The President Obama’s promise to make free community colleges to all has caused different reactions from different people and organizations. We, American Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, contend that this is a bad idea for several reasons. First this financial aid will severely hurt private sector colleges and universities who are already struggling with enrollment problem.
This is the foremost reason why we are writing this appeal because as an association of private colleges and universities we must take our firm stand on this issue to defend our interests. However there are also other potential drawbacks of Obama’s proposal. President Obama wants to make college education accessible to everyone in order to increase the share of American people with higher education degrees and thus to boost the economy. This is an idea with good intentions but it is not the most effective way to solve the problem.
Also, there are egalitarian mission behind this idea but we doubt that too because free community college will benefit mostly middle income students who can already afford community college. Thus we are sure that this is not the best idea and there are other ways to increase the number of graduates with higher education degrees and also to help students from poor families. We want to end continuing antagonism from federal government to for-profit universities and colleges and we think that this money should go to increasing the quality of community colleges in order to raise the share of students who continue their education in four-year colleges or universities.
In January 2015 President Obama brought up a proposal to make two years of community college free for everyone. He said: “Put simply, what I’d like to do is to see the first two years of community college free for everybody’s who is willing to work for it” (America.aljazeera.com, 2015). By willingness he means that students should have 2.5 GPA or above to maintain eligibility for free community college education.
Also Obama said that community colleges should make their credits transferrable to universities so that more students can enter universities or four-year colleges. This is a clear sign that he wants more young people with university degrees. This is very important for students themselves and for our country too because many companies seek to hire employees with higher education diplomas. The more educated population means more revenue for America because intellectual capacity of one country is decisive for its economic, military and thus political power in the world.
Having said that, we do not believe or highly doubt that this is the most effective policy to implement. First of all implementation of this idea will be very detrimental for private sector universities and colleges. Yes, free community college will definitely attract massive amount of students. This will mean that many universities and colleges will lose their potential students. This is not good because many of those private universities are of much higher quality than community colleges.
Universities have research as their main agenda. Students who enter university from the first year will be more adapted and get used to university life. It will be easier for them to identify their majors and research areas if they enter universities from the first year. Also they will have more time to make their choices about their majors and minors while studying first two years at universities. Making community colleges absolutely free means that many portions of those students who otherwise would have entered universities will go to community colleges and will get deprived of their opportunities and also academic skills.
In other words we might lose many of potential scientists and great innovators just because they go to community college and waste their time. Secondly, many universities and colleges will have to exit the market because of the lack of substantial amount of enrollment. It will be a waste of buildings, technologies and laboratories. It will be a serious assault against private for-profit colleges and universities.
Also it will be detrimental for community colleges themselves. Flow of funds from federal and state governments will deprive community colleges of entrepreneurship abilities and qualities. Student tuition is the significant part of their revenue. If Obama’s policy will be accepted then community colleges will lose their incentives to develop and to find balance between quality and tuition fees.
State monopolization will make community colleges look more like high schools with no motivations to attract students. Obama’s plan contradicts free market principles and lowers competition. Even now community colleges are considered as an option for low-income people which give low-quality education. Obama policy will deteriorate their prestige even more.
We have mentioned that there are egalitarian purposes behind Obama’s proposal. In other words, the general argument is that universal college enrollment will make the society more equal in terms of intellectual and educational capabilities. Also it aims to make accessible college education for poor people. There is no doubt that this is a benign intent.
However this law will not make it better for poor people because community college education is already free for them. Tuition costs for low-income people are already covered by Pell Grants. Therefore free community college will only benefit students from middle class families who are able to afford college tuition themselves. Free-riders from middle class families will only be a waste of taxpayers’ money and ineffective allocation of resources and also loss of potential revenues for private universities.
It was estimated that implementation of Obama’s proposal will cost 60 billion dollars for over 10 years. This is a large amount of money which should not be wasted so thoughtlessly. There are other ways to facilitate equality and more university degrees among poor people. It was estimated that 25% of community college graduates earn four year degree. Making tuitions free will not increase this statistics and even may worsen it. In order to increase rates of degree earning graduates community colleges should be improved their quality. More high-class professors should be hired in community colleges in order to facilitate students to enter universities and earn four-year degree.
Also we contend that this money should be distributed to community colleges according to their performances. Performance-based funding should be a good catalyzer for increasing the quality of community colleges. Among the indicators of their performance community colleges should show especially good results in completion rates and transfer rates to four-year colleges. Thus community colleges will have to work hard and effectively to be eligible for more funding from the state. Actually studies made about Ohio’s community colleges show that performance-based funding positively affects their quality (Hurtado, 2015).
We do want to emphasize that we are not enemies of community colleges and we are not against helping them. Actually private colleges and universities will also benefit more if community colleges’ qualities are improved. If community colleges show high completion and transfer rates, then it will mean that more students will go to four-year colleges to earn their degrees. Such a scenario will benefit every actor in this situation. States and federal government will be satisfied as more students will earn degrees. Private universities will not lose their potential middle-class students. And community colleges will improve their quality and prestige in the society.
The United States has always been the flagship country for higher education. Students from all over the world come to earn their degrees every year to our land, land of freedom and equality. Our association is proud of this fact and we want this trend to continue. On the other hand we believe that our domestic students should have all the opportunities to get higher education. Many young people are wasting their lives not using their intellectual capabilities.
Therefore our concern is of the same nature as of the President’s. At the same time we support the notion of equality of opportunities. In the current situation everyone in the United States has opportunity to get higher education if they try and study well. Those who do not wish to get higher education have opportunity to study at community colleges and go to work after two years. We don’t think that pushing everybody to study at community everyone without discriminating but to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to get high-quality education. By opportunities we don’t mean free education but more grants for higher education for low-income students who show good academic results.
Conventional wisdom tells us that free is often associated with low quality. We don’t want it happen. As a senator who is responsible for education issues you have the most privileged position to weigh all the arguments and persuade your colleagues to make the best decision. We call you and all the senators not to be deceived by the popularity of the President’s appeal. We are aware that this is high level politics and in politics people often make such kind of populist claims.
However one needs to face such populist claims with hard objectivity and pragmatism. We believe in competency of the senators and have high expectations. We hope for the best results for all Americans. Thank you for your attention.
