Many estates in the United States have launched free community college education, hoping that it will benefit more people, especially those who have not gone past secondary schools. The concept was first introduced by Haslam in Tennessee, who argued that it would attract new jobs and businesses. The idea grew widely and fast than expected, and more young people joined colleges majorly for technical programs. By 2019, the number of graduates in Tennessee had risen to 39 percent from 13.8 percent (CST Editorial Board). Therefore, free education has made a significant change in how people perceive higher education. Hence, providing free community college education could help students take all their base classes for free and pay for their majors, and it would also help students save money while acquiring the much-needed skills.
Although some states introduced free education in colleges, some have not yet embraced it, and legislation that the Obama foundation made never made it through to Congress. Most people in the US have the high school diploma as their highest level of education (CST Editorial Board). With the high growth of the US economy, it is essential to at least have some credentials past the secondary ones since more jobs require more technical skills (CST Editorial Board). Therefore, the youths should be allowed to acquire a post-high school education to help grow their skills. By providing free education, the students will have a chance to take the common classes for free and later pay for whatever courses they will specialize in.
In research conducted by Princeton University, it was found that most of the students who enrolled to free colleges were low-income earning youths. The young people could not manage to take themselves through the regular colleges due to the high fee structures (CST Editorial Board). Making the community college education free will greatly assist the students to save more money that will be used to run other errands, especially the low-income earners. The education will also assist them in gaining more skills which will in return help in help them earn more.
The president is pushing for a plan that will make college more affordable to the less fortunate by cushioning them from the pandemic at the same time. The agenda is supposed to make more colleges free and accessible at the same time (CST Editorial Board). The plan is well thought of and will highly assist the people who earn less in the US. Giving them access to free education will also help raise their living standards since the acquired skills will help them search for higher-paying jobs.
Although free education has some foreseen challenges, such as having many young people enrolling for courses and not finishing them, it is good to realize that there are much more advantages of free education. Making the community colleges free will help the students save the money they would have spent if they joined a regular college. They would easily receive important skills at no fee hence growing their careers in the future. The free education will also help students take all their base classes free of charge and later pay for the classes or courses that they would wish to major in. the number of people who have gone through college and possessing greater skills will greatly rise if the government made the free education a common agenda in all the states.
Reference
CST Editorial Board. “Making the Case for Free Community College Nationwide.” Chicago Sun-Times, 2021. Web.