Can someone PLEASE tell me why college is not FREE in the US?

Question

At LEAST, they should give us free tuition. I mean they didn't charge us to go to elementary, middle, or high school...why start now? Even in some other countries they allow their citizens to go to college for free, why can't we?

Ok so maybe not completely free, I just want no tuition. I still think they'll make a lot of money off of us because of room & board, meal plans, books and all that jazz. I just feel like they system is setting us up to fail....or at least be in debt for the rest of our lives. Almost all the teachers I ask say they're still paying off bills from college, a lawyer even told me she's still paying off law school bills.

Oh & John B, I did FAFSA and it doesn't seem that helpful at the moment. I'm not dirt poor, but I'm not Bill Gates daughter either. I'm where pretty much everybody else is...middle america=)

CrispyEd, that makes sense. I guess it all comes down to status on the end, but even if college/tuition was free, Harvard doesn't have to accept you.

Bethy B, interesting fun fact, who knew! =)

Thanks for your input everyone!

Answer 1

College should never be free (overall state colleges I mean) because invariably the quality of them will only go down. I mean look at high schools. They're free, and does anyone ever consider them to be of high standards.

Colleges have costs because of two reasons, a) homeowners consistently keep rebuffing legislation to raise the portion of property taxes that are used for colleges and universities. Instead their taxes keep going up to pay for all the elementary, middle and high schools popping up in America. And while you may complain about the lousy homeowners selfishly not giving their two cents for college, eventually when you became a homeowner you'll be doing the same thing. As my professor one time nicely put it, people will always want a free college ride for everyone until they themselves become homeowners; and b) if you want quality professors, education, buildings, scholastic environment, supplies, and so on, things are always better when you pay a "fee" for them, as the school can in turn allocate that money for the best stuff. While I may not agree always on what the school decides to spend their budget on (motion-detector toilets for one thing), and as much as I disliked paying for my semester tuition (I worked throughout my college years and never got a free ride on grants or scholarships) I knew that I received a good quality from my school in turn. Good computers, an outstanding library with online database access, great Honors programs at the school like Phi Theta Kappa and Phi Sigma Theta, all that came with my tuition. And I was very glad to receive it all.

Can you imagine how much worse universities would be if they were all free? Much like the free healthcare systems in Europe, there would be such a surplus of people signing up for the programs when they don't really need it or don't plan on really taking them, that we're probably talking about several semesters worth of wait for your classes and so on. Can you imagine that? Trying to sign up for something like Political Science 2301 only to find out that the nearest time period available is the fall semester of next year? Ugh, thanks but no thanks. I'll take my current universities as they are right now.

Answer 2

Because a college is a business. Its a business, then its a learning institution.

Look at the cost of tuition, then look at how big college sports in the country. its all about the money. student athletes don't get paid, and the school makes millions of it, and some of them, still give little to no scholarship.

Since we pay so much for tuition, you'd think we catch a break w/ books, but no. why, cuz professors/schools have relationship w/ the publishers or authors of these books. So when a prof. says this is the book for this course, u have no choice but to buy this book, thus putting $$$ in pockets of the people profiting off us.

Answer 3

In most countries, they have a law that mandates that children have a right to basic education. The term "basic education" varies between country to country but in the United States it means that education from K-12 is provided free by the government.

You should be GLAD that you don't have to pay for junior high or high school. In most foreign countries, people are given free education from K-6 and then the parents need to pay for the rest! Of course in that sense, countries would define basic education as K-6.

Keep in mind that for public colleges there are such things called IN STATE TUITION and OUT OF STATE TUITION. Therefore you are still getting a REALLY LARGE DISCOUNT on your education. OUT OF STATE TUITION can nearly cost 1.4x-2x more than IN STATE TUITION.

Also consider that the federal government, state governments, and colleges offer to subsidize your education through filling out FAFSA. Don't forget about those scholarships too. College is only expensive if someone isn't willing to take the time and fill out a FAFSA form.

Take heed to williamdefalco's wise words. It is evil but it is true. There needs to be something that distinguishes people. Most people don't go to college because they don't feel it's worth their time to go. Yet the unlucky ones will realize in the end that unemployment figures for people with high-school diplomas is high. Very high.

Answer 4

Because elementary through high school education benefits all of society (in general) by creating citizens who can depend on themselves instead of others. It is what was intended when public education was created. Colleges were rare at that time.

College education benefits the individual (in general), and costs a fortune. If most of us went to college on the tax payers, there would be no money left for roads, food and medicine for the poor, running the government, police forces, military and much, much more.

Answer 5

2 reasons

1. you do pay for school if you go to a private school and that is basically what college is. For example the University of Michigan gets the majoity of its funding from sources other then the state. Even though it is a state funded university it is mostly funded though private means. Colleges are much more expensive to run then your run of the mill high school also.

2. in order to keep the college system producing good education it needs funding. And college is free if you are poor enough. I know two ppl who go free college cause their parent only made 25k. It is called FASFA.

Answer 6

Because we live in a class-based society. The better the college, the better your future looks, the more it costs. The better the college, the more affluent contacts you make, the better the chance for success.

We can't have just anyone becoming a Harvard lawyer, then those that control the $$$ and resources now would have their exclusive positions taken from them...

Answer 7

If illegals came in and took teachers jobs or auto workers jobs, we'd of had a fence, air tight boarder and an immigration program. Since they come in and start off in the agriculture busniess, then get a gig hanging drywall and slinging roof shingles @$10/hr. Then some find out that joining gangs and slinging crack and stealing tires is like $90-110K a year until they get busted. Then the next one takes their spot. Welcome to the florida latino career advancement state. Go from Agri-field worker to construction worker to gangster in 6 months. Get busted, and have your nephew take your place, rinse repeat with his nephew.

Answer 8

It is not free because every semester/quarter when tuition goes up NO ONE bothers to COMPLAIN. By complaining I do not mean simple complaining I mean writing letters, getting organized and get others to support you doing rallies/strikes or whatever to get your point across. Most students either can not afford to do things like that OR because they do not care. Maybe you can start organizing. Good luck. You can always apply for FAFSA...

Answer 9

You should really be asking uncle Sam and our imperialistic, capitalistic founding fathers. On the other hand you should evaluate the academic level of some of these countries and get your own opinion about why colleges and universities in the states are privately funded.

Answer 10

Nothing comes "free." Takes pay for it all.

Even in the countries where a college/university education is "free," the citizens pay for it with their taxes.

That's just not the way it is in the US.