Free College Tuition
Government-funded education in the United States was first made compulsory in 1852 in Massachusetts. The last state to require school attendance was Mississippi in 1917. Enforcement of these state requirements was reportedly ineffective in the beginning, until states realized the value of an educated work force. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965, established federal funding for all the country’s Kindergarten through twelfth grade systems.
K-12 education is no longer sufficient for large sectors of today’s work force, and the work force of the future. Professional, technical and vocational education beyond twelfth grade are today’s and tomorrow’s necessity, as assuredly as K-12 served the economy of the 19th and 20th centuries. Is it not wise to guarantee that the country has the most extensive qualified labor force possible by making higher education available to everyone regardless of financial ability?
In fact, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reported that about one-third of countries do not charge any tuition fees for national students enrolled in public institutions in bachelor’s or equivalent programs. Examples include Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Sweden. Another third of countries have low to moderate tuition fees, equivalent to $2,600 or less in U.S. dollars. Expenses for food, housing and books are typically the responsibility of the students, but some countries provide assistance for these costs as well.
OECD countries spend an average of 1.5% of national GDP in support of post-secondary education. (2015 data) Among the countries with higher average spending are Norway at 1.7% of GDP, and Finland, Denmark and Austria at 1.6%. The comparable figure for the U.S. is 0.9%. Generally, the countries with free or moderate tuition costs provide more extensive social safety nets than the U.S. and have higher income tax rates.
Some U.S. states have instituted financial support for state residents to attend state-funded public colleges or universities. New York State’s Excelsior Scholarship program allows students to attend a State University of New York, or City University of New York, tuition-free. It is available for residents whose family income is $125,000 per year or less. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign offers free tuition to in-state students with family income of $67,100 or less. Many other states have free college tuition programs to students attending public post-secondary institutions, with varying eligibility requirements.
In the context of U.S. political campaigns, proposing free tuition for post-secondary education has been labeled radical, socialistic, unaffordable or all three. Yet for this period when technology is requiring new skills of employees, the role of preparing the work force at public expense has historical precedence and proven public benefit.