Debunking the Myth of "Free College"

By Nate Proell on November 2, 2015

The next presidential election is soon approaching and that means a lot of new faces and new ideas. Topics like: how to create jobs and how to make the border more secure are all very popular right now. However, there is one topic that has been brought up that is relevant to college students everywhere, and that is how to make college more affordable.

 

One of the claims, specifically from the democrat side, is that the best way to make college affordable for all is to make it free. Free college seems like the perfect solution: no massive debt for graduates and no more having to worry about if college is something you can afford. However, nothing is this world is ever truly free and that includes college.

 

One claim many people who support free college use in their argument is that European countries have free college tuition, why doesn’t the United States?

 

As alluded to before, nothing is ever truly free. The money to pay the countless expenses that a university/college puts out must come from somewhere; that “somewhere” is out of the pockets of taxpayers.

 

One country that is very popular for having free college is Germany. Not only does Germany offer free college to their citizens, but also they offer it to foreign students as well.

 

European countries are known for their numerous social services, including free college, and in turn that leads to higher taxes. According to a 2015 report on the tax burden on earnings among member countries The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked Germany as the third highest country with a total tax wedge of 49.3%. Tax wedge measures how much the government receives after taxing the labor force.

 

In fact, many of the European countries that offer free college tend to have higher tax wedge percentages. Finland is 43.9%, Sweden: 42.5%, Denmark: 38.1%, Norway: 37%. This can all be compared to The United States’ tax wedge of 31.5%, which is still not all that low; however, there are big pushes in the next election to make that percentage lower. Also, offering free college would do nothing but raise the United States’ tax wedge, meaning more money out of everyone’s paychecks that goes to the government.

 

Taxpayers will be the ones paying for college tuition; so in theory, students will eventually end up paying for their own education once they graduate college and become the taxpayers.

 

Another factor that many people fail to realize is that there are much lower college enrollment rates in European countries. According to The World Bank latest statistics of 2013 Germany has a 60% enrollment rate, which is significantly lower than the United States enrollment rate of 89%. The more students that want to attend college the more expenses there will be, meaning that taxes will go up even more.

 

Also, the majority of student who attend college are already coming from upper-class families. According to a Pell Institute study that was updated in 2015, coherent college continuation rate by family income quartile for dependent ages 18 to 24 (1970-2012) found that in 2012 families making $108,650, and above, had an 82% college continuation rate. That is compared to the bottom class that makes $32,160, or less, who had a 45% continuation rate.

 

The high school graduates who go on to college also tend to be in the higher class. 2012 Pell Institute data shows that 89% of higher-class high school students (families who make $108,650 or more) go on to college compared to the lower class students ($32,160 or less) who have a 62% rate of high school students who go on to college.

 

Perhaps the most interesting statistic is that according to 2013 Pell Institute data 77% of those who received a bachelor’s degree by age 24 were from the higher income class. That is compared to the 9% of students from the lower class that received a bachelor’s degree.

 

This evidence shows that taxpayers, from all income levels, would be paying for the college tuition of many higher-class students who in theory should have the money to pay for college already.

 

There is also no guarantee that getting a college degree will get you a job straight out of college. Federal Reserve Bank of New York study found that recent college graduates (ages 22-27 with a bachelors degree) had a 6% unemployment rate in 2013 (latest data available). That can be compared to the 2013 4% unemployment rate of those between the ages of 22-65 who have a bachelor’s degree. It is harder for students straight out of college to find a job compared to those who have a college degree and have been out in the world much longer.

 

If the purpose of “free college” is to encourage more students to go to college and receive a bachelors degree then, in turn, it would become even harder for college graduates to find a job straight out of college because there will be even more competition in the workforce than there already is today.

 

Nothing is ever truly free and that includes college. “Free college” would also do nothing but complicate the competitive job market even more than it already is, as was clearly illustrated in the facts provided above. Many people believe college is currently too expensive, and perhaps that is true, but there are other ways of going about lowering the cost of a college degree instead of making it “free.”

 

 

 

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