At the age of 18, millions of high school graduates are told that higher education is the key to opportunities, financial stability, and improving their social status. High school guidance counselors are always encouraging students to apply to colleges; many families emphasize the value of obtaining a degree, and whenever you go to find a job, the majority list a post-secondary credential as a minimum requirement to be considered for employment. That said, for many students in the United States, furthering their education is no more realistic than a fictional story. Being able to access the opportunity to attend college comes with a major financial burden on their backs that they carry out into adulthood.
Before students can even develop a full understanding of financial literacy, students end up signing loan agreements that could follow them for decades after they graduate. In summary, what seems to be an investment in a better future, ends up being a prolonged financial debt instead.. With every decade, tuition costs at public universities have risen significantly, while wages for many American families have stayed stagnant. As a result of this, the student loan debt in the United States has grown to exceeding numbers with millions of students as borrowers (Melanie Hanson); Causing many graduates to delay adulthood necessities such as purchasing their first home or saving up for retirement all because they are too busy using their salaries to pay back their student loans. College itself comes with its own challenges for students with time management, figuring out their best study method, and determining the best career for their future; they don’t need an extra financial debt stacked on top of all that. Higher education should be free for students because it provides financial stability, increases economic growth, and creates equal opportunity for everyone.
Higher Education Provides Financial Stability
To start off, higher education provides students with future financial stability. As previously mentioned, many college students in the U.S. are promised a stable source of income after graduation. However, due to high tuition costs, many students spend the first few years or even decades paying back their student loans. Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach et al. explains some of the varied ways that HE makes a positive impact on students’ lives such as“ higher wages, better health, and lower likelihood of requiring disability payments”. Evidently, pursuing a degree, allows students to lock in a more sustainable future. Diving into the statistics, a research article done by Katherine Meyer states that “associate degree holders [earn] $7,800 more each year than those with a high school diploma” (Meyer). She continues by explaining that, “bachelor’s degree holders [earn] $21,200 more each year than those with an associate degree” (Meyer). Another statistic reported in “Invest in Education: Mass Affordability Plan Delivers Major Economic Lift” shows that “five years after graduation, graduates of Massachusetts public colleges or universities make $20,000 to $30,000 more per year than their peers who did not pursue higher education” (“Invest in Education”). Through this information, it’s made clear just how much a degree can completely alter the financial state of students once they enter the workforce.
Though HE does provide opportunity for better salaries, students often spend the first decade after graduation, repaying the student loans they had to take out in order to receive the degree. Melanie Hanson states that “[t]he outstanding federal student loan balance is $1.693 trillion” with a total of “42.8 million student borrowers [who] have federal loan debt” (Melanie). Since the second school quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025, the student debt has escalated by 91,839.70 dollars to a total of 1,832,977.54 dollars by the end of the third quarter of 2025 (Melanie). Undoubtedly, obtaining HE gives students the opportunity to receive a better salary in comparison to those who don’t, however, repaying student loans can be a huge setback for students to begin establishing their lives right after graduating. Providing free tuition doesn’t simply benefit students, it also benefits those who already have a degree. By paying higher taxes and funding our population’s HE, we also increase the number of higher skilled individuals who live in our nation making for a much more competent workforce. Whether those who already have a degree are business owners, doctors, police officers, construction managers, or in any career field, having a strong and capable worker on your team is essential for an effective work team. Therefore, Higher Education should be free for students.
Higher Education Benefits our Economy
In addition to providing financial stability for graduated college students, offering free higher education also benefits our society as a whole. According to Daniel Frank et al., “A few of the explicit positive externalities [caused by education] are an increase in the economic activity and living standards of the people” as well as, “ an increase in the revenue for the government” ( Daniel et al. 1). Without a doubt, by funding higher education, we resolve more than a single economic issue; we not only get rid of the financial burden from our dedicated college students, but this could also be the investment that potentially erases the controversial debate on minimum wage as a whole.
It’s been an endless battle of whether or not we should raise the minimum wage, whether it’s been benefiting our lower-income population, and if there’s even any decrease in poverty rates as a result of increasing the minimum wage. Although these questions would make for a good debate, in order to properly fix this issue we need to take a step back from the small details and analyze the full picture. It’s statistically proven by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in the article “The Digest” that, “[i]ncreases to state minimum wages are associated with falling enrollment at local community college” (NBER). “Among new high school graduates, 16.9% enroll in 2-year colleges” says the article “College Enrollment & Student Demographic Statistics" (College). Through these statistics, we can infer that raising the minimum wage, although it may initially seem as a positive contribution to our economy, actually brings productivity levels down. It does this by de-influencing students who were originally pursuing a degree to instead drop-out and work a minimum wage job. This terminates the opportunity for those students to contribute more financially to our economy. But, by offering free tuition, the number of students attending and graduating with a degree would increase, meaning better salaries for them, but also more tax money that they are contributing to our economy.
