more educated our society is, the brighter our future will be.
Dash, S. (March 4, 2015) A guide to Obama’s free community college plan. Retrieved on February 15th, 2018 from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephen-dash/a-guide-to-obamas-free-co_b_6801726.html
Sagan, A. (March 11, 2014) Average student debt difficult to pay off, delays life milestones. Retrieved on February 17th, 2018 from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/average-student-debt-difficult-to-pay-off-delays-life-milestones-1.2534974
I thought you brought up some good points about human nature in the context of a pro-free-tuition discussion. Your point about students not fully understanding the long-term effects of loans is very real- people get into debt way over their heads thinking that things will just “work themselves out” eventually, but of course they usually don’t! I like that you acknowledged that “money is a powerful motivator” and I think your idea about refunding tuition upon completion of a program is a very interesting one. Of course, students would probably still require loans in order to pay their fees up front, but it would be a serious incentive to finish school if it meant those loans never needed to be repaid. I also think that requirements such as those laid out in Obama’s initiative (maintaining a 2.5 GPA etc) would encourage students to put an earnest effort into their studies. You acknowledged the ways that lack of motivation could potentially take advantage of a free tuition system, and made suggestions of how to prevent it.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the points you made in this, I did not think about the motivation side of school, as you have said that money works as motivation and I would agree with that. As much as we don't want to admit it, we all care about money. Along with Steph's comment, between having students pay a bit of money in order for them to care more about showing up, I think you would also have to have some rules about criteria students would need to meet in order to obtain school funding from the government rather than their own pocket.
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