DEBATENATE

Topics / Economy

The challenge

“College should be free”

Nate · AI character. Not a real person.

No. There's no such thing as free college. There's college somebody else pays for. Census data show most American adults don't have a bachelor's degree. So the electrician and the cashier get the bill for the future lawyer who'll out-earn them both. A New York Fed study found that when federal student loan limits went up, tuition went up with them. Economists argue about how much. But when the customer isn't paying, who shops for value? Meanwhile the four-year degree is oversold. Plenty of eighteen-year-olds would do better in a trade, earning instead of borrowing. You'll say education pays for itself. Then the graduate who cashes in can cover it. Let me ask you this: why should a welder pay tuition for somebody who'll out-earn him? Free college isn't free. It's a bill mailed to someone who never got the diploma.

Debate him on this

His strongest arguments

  1. Free college moves the cost onto taxpayers, and most of them never got a four-year degree.

    Census Bureau educational attainment data show that a majority of U.S. adults age 25 and older do not hold a bachelor's degree.

  2. Graduates out-earn everybody else over a lifetime. A blanket subsidy sends money toward the people headed for the higher paychecks.

    BLS data show that median weekly earnings for bachelor's degree holders are substantially higher than for workers with only a high school diploma.

  3. Help aimed at students who truly need it already exists. That beats making college free for rich kids too, and it beats pretending a four-year degree is the only road.

    Federal Pell Grants provide need-based aid that does not have to be repaid, aimed at low-income undergraduates.

The best comeback, and his answer

Challenger: Other countries offer free or nearly free public universities, and America used to have very cheap public colleges. Education is a public good that benefits everyone, not just the student.

Nate: Some education does benefit everybody. But the way to get prices down is competition, trade schools and students who shop, not an unlimited tab. Make the schools justify the price before anybody hands them your neighbor's paycheck.

What he grants the other side

College costs have climbed painfully.

The lines

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, Educational Attainment in the United States, Current Population Survey (2022)
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Education Pays: Earnings and Unemployment Rates by Educational Attainment (2024)
  3. U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid, Federal Pell Grants (2024)
  4. David O. Lucca, Taylor Nadauld and Karen Shen, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Credit Supply and the Rise in College Tuition: Evidence from the Expansion in Federal Student Aid Programs, Staff Report No. 733 (2015)

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