Big Dreams and Bigger Wallets: on Free College Tuition

In the last few weeks, the city of San Francisco became the first city to offer free college tuition to its residents, which we as a staff believe is a step in the right direction.

We would like to praise the city for making college education more accessible to every individual inside the city lines, and not just those with big dreams and even bigger wallets. Because, let’s face it—college is expensive, and anyone who’s reading this paper, be they par- ent or student, knows this all too well.

With more jobs demanding college degrees and an insane amount of (typically unpaid) experience, a college degree is all but necessary in this changing world. That being said, necessities shouldn’t have to come with a back-breaking debt that forces students to start in this highly competitive world already behind.

According to The Institute for College Access and Success, “Seven in ten seniors (68 percent) who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in 2015 had student loan debt, with an average of $30,100 per borrower.”

The website also mentioned that 71 percent of college students in PA graduate with student debt, and offered statistics on Muhlenberg as well. 57 per- cent of Muhlenberg students graduate with debt, averaging about $30,527. The New York Times has reported that student debt across the country totals more than a trillion dollars.

Perhaps it’s no wonder why so many of our generation are moving back in with our parents after college.

Lowering the costs of a secondary education also works as a cap to college tuition prices which have been rising, almost unchecked, at an astonishing rate. According to College Board, tuition for a four-year private nonprofit in the 1981-82 school year cost $3,617, a little over $10,000 in 2016 dollars. The same institution, according to the website, would cost nearly $33,000, today, more than triple the adjusted price.

We also recognize that, as a private liberal arts college, Muhlenberg will never be able to offer students a tuition-free arrangement like the California state schools, although 95 percent of the students receive some form of grant or scholar- ships from the school, which is another way to keep costs down.

In other words, tuition has risen at an incredible rate, one which perhaps has more to do with supply and demand than simple inflation. In this market, free tuition is perhaps the best way to combat this otherwise unchecked system.