Argumentative Essay: The Rise In College Debt

In this day and age, it is assumed that the majority of high school graduates will be attending college, whether a two year community college or a four year college or university. The problem with this expectation of young people is that college is expensive, which is why numerous people are pushing towards free college for all, not just for the academically talented. While overall publicly funded college is unrealistic, this country could slowly overcome this issue of college debt by providing more two year community colleges across the nation with the tuition of these community colleges drastically reduced. The major reason why many people are pushing towards publicly funded college is a because of the substantial rise in college debt over the last decade. College debt is developing into an immense issue in the United States with about 1.3 trillion dollars worth of college debt across the country in 2015, which is about a 39% increase since 2011 (Redd, 2016; Goldrick-Rab and Kendall, 2014). This debt is not just piled on a small portion of people; according to Redd, “about 10 million college students took out student loans” in the 2012-2013 school year (2016). The average tuition at in

These community colleges could then become part of the public school system, with government funding, so that all may have access to at least a two year college degree. This education revolution would not put so much pressure onto graduating seniors to attend an expensive four year university. Therefore, this movement would both lower the cost of college and allow more people from low income homes to acquire an education. The implementation of more community colleges across the nation with low or free tuition could slowly undo the issues created by the high rates of today’s college tuition by lowering college