Four Year College Education

Dan Rather says, “A college degree is the key to realizing the American dream, well worth the financial sacrifice because it is supposed to open the door to a world of opportunity.” (“Dan Rather”). But what exactly is that price? The College Board says that someone attending a reasonably priced in state public college paid around $24,000 for the 2016-2017 school year (“What’s the Price”). Likewise, how many people do get to “open the door to a world of opportunity” like Dan Rather said, by actually getting a college degree? The US Census Bureau in 2014 found that 68% of people in the United States have not earned a bachelor’s degree (Fiedler). With tuition rates on the rise, people have considered whether a free four-year college education
In fact, Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce predicts that when 2020 arrives, there will be 5 million less workers with college degrees than are needed (Bergeron and Martin). Accordingly, advocates believe that if college is not made free, then it is reasonable that such a shortage like this will happen. If people cannot afford to go to college then they will simply not go, and America will not have as many educated workers as it needs. Notwithstanding this impending shortage, the number of jobs that make it mandatory for a worker to hold a bachelor's or associate's degree have been growing steadily (Bergeron and Martin). Nevertheless, not much differs today in the availability of these college degrees than from the availability years ago. With this in mind, advocates proclaim that it is crazy to think that today's generation of young adults will be expected to be able to get a job with a prerequisite of a college degree with nothing being done to make earning the degree more accessible to the general US population. Henceforth, advocates indicate that if college was made free, more students would be able to get degrees, and subsequently
As a matter of fact, opponents assert that the state and federal government will be contributing an exuberant amount of money to pay for free college. To emphasize, together the state and federal government would be paying around $70 billion per year to cover the cost of free college (Lobosco). Under those circumstances, with so much of the state and federal government's budget going to free college, there are sure to be budget cuts elsewhere. Furthermore, this increased spending by the government will likely negatively impact the economy. Free college will have a negative effect on the economy since in order for the government to be able to pay for everyone's college experience then American's taxes will raise. Subsequently, people will have a lower after- tax income which will cause them to have less money to put back into the economy. ("Should College") How would you like it if a free four-year college caused you to lose part of your wage, that you worked hard to earn? Henceforth, in the long run allowing all US residents to enroll in a free 4-year college will be so expensive that it will raise taxes and negatively impact the