An Exceptionally Bad Idea: Obama’s Proposal for ‘Free’ Community College

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. It’s pretty simple: no person or society can get something from nothing, regardless of whether it appears to be free. Any economics student at our school knows this popular saying that illustrates opportunity cost, but apparently the president does not. In a public statement earlier last month, President Barack Obama made a troubling proposal to offer ‘free’ community college to “anybody who’s willing to work for it.”  Much like anything the government promises for ‘free’, the community college plan simply doesn’t address reality— the actual costs, the means of funding and the results we can expect.

Obviously, at the very least, there is an opportunity cost attached to community college.  A student wanting to attend a school within this program would have to take at least two years out of their life to learn something that likely wouldn’t give much of a return on the investment. On the other hand, if they chose not to attend community college, they could have taken advantage of many other opportunities that require less education prerequisites, yet remain considerably profitable trades. But costs like this exist within any college plan, right? Yes, but they seem remarkably more significant for community college. For instance, community college graduates make only about 15% more on average than those with just a high school diploma, and community college graduation rates are shockingly low (13% for the lowest income groups—those who this ‘free’ program is likely intended for), according to Columbia University’s Community College Research Center. Recognizing that most of the payoff for college comes from finishing, the issue with Obama’s ‘free’ promise is that students would have a well under 50% chance of succeeding, and even if they did the actual gains would be quite modest. Consider these expected results along with direct cost (according to White House officials, the federal share alone is about $60 billion in 10 years) and opportunity cost, and this proclaimed ‘free’ program doesn’t look like such a great idea. Not to mention that for the government to fund such an endeavor requires either expropriating individuals’ property in the name of taxation, or borrowing the money and shifting this burden on future generations who were completely uninvolved in the decision. Both choices are equally reprehensible.

However, what might be the most unfortunate consequence of the president’s plan is the continuation and worsening of this “cult” of formal education. Students today know this problem well: the employment expectation of a certain degree, which continues to require more and more time and money, has made higher education a necessity, but not for the purpose of education. In other words, the social value we place on formal, college level education is too high. If what anyone actually cares about is learning and educating themselves, there are countless ways of doing so for no direct cost at all. For instance, the hundreds of online courses available, or even attending university classes for free (seriously, just ask any professor, the only problem is that you don’t get the piece of paper proving you went). The point is that by subsidizing yet another level of college education, the signal provided by a degree (now an associate’s degree), which is what you actually pay for, is being devalued once again. You might as well just call it the 13th and 14th grade.

So sure, flipping a switch and giving everyone a higher level of education would be nice, but that isn’t how the real world works, and it fails to account for the effect on the signal of a college education.

 

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