To summarize, if education were made more accessible for all students by removing tuition costs, more people would attend college, get a degree, receive better pay, and there would be more economical movement within our nation. By making HE free for all, we completely remove the controversial argument of minimum wage, and redirect our perspective from simply bumping up salaries to equipping people with the proper skill set to obtain a livable wage. Establishing free higher-education will not only bring financial well-being to students, but will also provide more tax dollars to fund our nation’s needs.
Higher Education Promotes Equality and Social Mobility
Furthermore, providing free higher education promotes equality and social mobility. Diana Whitmore Schanzeback et al. states that “about 18 percent of low-income students attend institutions that spend less than $13,199 per student, as compared to only 6.5 percent of high income students” . The different percentages of low income students v.s. Higher income students that are attending these more affordable institutions show the education quality difference between students who come from two different socioeconomic backgrounds. Due to this unequal opportunity, those lower-income students who attend the lower-quality schools, end up having less job opportunity compared to those who have the financial stability prior to attending college and could afford attending a higher quality college.
This disrupts students that come from low-income backgrounds to even have an opportunity to build their way up the social ladder. An example of this is explained by Valerie Wilson who says “In 2019, the median Black household earned just 61 cents for every dollar of income the median white household earned (up from 59 cents in 2018), while the median Hispanic household earned 74 cents (unchanged from 2018)” (Wilson). This statistic allows us to see in numbers just how drastic income inequality is in our nation. By providing all students with an equal opportunity to pursue a higher level career, we are also offering our nation a better chance of bettering their futures financially. In addition to social inequalities, there are also generational inequality. “We Are What We Teach” by Aspen Institute, Education & Society Program states that “ The rising generations, Millennials and Gen Z, possess dramatically less wealth than their counterparts a generation ago” (“We Are What We Teach” 2). As a society, this should be worrisome considering that prior to 1940, “[n]inety percent of Americans…earned higher incomes than their parents, but upward mobility is now under 50% and keeps declining” reads “We Are What We Teach” by Aspen Institute, Education & Society Program (“We Are What We Teach” 2).
It’s made clear that our nation’s current socioeconomic position is causing a restriction of advancement for our society. For this reason, providing our nation with free tuition could be what saves our society from plummeting into a potential regression and get us back on track to before the 40’s where household incomes were increasing with every generation. By continuing this old pattern, we can expect to be financially stable now and even better off later.
Counterclaim & Rebuttal
Many people may argue that free college would raise our federal tax dollars too much and wouldn’t be worth it in the long run.A statistic by Melanie Hanson reads, “A zero debt program (Debt-Free) would cost $75.0 billion in its first year” (Hanson). Many claim that this amount of money would make taxes overwhelmingly high, affecting the actual profit that households get to take home. Although this number seems awfully big, let's not forget that it would be split among the estimated 153.8 million taxpayers in the U.S. (York). Therefore, by estimate, each taxpayer would be paying about 488 dollars more to fund free tuition. Many economists argue that although tuition will be an expense for taxpayers it will also come with many benefits that outweigh those expenses. . Education is often seen as “human capital” in the eyes of economists (David J. Deming). Deming explains that “ [o]btaining more education is like digging a hole with a bulldozer rather than a shovel. More education allows one to get more done in the same amount of time, increasing productivity and thus market wages” (David J. Deming). A solid example of this is mentioned in an article by Carolina Arteaga, who found that when “coursework required to earn degrees [at a University in Columbia] in economics and business” were reduced, the quality of students remained the same, however Arteaga “estimate that wages fell by approximately 16% in economics and 13% in business” (Arteaga). By reducing coursework, this directly affected the salaries for graduates in the economics and business fields proving that human capital is essential for higher levels of contribution to our economy and productivity in our country. In addition to that, providing free tuition, means a brighter future for our country; literally. As U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education” (UC Santa Barbara “The American Presidency Project”).
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In order for our nation to run smoothly, our nation must also be educated, however high tuition costs don’t allow for that to happen as much as it could. For example, during political votes, only a fraction of all Americans vote, with the majority of voters having some sort of higher education level. According to Sarah R. Cohdes and James J. Feigenbaum, “In the 2020 presidential election, 77 percent of eligible voters who had attended or graduated from college and 90 percent with post-graduate studies cast a ballot compared to 54 percent of voters with only a high-school diploma and 36 percent of dropouts” (Cohodes, Feigenbaum). These voter results demonstrate how higher education is tied to higher recognition of the importance of contributing to our country. By offering our society a chance to receive higher education for no cost, we not only bring productivity levels up, we also derive a more effective, involved, and knowledgeable democratic system, which outweighs the investment that must be made.
