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The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
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Making Colleges Free Nationwide Would Boost the U.S. Economy

Making+Colleges+Free+Nationwide+Would+Boost+the+U.S.+Economy

In today’s economy, a bachelor’s degree is an integral part of being successful and earning money. Most well-paying jobs require a degree, and as a result, people who don’t have a college degree are restricted to lower-paying jobs. Those with lower-paying jobs tend to have a harder time sending their kids to college. As a result, their kids have the tendency to remain stuck on the low-income ladder. This vicious cycle dooms generations of kids to a life of poverty. The one way to break this cycle is to remove money from the equation and make public college education free or significantly reduce the cost of attendance.

Having a college degree offers a host of benefits for those that have it. According to a 2004 study conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, people with a college degree on average earn $23,291 more per year than non-degree holders. And that gap is only going to widen as more and more people equipped with college degrees enter the job market. A bachelor’s degree also shows that you have certain skills, which tend to imply that you are capable of acting responsibly.

Having a large amount of people with a college degree also benefits those who don’t have a college degree. In general, states that have a higher-educated workforce tend to have higher wages. The citizens of these states have more money and thus more spending power for goods and services, which results in stronger economies with higher employment rates.

A move to free public college would also help stop the runaway spending that has been plaguing universities. With universities facing a set budget that would reflect their operating costs, they would have to devote funding to things that were actually essential to the learning process. Instead of being able to get more money by raising tuition to fund all sorts of crazy and useless projects, schools would have a set amount of money that they could use. This would make it so that they would have to carefully consider where to spend money. The tight control of spending is the polar opposite of the present climate in some schools today, where students are sometimes charged a large amount of money for a sub-par experience.

That said, it is true that colleges with more available funds generally offer more opportunities for students and can handle higher enrollment rates. However, these schools simply do not work for individuals who can not afford to attend them. As college degrees become even more common, it is our responsibility as a society to provide a viable way for those who can’t afford to pay for tuition to still receive a college education and have an opportunity to escape the pits of poverty.

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