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Debate Notes

This document argues against guaranteeing two years of free tuition at community or technical colleges. It makes three main points: 1) It's not actually free as it will raise taxes on Americans to pay for students' tuition. Taxes already fund K-12 and higher education. 2) Students may not have worked hard to earn a free college degree. Suspension and dropout rates show some students don't want to succeed. 3) It will harm private colleges as students will choose the cheaper free option, reducing enrollments and tuition revenue at private schools. This could force tuition hikes and financial struggles for private universities.

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48 views3 pages

Debate Notes

This document argues against guaranteeing two years of free tuition at community or technical colleges. It makes three main points: 1) It's not actually free as it will raise taxes on Americans to pay for students' tuition. Taxes already fund K-12 and higher education. 2) Students may not have worked hard to earn a free college degree. Suspension and dropout rates show some students don't want to succeed. 3) It will harm private colleges as students will choose the cheaper free option, reducing enrollments and tuition revenue at private schools. This could force tuition hikes and financial struggles for private universities.

Uploaded by

api-388431054
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Opening: friends, students, fellow Americans, lend me your ears, what is it that we care about the

most and runs our economy and the world? Money, and sure we all love free things but

I Reject the resolution which states: In the U.S., students should be guaranteed two years of free
tuition to a community or technical college.
____________________________________________________________________________________

1. Main Argument One:it’s not actually Free

a. (Sub point A) Point: it will raise taxes


i. Evidence: in an article by Mary Clare a Policy Analyst at The Heritage
Foundation the idea of “free” community college itself is misleading, as the cost
of education for these students would not disappear. The American taxpayer
would have to pay more taxes for a community college system that is universally
available.
ii. Explanation (it’s the “So What”): because of this, taxes will rise, causing the
average american to pay for a college education that won’t be their own or their
children’s

b. (Sub point B) Point: we’re already putting money into universities and education as
it is
i. Evidence: the center on budget and policy priorities did several studies showing
that for school age kids One-fourth of state spending on average, or about $308
billion, goes toward public education. On average, it costs $10,615 to send a kid
to public school for a year. about 13 percent of state spending, or some $156
billion already goes towards higher education.
ii. Explanation (it’s the “So What”): so already a lot of our taxes are going
towards free education, so why should we raise our already ridiculously high
taxes to send kids to two years of free community college?

2. Main Argument Two: why should we give kids a college degree that they didn’t work for it
a. (Sub point A) Point:If they didn’t work hard for college their whole lives why
start now

i. Evidence: since 1970’s suspension rates have nearly doubled. out of 49 million
students In 2011 to 2012, 3.5 million students were suspended in-school, 3.45
million students were suspended out-of-school, and over 130,000 students were
expelled. Other studies say that of 2014-15 83% of students graduated but that
means 17% did not graduated for various reasons.
ii. Explanation: We will be paying for students who obviously don’t want to
succeed to get into a high education that they will waste.

b. (Sub point B) Point: All good jobs will fall out of demand
i. Evidence: There are a few good paying associates degree jobs the problem
here is if this effect of free community college all of the highest paying ones
would become quickly unavailable and even then none of the highest paying
ones are in demand. Some of the best career fields that people might be
interested in will quickly disappear such nurses and programmers
ii. Explanation: If this opens it won’t help as all of the jobs will quickly fall out of
favor.

3. Main Argument Three: it will harm private colleges and universities


a. (Sub point A) Point: students will choose the cheaper easier option
i. Evidence: it is not hard to understand that humans will naturally choose the
easier option, the.. cheaper option, logically it makes the most sense, why pay for
something you can get for free? As Oprah Winfrey once said; “there is no easy
way out, if there were, I would have bought it. And believe me, it would be one of
my favorite things” so why should we teach our kids to take the “Easy way”
ii. Explanation why should we let these students take the easy way out when that
easy way will lead to these private colleges dedicated to providing a higher
education ultimately losing money and enrollment.
b. (Sub point B) Point it will affect enrolment numbers, causing universities to lose
money
i. Evidence: If middle-income students start choosing free tuition at a free
community college. rather than upward of $50,000 per year at a private nonprofit,
many tuition-dependent private schools will face hard times. In fact, many of
these schools are already struggling to meet enrollment goals, in part due to a
declining number of high school graduates in the state.
ii. Explanation: private universities will start to lose profit to free community
colleges, causing normal tuition for THOSE colleges to rise. Is this in the end fair
to private colleges?

Sources:
- Point 1A
http://www.heritage.org/education/report/free-community-college-bad-deal-taxpayers-and-
students

- Point 1B
https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/policy-basics-where-do-our-state-tax-
dollars-go (center on budget and policy priorities)

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2012/06/21/155515613/how-much-does-the-government-
spend-to-send-a-kid-to-school

- Point 2A
https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/data.html (US department of education)
https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=16 (National center for education statistics)
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_coi.asp ( /\ )
https://www.vox.com/2015/2/24/8101289/school-discipline-race
Point 3A
https://nortonnorris.com/free-college-bad-idea/

Point 3B
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/08/08/the-unintended-
consequences-of-free-college-on-new-yorks-for-profit-universities/
Point 1

Point 2

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