Tuition-Free College Advantages

The “Benefits” of Tuition-Free College
The article, The Reality of Free Community College Tuition, written by Fran Cubberley and published on April 1st, 2015 in the Journal of College Admission, discusses President Obama’s proposal of making community college two-year institutions tuition-free. Cubberley believes that the adoption of this proposal “would have a profoundly positive impact on American society” (Cubberley). Because Cubberley is vice president for enrollment management at Delaware County Community College, she was able to provide this statistic: in her institution 1,300 students registered but withdrew before courses started, most of them because they could not finance tuition (Cubberley). With this mindset, it is clear why Cubberley
Matt Bruenig in his article, The Case against Free College, argues that through the combined forces of “tuition subsidies, living grants, and public loans” most students are able to finance their higher education pursuit (Bruenig). Suggesting that tuition cost is not a driving force that keeps people from attending college. Andrew P. Kelly drives this argument further in his article, Tuition is Not the Main Obstacle to Student Success, although his title is already arguing Bruenig’s point Kelly supports his title’s claim through five different points. Focusing on Kelly’s first point and final point, which are most relevant to my argument, “thanks to federal aid, most low and middle-income students already pay no net tuition to attend community college” and many students after financial aid have enough to cover college expenses besides tuition (Goldrick-Rab). Basically, Kelly is saying that those, who most need tuition cost covered, already have avenues to turn to and some of them are even able to get help with more of their expenses. By his final point, Kelly is infering that students will actually be worse of if the tuition-free plan is enacted, because the avenues that they previously sought had also financed expenses other than tuition. These avenues will probably not be available if the tuition-free plan is enacted. Bruenig reiterates both of Kelly’s mentioned points when he writes “students from the poorest fourth of the population currently pay no net tuition at either two-year or four-year institutions, while also receiving an average of $3,080 and $2,320 respectively to offset some of their annual living expenses” (Bruenig). Although it could be said that a national entitlement to free college-tuition would require less effort for