Conclusion
All in all, investing in free college tuition for all students across our nation will remove financial burdens, increase our economic productivity, promote equal opportunities to rank up the social ladder, and overall allow for a brighter and stable America. Although this has been an on-going debate, once broken down, the answer to whether or not offering tuition-free higher education outweighs the cons, is made clear. Yes, an increase in taxes must be made, however this will be done at the cost of a more prosperous and efficient country.
Free higher education will provide students of all economic backgrounds to attend college, allowing them to lock in a higher paying job which in return will mean more tax money that will be put towards our country’s needs and amenities. To summarize, the U.S. should invest in providing free HE as it promotes financial stability, economic growth, and social equality and mobility. By focusing on making education affordable, we create a country that strengthens the trait that it so proudly claims. To be Indivisible.
By: Yaretzi E. Valencia
Works Cited
Arteaga, Carolina. “The effect of human capital on earnings: Evidence from a reform at Colombia’s top university.” Journal of Public Economics 157 (2018): 212-225.
Cohodes, Sarah R. “Why Education Increases Voting.” Education Next, 14 May 2024, www.educationnext.org/why-education-increases-voting-evidence-boston-charter-schools/.
Deming, David. “The Economics of Free College.” Economics for Inclusive Prosperity, July 2019, econfip.org/policy-briefs/the-economics-of-free-college/.
Frank, Daniel, et al. “Higher Education Loan Schemes Across the Globe: A Systematic Review on the Utility Derived and Burden Associated with Educational Debt.”
Hanson, Melanie. “College Enrollment & Student Demographic Statistics.” Education Data Initiative, 17 Mar. 2025, educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.
“How Much Would Free College Cost? | 2026 Cost Analysis.” Education Data Initiative, 15 February 2025, https://educationdata.org/how-much-would-free-college-cost. Accessed 5 March 2026.
“Student Loan Debt Statistics.” Education Data Initiative, 2 Feb. 2026, educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-statistics.
“How Minimum Wage Increases Influence Student Enrollments.” NBER, 1 Nov. 2023, www.nber.org/digest/202311/how-minimum-wage-increases-influence-student-enrollments?page=1&perPage=50. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.
“Invest in Education: Mass Affordability Plan Delivers Major Economic Lift | Fitchburg State University.” Fitchburgstate.edu, 21 Nov. 2025, www.fitchburgstate.edu/about/news/invest-education-mass-affordability-plan-delivers-major-economic-lift?utm. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
Journal of Risk and Financial Management, vol. 17, no. 12, Dec. 2024. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.columbiabasin.idm.oclc.org/10.3390/jrfm17120566.
“Message for American Education Week. | the American Presidency Project.” Www.presidency.ucsb.edu, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/message-for-american-education-week.
Meyer, Katharine. “Higher Education Accountability: Measuring Costs, Benefits, and Financial Value.” Brookings, 14 Mar. 2023, www.brookings.edu/articles/higher-education-accountability-measuring-costs-benefits-and-financial-value/.
"Recent Findings in Public Economics Described by Researchers from University of California (The effect of human capital on earnings: Evidence from a reform at Colombia's top university)." Politics & Government Week, 29 Mar. 2018, p. 286. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A532187731/ITOF?u=pasc15962&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=65b6182b. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
Shiro, Ariel Gelrud, et al. “Stuck on the Ladder: Wealth Mobility Is Low and Decreases with Age.” Brookings, 29 June 2022, www.brookings.edu/articles/stuck-on-the-ladder-wealth-mobility-is-low-and-decreases-with-age/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23580204602&gbraid=0AAAAADs0aw1tLZQr4uFbENXBTAm5in4q0&gclid=CjwKCAiA2PrMBhA4EiwAwpHyCzwToe0hhfuhx-VXALhhVoKPZyWSdQqORD_Dzi4ksRJLWewoNFrycxoCvjYQAvD_BwE. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.
Sphelele Shezi, et al. “The Socioeconomic and Psychological Impacts of Free Education on University Students.” Educational Process: International Journal, vol. 18, Jan. 2025. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=cfff5abf-8ad2-3e51-bfb5-40146b03b254.
Whitmore Schanzenbach, Diana, et al. “Eight Economic Facts on Higher Education.” Brookings, 26 Apr. 2017, www.brookings.edu/articles/eight-economic-facts-on-higher-education/.
Wilson, Valerie. “Racial Disparities in Income and Poverty Remain Largely Unchanged amid Strong Income Growth in 2019.” Economic Policy Institute, 16 Sept. 2020, www.epi.org/blog/racial-disparities-in-income-and-poverty-remain-largely-unchanged-amid-strong-income-growth-in-2019/. Accessed 28 Feb. 2026.
York, Erica. “Who Pays Federal Income Taxes? Latest Federal Income Tax Data.” Tax Foundation, 18 11 2024, https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/federal/latest-federal-income-tax-data-2025/. Accessed 5 March 2026.
HeyYaretzi I liked reading this, especially the part about student loan debt and how it affects people after college. It made your argument really clear.
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