I have been teaching college for more than a decade, so when President Barack Obama was in Indianapolis recently touting his plan for free tuition at community colleges, you would have thought I would be excited.
Technically, as a strong believer in higher education, I should be on board. It’s no big secret that the more education you have, the less likely you are to live in poverty and be unemployed.
It does not have to be college, but everyone needs an education after high school to compete in the 21st Century. The facts speak for themselves, right?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average unemployment rate for folks with a high school diploma or less was between 7.5 and 11 percent.
So why can’t I get excited over “free” college? Why do I believe that when you get right down to it, “free college” is one of the worst things we could do?
After some careful thought and consideration, here’s my response. First, there is no such thing as “free.” Someone has to pick up the tab. That someone is usually the taxpayers, but they foot the bill for a lot of things, so that’s not my main objection. Here’s the real problem. Under the president’s plan, students would get the first two years of community college free if they go at least half-time and maintain a 2.5 GPA. (The offer does not include books, transportation, and other college living expenses.)
My problem: I don’t think under the president’s plan, folks who get the “free” tuition have enough skin in the game. When you have skin in the game – i.e., you’re picking up part of the tab – you tend to treat things a little differently.
You take it more seriously. I also think a 2.5 GPA is setting the bar too low. I think it should be at least a 3.0. It doesn’t take much brainpower and effort to walk away with a 2.5 GPA. Or at least, the better grades you get and the harder classes you take, the more of the tab we assume.
I also like the community service element of the Tennessee model where students have to perform eight hours of community service per semester. It’s been my experience that students who had to pay more of their own freight were usually more dedicated and worked harder than the ones who had someone else footing the bill. My best students were usually the single mothers who got little or no government assistance who took an evening or weekend class. They got it.
And I won’t even start on the ones who only stayed long enough to get a financial aid refund check and then dropped off the face of the planet – because guess who had to pick up the tab when the federal government couldn’t locate those students? That’s right, the school.
I think there a lot of ways we can bring down the costs of post-secondary education and make it more accessible. Have we had the perverse, yet unintended consequence of making college even more expensive? That’s another discussion for another column. The bottom line: giving it away for free is never a good idea.
You can read more Abdul Shabazz columns at IndyPolitics.org, and email him abdul@indypolitics.org.
