On average college students spend roughly $26,027 per year. This is for students who live on campus in a public 4-year-instate college. Additionally, out-of -state students pay on average $27,027 per year. If these numbers get put all together of the 4 year course of a degree it will come out to about $108,364. 

      College should not be free, but it should be affordable for students based on the federal minimum wage. This is because minimum wage is not really minimum, it is just to “survive.” Making $10.10 an hour is not enough to pay for college. 

     Many students who have a passion for education and who want to get an education, can not because they are not financially stable enough to pay thousands of dollars every year. 

      Furthermore, colleges should be more affordable because there would be higher salaries and better futures. When lowering costs of colleges and universities it will persuade people to go and get their degrees which will allow them to make more money. 

     Because of the way student loans are set up today, if students decide to go to college after they graduate, they may be thousands of dollars in debt. This could be harmful to them because they will be too busy paying off their debt instead of investing and focusing on their careers. 

    Halah Anwaar, sophomore, said, “I think they should be free for those who cannot afford it at all, so they don’t have to work 40 hours a week for their job. I think they should be free for local community colleges, but if it’s out of state colleges should be affordable for the majority of people.” 

     Riya Bhattarai, sophomore, said, “I think colleges should be more affordable than what it is right now because right now it’s literally ridiculous, it’s so expensive where it’s to the point students have to work more than they study.” 

     Paying off debt can hinder peoples lives after college, imposing numerous problems.

     Sophomore Claire Green said, “I think it’s unfair that students have to live their entire lives paying off college debt, and I’m not saying it should be free completely because of needing to pay for things like school maintenance and professors. I think it should be more affordable than it is now.” 

     College is not the only path after high school, many degrees do not require a degree, resulting in less debt.

     “I think college should be much more affordable than it is, in college for all model would be great but I also think the idea of everybody having to go to college is one of the worst things that has happened in the last couple generations,” History teacher Colin Martua explained. “There are a lot of jobs that don’t require a college degree, a lot of trades we don’t have enough people to fill those types of jobs, and they’re well paying jobs, so I think every high schooler in the nation thinks that they will have to go to college is ultimately just putting them in a lot of debt.”

     In many cases, the cost of tuition being so high does not make sense when comparing the learning to the future career.

     “It’s an absolute crime that college tuition is that high, there’s no reason why a text book for a course should be $300,” Martua said. “I think that has to do with area model of capitalism and what we choose to put our money towards and what we choose not too, I think that there are people around the country that are decision makers that decided not to invest in education at a college level, at a high school level, at every level, there is the money to reduce that cost it’s just the matter where we send the money.” 

      Many people ask me if colleges are free and or affordable how would we pay the professors and get a good university. The question is how are other country’s doing it? My home country, Iraq, has free colleges, and we have a lot of educated people, such as doctors, engineers, lawyers and business men/woman.

Now I am not saying college should be completely free in the United States because there are a lot of differences between the United States and Iraq but college should be affordable. Since the United States has one of the best education systems in the world, education should be easily accessible.

       As the prices go up for college tuition it makes higher education seemingly unattainable. Although by making college more affordable it would drive economical growth and it will encourage people to go get an education. As the prices of college tuition goes up, many people will decide not to go to college 

     

According to letterstopresident.org it states, “Every year more students drop out of college for many different reasons, and a major reason is because of the cost.” By lowering the cost of student tuition it will help students continue their education and get their degrees. 

    A country with a population that is educated is excellent because it supports a civil society and political stability.

      College in the United States should be affordable because it will help the economy, help students financially and increase the education rate.