Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Five Reasons Why Free College Doesn't Make the Grade

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

These types of arguments are gaining traction. Unfortunately, the rest on sad stale tropes about advanced education. Still, for the record, here are the 'five reasons' (quoted):

  • It crowds out faster, cheaper options... by privileging these traditional higher education experiences over new private options
  • It supports a subpar system... Free college might be fine if traditional public colleges worked well for students, but they don't
  • It helps those who need it the least and not those who need it the most... free college proposals merely subsidize access for middle- and upper-income students
  • It causes the country to add to its string of debt without addressing the underlying cause of college's high costs
  • It starves traditional public colleges of funding and causes them to decline... pupil funding typically doesn't keep up with the costs required for those institutions to remain competitive on a global stage.

Now admittedly, universities do little if anything to counter the weight of such arguments. However, it should be noted that private institutions are the slowest to innovate, public colleges perform a vital service to the community, and the weight of debt and underfunding would exist with or without free tuition.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 18, 2024 04:41 a.m.

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