Competition by Tuition
By allowing post-secondary schools to offer free tuition this could result in the closing of smaller, less financially strong schools. All schools receive different funding and financial support. Allowing schools to offer free tuition would take away the competition of schools battling for one student. Resulting in a smaller enrollment of first year students for the smaller schools. As stated by Vince Norton, “[t]his allows private colleges and public colleges to compete for the same student, and students review financial aid awards and ultimately make decisions based on not just finances – but also fit.”(Norton, 2018). This ultimately will affect how students will choose where to study and how they receive their education.
Tuition to universities and colleges should not be free. There are so many factors that go into a post-secondary experience, from class sizes, location, school morals, and of course a lot more. Some students may prefer the feel of a small, more personable school but if only a larger school, with large class sizes offers a free tuition then guess which way that student may sway. This could affect the overall experience and worst case, could end up leading to the student failing.
As briefly stated before, allowing for schools to offer free tuition could result in the closure of smaller schools. This could be detrimental as smaller communal schools would not be able to financially compete with other larger schools. This is due to financial support from external sources, they may be in an area with smaller population that cannot benefit or help support the school staying open. These smaller schools rely on the tuition fees to benefit students and helps to allow them extra resources for students’ education.
Students paying tuition can help to support the school further than external financial aids such as community, government or donations. This allows for extra fund to go towards support students and increasing their education. If it come in the way of more hands on activities, new books or computers as resources, and the extra finances could even go into something such as public transit or parking costs.
References:
Norton, Vince. (March 16, 2018). Norton|Norris, Why Free College is a Bad Idea. Retrieved from https://nortonnorris.com/free-college-bad-idea/
