Posted on 04/17/2017 9:58:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
New York liberals recently celebrated the realization of a long-held dream: giving a free college education to anyone who wants it.
Well, not quite "free" as in nobody has to pay for it. It is one of the primary conceits of the liberal welfare state that they can refer to a taxpayer-funded benefit as "free." Hence, we have "free" public housing, "free" food via the SNAP program, and "free" medical care for those on Medicaid.
Ah, would that it were so.
We all know that there is no such thing as "free" when it comes to government benefits. The money to pay for the goodies does not grow on a tree or even a bush. It comes out of the pockets of ordinary Americans.
So let's refuse to play along with this fiction and look at the real costs of government-funded college tuition.
Providing students four years of tuition-free college does not mean that professors have generously decided to forgo their salaries and academic buildings now come rent-free. In fact, it does not even mean that universities have a plan to cut administrative bloat to focus more of their efforts on academics.
Indeed, offering free college to students means that someone else is now paying for it: New York taxpayers, many of whom do not hold bachelor’s degrees themselves and will likely earn less in the future than their college-going counterparts for whom they are now footing the bill.
Recent history has shown that removing any financial responsibility from the student to pay for their degree does more harm than good. Economists have found that virtually unrestricted access to federal student aid encourages colleges and universities to raise their tuition prices.
When universities are not directly accountable for their prices to consumers, tuition can gradually increase without jeopardizing the loss of significant numbers of students. However, American taxpayers feel this tuition increase quite a bit when students default on their loans.
The proposed budget plan for New York couples the state taxpayer-funded grants with federal Pell Grants, which has been shown to increase tuition as much as 40 cents on the dollar.
Creating a state grant for higher education, coupled with federal grants, will likely lead to further increases in the cost of higher education. The program is slated to be phased in over three years and is expected to cost taxpayers $163 million in the first year.
What about the effect on private colleges? There is little doubt that many private schools will see a falloff in enrollment. This will be true even though the plan includes an increase in funding for them as well. There is just no competing with schools that offer tuition paid for by the government.
And I believe why so many illegal immigrants came over here is because we don’t have people willing to do the hard work. Again, they’re 28 and know it all before they’ve even had a real job.
Its a back door open to education free for immigrants
What about the many who have paid into it over the years. where is our refund!
That said, this is nothing new. SUNY tuition was free for NY residents up until 1971. Which just happened to be the year I started college. Heh.
“Free” almost always means that someone other than the recipient is paying the bill.
Anyone thinking they are going to get something for nothing is not capable of being educated. Taxes will have to go up. The added cost will be passed on to the consumers. The same morons attempting to be educated will start crying because their cost of living escalated.
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