Jacob Gutierrez
English 102
Mr. Montoya
11 August 2025
Should College Be Free?
College is something many people do in life and can be a fun school experience, however college comes with a cost. From text books, to dorms, to tuition, college is pretty expensive, which begs the question, should college be free? The average college student spends $20,000 - 60,000 on college tuition depending on the degree and college, additionally the college plays a big factor depending if it's a 2 year or 4 year college. Another factor is if the college is an out of state situation and public or private. Public colleges that are 2 years are usually community colleges such as Columbia Basin College, which costs an average of $7,000 per year. Now for a 4 year public college like Eastern Washington University, the tuition is around $9,000 per year. Notice that I said per year, and not in total, this is where the question “should college be free?” comes into play. Most students exiting college come out with very large student loans, and these take years to pay off. Some people can afford college too. These things will be talked about in this essay, and I will be citing and using 2 sources with opposing sides/opinions. The sources are an article from College Raptor, and written by the College Raptor Staff, and the second one is by Christensen Institute and is written by Michael B. Horn. This essay will explore what the pros and cons of free college would look like.
Source 1: The Pros and Cons of free College
The first source written by College Raptor Staff has a lengthy analysis of the pros of free college and is split into multiple different topics. In the first section, College Raptor Staff give 6 reasons why college should be free. Some examples of the pros listed are “1. Student Debt Will No Longer Crush the Younger Generations” which goes into depth on average debt coming out of college and students being able to afford homes and other things rather than stressing on finances. The next example for pros is “5. There Could Be a Stronger Workforce” this topic goes over the job opportunities many people would have and how students could learn news skills easier than other places. In the second section of the article which is titled “What Are the Other Conversations Around Free College?” College Raptor staff goes over 3 other topics. The first topic is “If College was free, What About Private Institutions?” which talks about the possible decline of private schools that operate because of tuition money. The second topic is “What About Community College?” College Raptor Staff makes a point that not every college can be free, Instead what about free community college? The last point is “Don’t Other Countries Offer Free College?” The author writes about how free college is available in other countries like Germany or Spain, however this wasn't how it always was and the countries had to plan and work for it.
Source 2: Five reasons why free college doesn’t make the Grade
The second source written by Michael B. Horn on Christensen Institute goes over the 5 reasons why free college isn't good. Horn states, “Given that 65 percent of all jobs in the economy will soon require postsecondary education and training beyond high school, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce…” this was from a study done in 2020. Horn writes that free college policies are misunderstood and that they don't target the main problems of why college is so expensive. Horn also adds that he has written about this topic 2 other times giving a sense of trust that he knows what he's doing. The next section of the article is written in 5 parts/topics going over the cons of free college. The first topic is “1. It crowds out faster, cheaper options”, Horn writes that making tuition free for students could impact their capability to make a good decision and choosing a higher education school rather than a private option. The second topic “2. It supports a subpar system”, He states that in a survey conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center they state that, “A whopping 40% of first-time, full-time students fail to graduate from four-year programs within six years. The rate is worse at two-year colleges, where only 39% of students complete. Eighty percent entering community colleges expect to transfer and earn a Bachelor’s, but just 29% do within six years…”. The 3rd topic is “3. It helps those who need it the least and not those who need it the most”, Horn writes about how tuition fees being free wouldn't make much of an impact and policy proposals should be going to other things to impact low income students with things like healthcare. The 4th topic is “4. It causes the country to add to its string of debt without addressing the underlying cause of college’s high costs”, Horn talks about the question of free college being who's gonna pay for it and why it is so expensive. The 5th and final topic is “5. It starves traditional public colleges of funding and causes them to decline” Horn states that other countries with free education get paid by the government by how many students are enrolled, which could be bad if not many students are enrolled.
Source similarities and differences
Both these sources have similarities even though they have opposing views. Some similarities are they both talk about some downsides such as where the money is going to come from, and that college would probably be taken for granted. Another similarity is both articles write about how other countries work with free college and how it's possible but also maybe not possible. Some differences however is the first source is more about the pros of free college while the second source is about cons. Both sources also talked about the amount of debt students suffer from and they both used trustworthy survey sources. The College Raptor source also writes more positives than negatives, and presents sort of compromises, while the second article talks slightly political and very against most of the ideas.
The Strengths and Weaknesses
Each of these articles are written fairly well, but each has its own strengths and weaknesses. The first article by College Raptor Staff has various positive topics involving free college, and gives a good amount of information such as averages for student debt, the positive impact on the economy, and positive the shrinking gap of education inequality. They also have ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of such as what about instead of making college free why not make only community college free. The article doesn’t have anything they really falter on, and has a good counter argument as well.
The second source is a very solid counter argument to the pros in the College Raptor source, it addresses the downsides and unseen circumstances, It also sources from credible studies and research. He also mentions how other countries have tried and failed at free college such as Germany, and very rarely does it work out. A weakness in the article is the mention of political figures, however some cases this could help the article, as the person in the political position talks about the negatives of free college, however this could also be seen as a bias on the authors part.
Compromise
Free college would be an awesome thing for many people, however it has many downsides that would really affect everyone, so there needs to be a compromise. After looking through both of these articles I have found a few ways to compromise. First of all College Raptor Staff made a statement about community college saying that not every college can be free, but what about something like community college. Various places offer free community college or help with funding for example Columbia Basin College does running start which is college in high school and is mostly covered by the state and the student enrolling will only need to pay around 300-500 dollars per quarter for various uses. A second option would be Financial aid help The aid could be shifted to non tuition things like transportation books and supplies. That way college would still be able to function but students wouldn't be spending so much on utilities outside of school.
Works Cited
Horn, Michael B. “Five reasons why free college doesn't make the grade.” Christensen Institute, 16 July 2019,
Staff, College Raptor. “Should College Be Free: Pros And Cons.” College Raptor, 25 February 2025, https://www.collegeraptor.com/find-colleges/articles/affordability-college-cost/why-should-college-be-free/. Accessed 11 July 2025.
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