A Brief Warning about Free American College
The Negative Consequences of Nationalization
Free college is a popular election issue in America, and for good reason.
College has gotten ridiculously expensive, with students taking on life-changing, crippling debt to pay for degrees that seem less valuable every day.
So making college free is a popular idea.
I believe that making American higher education free might have an unintended side effect that would negate any benefits of increasing education access.
Admission standards would skyrocket.
First, let me dispel the European argument.
The way many European countries implement grade school functions very differently from the US.
While countries vary, there are often multiple kinds of high schools one can go to. A vocational school, a school aimed at technical jobs, or a school that prepares students for university.
In Germany, for example, there are three different kinds of high school equivalents, Hauptschule, Realschule, and Gymnasium.
(If I’m wrong about anything of this feel free to correct. I want the information in this to be as accurate as possible.)
Comparing schooling and school policy in the States and Europe is comparing apples and oranges.
Without the financial barrier that comes with higher education in the United States, the flood gates of applications will open up. Yes, people who couldn’t afford education are now applying, but so are a lot of other people.
Older people who are looking to finish their education.
Older people looking to get an education.
People looking to get a graduate degree.
People looking to get another degree.
And people who just want to network and party.
All of those people will start applying, plus fresh high school graduates and advanced, younger students.
So how would colleges and universities filter through a greater number of applications? By raising their standards.
I have evidence for this.
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art was a tuition-free institution up until a few years ago. (The end of tuition-free education at the Cooper Union is a long story, I recommend the Ivory Towers documentary.)
So what were their admission standards?
They have a 13–16% acceptance rate, tough.
But their admissions process is also more complicated. Art students need to submit a body of work and letters of recommendation.
According to the Cooper Union, they don’t just check GPA, ACT, and SAT scores. They were a free college with limited spots, so they took a more “holistic” approach to admissions. Someone with high scores and grades might not get in because they just have high grades and scores.
By making college free, institutions don’t magically get more class spots, more parking spaces, more professors, more dorms, more food, and more amenities. They still have the same number of spots for students.
Places that once only needed a pulse would have to create and raise standards. Places that were once difficult would be next to impossible to get into.
A few sets of students won’t be impacted, including legacy students, students with wealthy families who can make sizable donations, and people who can recreate Varsity Blues.
You could follow up by banning private contributions to schools, but that would force more government subsidies, which goes into another issues
The Role of Government Money in Higher Education
With higher education effectively being nationalized, this gives the government far more oversight over education and research in academia.
With more government oversight and regulation, can research integrity and academic quality be maintained?
America has some of the best and most well-known universities on the planet. Can we maintain that after nationalizing the university system?
American public education is notoriously awful. Funding is a nightmare, teacher pay is atrocious, materials are outdated, and the curriculum is broken.
Do we want to bring those problems and more to academia?
After
The rise of standards will inevitably produce a squeeze. Education will become harder to access, even though it's free.
However, there is an upside.
If standards rise, degrees will become more valuable. Americans will place a greater value on primary and secondary education, better grades and extracurriculars in K–12 will mean getting into a good university.
There will be an improved focus on community and state colleges. People can build up educational acumen and good grades before applying to university.
Degrees will become more valuable, you won’t need a master's degree for an entry level job.
The school-to-college pipeline loosens its stranglehold on American youth and becomes far less predatory, both because it’s free and because a college education might not be that necessary.
My point with this piece is that expecting purely positive outcomes with change is silly.
When a kid grows up, you have to get them new clothes. When a business grows, it has to make changes. Nationalizing our entire education system will have negative consequences.
Bachelor’s degrees being more valuable and education becoming a higher priority is definitely a positive, but higher standards, especially with community colleges and state colleges, are worrying.
What if someone screws up in high school and tries to put their lives back together? Higher standards will push them out.
My name is Michael Vincent Hawthorne, writer for the Midnight Variety Hour. If you liked this article feel free to follow for more content.