English II Essay 2: Should College Be Free?, Study notes of English

Download English II Essay 2: Should College Be Free? and more Study notes English in PDF only on Docsity! English II Essay 2: Should College Be Free? M r . P o g r e b a English II Prompt As college costs grow in the United States, both Democrats and Republicans have been arguing that we need to do more to control the cost of attendance. Some has gone as far as to argue that college tuition should be free. In a well-developed essay, defend, refute, or qualify the argument that college should be free. Requirements • Please submit a typed response that uses a legible 12-point font, 1” margins, a double spaced body, and a simple single spaced header. • The response should be between 600-800 words long. • Your response should include both an introduction and conclusion, both of which should be short and direct. • The essay needs to include at least five and no more than seven quotes from the articles provided and your own research. • In addition to the four sources, you need to find and use two of your own research. • Make sure to follow all MLA formatting and rules for citation. • Do not plagiarize! Tips • Have a well-developed thesis that you stick with. Organization is paramount. • Focus on a few things in this essay: o An engaging introduction. o A strong thesis statement that suggests a concession. o Incorporating specific details into your paragraphs to give them power and interest. o A strong conclusion. English II Essay 2: Should College Be Free? M r . P o g r e b a English II The Problem Is That Free College Isn’t Free Andrew P. Kelly is a resident scholar and the director of the Center on Higher Education Reform at the American Enterprise Institute. “Free public college” is a great political talking point, but it is flawed policy. First, free college isn’t free, it simply shifts costs from students to taxpayers and caps tuition at zero. That tuition cap limits college spending to whatever the public is willing to invest. But it does not change the cost of college, or what institutions actually spend per student. If the past is any guide, that cost willcontinue to grow, and an influx of federal money may lead profligate administrators to spend even more. Enrollments will also increase, further multiplying the cost of free college. The key question, then, is what happens if public generosity does not keep pace with rising college costs, increases in demand, or both? Barring a drastic improvement in efficiency, tuition-free colleges won’t have the resources to serve additional students without compromising the quality of their offerings. As progressive advocates of free college are so eager to point out, public funding hasn’t kept up with such changes in the past. For instance, California has the cheapest community college fees in the nation. During the recession, enrollments boomed and the state budget for higher education took a hit. Unable to raise additional revenue through a tuition increase, California’s community colleges turned away 600,000 students. A national push for tuition-free college would strain public budgets even further, leading to shortages rather than increased access. And because middle and upper-income students will gobble up many of the free public slots, rationing will hurt those who need access the most. Advocates will likely argue that federal policy can simply force policymakers to increase funding in response to changes. But today’s political coalition will be hardpressed to tie the hands of tomorrow’s, especially when times are tough. Second, free college plans assume that tuition prices are the main obstacle to student success, looking past problems of educational quality and college readiness. Take community colleges, where federal grants cover the price of tuition for the average low-income student. Despite free tuition, just one-third of students from the bottom income quartile who started at a community college in 2003 finished a degree or certificate by 2009. Two-year students from the top income quartile didn’t do much better. These numbers suggest that lackluster outcomes are not entirely, or even mostly, a function of tuition prices, but reflect deeper problems. Like the fact that 60 to 70 percent of community college students have to take at least one remedial course, as do 40 percent of those at public four-year institutions. Or the fact that students who attend public four-year colleges with lower graduation rates are less likely to finish than similar peers who attend better schools. Rather than spread scarce federal money across all students, policymakers should instead target those resources toward those who need it most and empower them to choose the option — public or private — that fits their needs. A valuable degree is worth the investment even if you have to pay something