One of the problems facing higher education in contemporary American society is the high tuition fees in public universities and colleges. By the time students are graduating, they have debts that are out of this world! And it will surely take decades to pay it all off, and the aspect affects their financial well-being for the most part of their adult lives. In this blog I will explain my position that tuition fees in public universities and colleges should be abolished.
One of the the arguments used to justify higher student debt is that by acquiring higher education, learners increase their earning power and human capital. The financial advantage that comes with higher education is a good return on investments. However, this market-based thinking is a wrong approach towards education. First, education is a public good, which should not be evaluated using market logic value. The principle purpose of education is not to allow individuals to have increased lifetime incomes but to understand the world arond them and offer solutions for progessive communities. Any civilized society society should be in a position to offere students an enabling environment to learn in ways that accelerate imagination and invigorate creativity. Such educated students can come up with some solutions to problems that affect their natural and created environments. Once students learn to offer solutions to societal problems, increased monetary rewards become an outcome of the progress.
The current structuring of student loan repayments are punitive, and one would question the purpose of funding in the first place. For instance, as opposed to other forms of debt, student loans cannot be discharged in case of bankruptcy. Additionally, the majority of the loans cannot be refinanced. This aspect means that if a student got a loan in the 1990s at an interest rate of 8%, he or she has to repay at the same rates even in the times where the rates have gone down. In addition, when an individual fails to make a payment for student loans over 9 months it has deemed as defaulted. The Education Department then pays a fortune to private debt collectors to pursue the defaulters. The money is used to pay these collectors so it can be used to finance free college education in public schools.
In summary, the value of education should not be evaluated using market-based logic at all! Students should be prepared to become resonsible citizens and problem solvers for a progressive society. Free college tuition programs have worked AND helped in other areas, and the government shoukd follow the same strategies and come up with solutions to the current debt crisis facing university students
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