By Charles L. Westmoreland
I got an e-mail a few weeks back that made me chuckle. A group known only as “The Consortium” was demanding that, “by 2009, the University of Louisville provide education to its students for FREE, at no charge. By next year, 2006, we wish to see tuition LOWERED by 25 percent” (the all-caps is their emphasis, not mine). Sure, free tuition – and peace will flourish in the Middle East, too.
But let’s be pragmatic for a minute and set fantasies aside. Not only will tuition continue to increase, but it should never be free.
Free tuition, as perfect as it might sound, is nothing more than a utopian concept that will lead to status-quo mediocrity. The value of an undergraduate degree lessens every semester as the job market is flooded with more starving graduates. Many of those graduates are desperate for jobs and will take any entry-level position thrown their way just to get a foot in the door and put bread on the table.
Flooding the job market with even more college graduates will only create more competition for jobs, which in turn will enable employers to offer lower wages. A bachelor’s degree will finally become the equivalent of what a high school diploma is today. A bachelor’s degree isn’t nearly as valuable as it was 40 years ago, and making it free will only cheapen it more.
According to census results, approximately 30 percent of Americans today hold a bachelors degree compared to 9 percent of the population in 1965. Go back another 25 years and the number plummets to only 5 percent. The number of college graduates continues to increase by about 1 percent a year. Not to mention, the economy hasn’t exactly been booming in recent years. I haven’t seen any tangible proof that the economy could support such a large influx of graduates with well-paying jobs.
But what if college tuition in Kentucky was made free; who is supposed to pay for it? The correct, and only, answer is the state. “State” translates to “taxpayer.”
If the state were to take on the burden, budget cuts would be imminent and the quality of education would dissolve. I’m a product of Kentucky’s free public education and my diploma isn’t worth the cost of the frame. I received a mediocre education from low-wage teachers at an underfunded high school. I’d hate to see the same thing happen to U of L or the rest of Kentucky’s higher education. Everything is underfunded enough as it is.
The liberal heart can’t help but cry out for society’s underprivileged, but should taxpayers really have to foot the bill for another generation’s higher education? America can’t even dig up enough cash to subsidize the retirement years of its elderly; should it break its piggybank just to find out that not every 18-year-old with a passing ACT score can hack it through college?
After graduating high school I received a free education at my family’s expense. The result was I didn’t appreciate the opportunity given to me until I wasted it away. It took four years in the Army sucking dirt in some God-forsaken desert before I got my second crack at being a student. I paid for my education at U of L through blood, sweat and tears, and that’s exactly what I needed to become a good student. Paying for our education is the primary reason most of us appreciate it.
Going to college is a privilege, not a right. The Consortium has obviously confused the two. It may not be fair that not everyone can afford college, but capitalist society wasn’t based on fairness. It provides opportunity, and every American has the opportunity to pursue higher education, but making it free only cheapens its value and will ultimately erase the benefit.
