Thread by @mmilleradams

This week in #FreeCollegeQuestions -- a more specific version of last week's question, “Nothing is free, someone is paying.” Today, “Why should I pay for other people’s children to go to college?” (We’ll leave aside for now the question of free college for adults.) (1/11)

Degrees and credentials these days are generally thought of as private goods – the person earning them reaps their benefit, so that person (or that person’s family) should bear the cost. This was not always the case. (2/11)

For much of the past century, public colleges and universities in the US were affordable and sometimes even tuition free (as in the case of California until around 1980). Prices were kept low through state support for the higher ed sector. (3/11)

As demand for degrees grew and state support fell, tuition began a relentless climb, outpacing the availability of financial aid and placing degrees and credentials outside the reach of average families without the accumulation of high levels of student loan debt. (4/11)

Fiscal constraints have made it difficult for states to reinvest in higher ed, and cutting aid further is a hard temptation to resist in an economic downturn (pre-pandemic, state support for higher ed had returned to pre-2008 levels in only 7 states). (5/11)

So, students are bearing more of the price of college than at any time in modern US history. But it turns out that access to higher ed is good not just for those with the degrees but for their states and communities as well, and these have been hurt too. (6/11)

Communities with higher rates of educated workers show faster economic growth and higher wages for all residents, not just college-educated workers. States with trained workers do better at attracting the employers that provide good jobs. (7/11)

Paying for services that benefit other people is part of the social contract. Not everyone benefits directly from every service their taxes support – not having children doesn’t mean you can opt out of paying for public schools. But we all benefit indirectly. (8/11)

We pay taxes to live in a society that functions well. In other rich countries, taxpayers support childcare (so parents can work), health care (so people are healthy), and higher education. For now, the US has deemed these private goods, but this can change. (9/11)

In 2015, when President Obama first introduced the idea of free community college, @tressiemcphd wrote, “Today’s debate about free college tuition does something extremely valuable. It reintroduces the concept of public good to higher education discourse. (10/11)

At a time when it’s hard to get a good job without a degree or credential, and when even middle-class families have been priced out of higher education, paying for other people’s children to go to college is one way to build the kind of society we want to live in. (11/11)

@threadreaderapp unroll