There are many controversial topics regarding community colleges. One of the more strongly debated topics includes whether or not community colleges should be tuition-free for state residents. That being said, there are many consequences to altering community colleges in a way that removes the revenue of student tuition fees. One of those consequences may end up impacting all of the citizens of the state that has free tuition. With all of the potential drawbacks that come with free community college, this concept should not be implemented in the real world. First of all, when implementing a system that causes all community colleges to be essentially free, there will be an expected influx of students wanting to attend said community colleges. As a result, the institutions may not be able to keep up with the demand of the sudden growth of students. As a result, more community colleges would not have the necessary …show more content…
Now, where would all of the money come from? Well, the answer is taxes. Like many other educational programs in the United States of America, a majority of funding comes from the federal government. In fact, “In the fiscal year 2017… state spending (on major higher education programs) was $87 billion, and local funding (mostly to community colleges) was $10.5 billion” (Community College Research Center, 2022). Now when you apply that information to the fact that much of that money comes from taxpayers, it should cause people to slow down and think about what free community college would entail. It would cause the taxes in every state that implements this program to increase and therefore results in a bigger tax burden for not only the students that are attending the college but for the rest of the general population that pay taxes as well. For all of the reasons stated above, community college should not be tuition-free for state