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The Benefits Of Free Community College

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College is a big topic of discussion for me now that I am almost halfway through my senior year of high school. There have been recent debates about whether college tuition should be free or not. I realized that it would be better to pay for schooling on my own. I have looked at the community college price compared to prices at universities. I would much rather go to a community college especially because I’m not sure what I want to get into. Many of my classmates would probably say that free college sounds like a wonderful idea, while others don’t really think so. Some college graduates might have already paid off their own student loans or started paying them off. Why should others have to worry about paying more tax money for other people …show more content…
In the first year of the program for the public college systems in Tennessee, freshman enrollment rose 10 percent. With this information most people would believe that this system is headed in the right direction. However, this information is only based off of one state that has done this program. Celeste Carruthers,an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, is a prime example of someone who believes that this system is working and giving students the chance to go who are uncertain about attending because of the price. Carruthers brings up a point that “‘free community college’ is effective at getting more students into college, particularly when combined with mentoring.” While these students may take advantage of the free tuition program, many issues could be created. Even the values of the degrees might decrease with time because so many are preparing to take these classes. This meaning people could be looking for jobs in higher places, with better pay, but because so many people would be entering college there is more competition and less spots that need to be filled in the working …show more content…
Many believe the solution for the uprising prices for colleges would be eliminating the tuition for students but college is a place that should taken serious and students should be able to carry the expenses for themselves individually. Nikki Edgecombe is a senior research associate at Columbia University Teachers College and her view also goes off the Tennessee program in a way because she explains that the enrollment will increase if there are more programs like the one Tennessee has. In another way she focuses on the idea that “investments should be based on means and directed to the low-income students,” not every student should be given this advantage if they don’t financially need it. Another issue with many students entering college is that some classes might not be able to accept any more students because of the low cost that public colleges offer. Wait lists for classes might become larger with more students taking advantage of programs like

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