Governments should of er a free university education to any student who has been admitted to a university but who cannot af ord the tuition

Education has been strongly linked to increased income and better career prospects across the board. However, there are some groups within the United States who are unable to attain higher education by attending a university because they are unable to afford the tuition. The policy proposed here asks that the government offer free tuition for any student who has been admitted to a university but who cannot afford the tuition. While this may seem to be a good policy proposal initially, this proposal could stand to benefit from increased specificity in implementation. It is currently unclear whether this program would cover tuition fees for a program that a student has been admitted to and cannot afford if the student has also been admitted to a program that they can afford. In addition, the number of students that this would likely pertain to may not be financially feasible for the government.

The vast majority of universities offer financial aid programs for students who cannot afford full tuition, and at most universities less than half of the student body pays full tuition at any given time. Given this, it is not uncommon for low–income students to be offered financial aid packages from schools that they have been admitted to in order to give them the financial opportunity to attend. However, not all financial aid packages can be afforded by the student, even with the reduction in cost. In the event that a student was admitted to two universities, one that provided enough aid for the student to be able to afford to attend and one that did not, this policy implies that the student would receive free tuition for the program that he or she cannot afford, in spite of the fact that they have been admitted to a program that they can afford. This policy should be amended to state that free tuition is only offered if the student is admitted to a program that he or she cannot afford and has not been admitted to any other programs that the student can afford. Otherwise, this may lead to wasteful spending for students who wish to attend universities with higher tuition but cannot afford to do so.

Along this line, a significant portion of the US population qualifies as “low– income” to the point where it is unlikely that they would be able to afford to attend a university. While the US is a relatively wealthy country, it is unlikely that the federal government could afford to cover that amount of tuition fees
without having to make sacrifices within other areas of the discretionary budget. This program would then quickly be disbanded, leaving matriculating students who were previously supported by government funding with no financial ability to remain a student at that university. Some limitations would have to be put in place on this policy to restrict the number of people that the federal government would sponsor (similar to standard scholarships) in order to ensure that the government would be able to fund the selected students throughout their college careers.

Giving a low–income student the opportunity to attend a university has the potential to permanently change their life for the better. However, the implementation of policy to reach this end must be mindful of the financial limitations of the federal government and focus on students who cannot afford to attend any university without external support instead of students who cannot afford to attend a particular university. With these changes, this policy has the potential to result in positive consequences for low–income students.