Pros And Cons Of Community College

With President Obama getting ready to leave office and the 2016 presidential campaign that's been going on we have more than often heard the question Should community college be free? President Obama came fourth with the idea of making community college free and as we have seen some people including presidential candidates like Bernie Sander support this, however not everyone agrees that this is a good idea. The hope that President Obama has with making community college free is that more people will be encouraged to go out and get their degree. As we often see more students who have graduated high school tend to go to work rather than continuing going to school and part of the reason for this is that these kids don't want to be in debt. Making
community college free would help encourage these kids to continue their education. However making community college free also comes with some concerns, and I do not believe that community college should be free.
In the article “As He Promotes It, Some Question Obama’s Free Community College Idea” by Joanne Jacobs we read some of the pros and cons to making community college free.
Current students give their opinion on whether or not they believe community college should be free and a student Felipe Bezerra says. “Tuition shouldn’t be free for those who can afford it.” I agree with Mr. Bezerra because community college tuition is not very high and if students who parents can afford to pay for their college should. Since waivers already exist for students with low income families they receive the help they need. Students also receive a pell grant, for families whose income is high their kids receive less however if college tuition is free than we are simply helping the families that can afford to pay their students education save money. Since community college is basically already free for low income students, we are really only providing help to the families who are not low
income.
Another concern with making community college free is that community colleges are already crowded and if more students are drawn to attending community college then states need to be willing to spend money on increasing capacity. Michele Siqueiros who is the president of The Campaign for College Opportunity explains how without more capacity for student a longer wait list will be created. There for she claims “affordability doesn't help if a student can't get into the right classes or find help figuring out what classes to take” which I agree with. There is no benefit to free tuition if you are going to have to be waiting to be able to get into the classes you need. I see how my cousin already struggles with getting into the classes she needs so to imagine more kids being added this situation would get worse.
We also hope that making tuition free would encourage students get their degrees but in a study of low-income high school graduates, Goldrick-Rab found that enrolling theses students in a community college raises their odds of earning a bachelor's degree.
The National Student Clearinghouse reports that, “Just under 40 percent of community college students earn a degree within six years, compared with almost 74 at private nonprofit schools and about 63 percent at public universities. So if these low income students are already at odds then how will the fact that community college is free help. I have seen multiple of my family members attend community college and then stop going about after a year or so, where as I watched my sister graduate from a four year university. If community college is free we might see more kids attend them instead of four year universities simply because it will save them money. Like Matthew Chingos, research director at the Brown Center on Education Policy states we, “can nudge students to attend lower quality institution.” The hope of seeing more students get their degree as president Obama hopes may not be happen by making community college
free.
I believe that in order to help students obtain their degree we need to focus on lowering the cost for four year institutions. Mr. Bezerra explains how he hopes to get his degree in petroleum engineering but he does not know how we will be able to afford going to a university to obtain his bachelor's. This is why I believe the president should focus more on lowering the cost of attending four year institutes rather than making community college free. Since you can't get a bachelors at a community college I don't think we will see more kids with degrees instead we will just have crowded classes and more kids not attending universities.