It's not difficult to muster up the potential benefits of making college free in the U.S. It could provide equitable access to the opportunities made available through higher education, open possible pathways for some to escape generational poverty, and offload the yoke of college debt. These benefits have some calling for college to be free nationwide, a proposal that gains ground during Democratic primaries. But while I agree that there is a real problem in this country of socioeconomic factors creating barriers to upward mobility, I don't think college is the answer, free or not.
Eleven years ago, I was a member of the lower socioeconomic tier myself. I was 18 years old and living in my car, sleeping at the homes of my friends and their families when I could. If you had offered me a full ride to go to college at that time, it would have been about as useful as trying to heal a gunshot wound with Neosporin. I needed surgery, not a salve. And even if you'd lifted the burden of tuition costs from my shoulders, I still would have had to pay for the cost of living: food, shelter, repairs to my unreliable car, clothing, and a phone. Even without the cost of tuition, there was no way I would have been able to work full time, go to school full time, and claw my way out of the pit of poverty I was in.
I know this because I did go to college, for a short time. I qualified for a Pell grant, which covered a large chunk of tuition, but even with that help, college just wasn't the answer for me to achieve the upward mobility I was searching for.
Eventually, I left college and got a factory job, and that's where the escape from my circumstances really began. The factory job gave me dignity and security. Within two years, I was able to get married, buy a home, and support my wife through her last two years of school.
The work gave me what college never could: a sense of personal responsibility, which in turn nurtured an active devotion to my familial and civic duties, which were informed ever more clearly by my faith.
At that point in my life, I came to understand a powerful truth. I had been told by my schoolteachers that a college degree was the way to achieve the American Dream. But I learned that this was a misguided maxim at best. I had achieved dignity, security, as well as opportunity by leaving college.
I eventually found out that the factory was not free of the barriers created when a person doesn't possess the "proper paperwork." The factory that gave me my start wouldn't promote anyone beyond an equipment operator position without a degree. It was a sign for me that it was time to leave, and that's when I began a career in construction.
The construction industry is one of the last remaining industries that, at least in my observation, is still dominated by the experienced as opposed to the college educated—at least for now. If you work hard, you can rise through the ranks, which is what I did. Halfway through an electrical apprenticeship, the education for which was paid for by my employer, I was promoted to project manager.
Based on my experience and those of the people around me, I've come to realize our real problem is not a lack of access to higher education, but rather a deficit of pragmatism. You can't deny the value of higher education in certain fields, but we should likewise not deny individuals access to careers where their pragmatism could serve as a cleaner burning fuel than formal education.
And that's happening far too often for a country that was founded on the right to the pursuit of happiness. Consider the fact that as of 2022, 62 percent of employers require a degree for all entry level positions, and 66 percent of employers believe removing degree requirements would help them fill positions—ones that 65 percent of employers say they struggle to fill. Meanwhile, just one third of Americans have a four year degree.
The answer here isn't free college; it's industries getting ridding themselves of college requirements for positions where working experience can suffice.
This is to say nothing of the dangers of our educational institutions escaping accountability by a guaranteed flow of tax dollars. Then there is the burden of student loans, and the decay in quality of education over time. And then there's the fairness question. Is it truly fair to impose a perpetually growing tax hike on Americans so that their neighbors might get degrees that they arguably shouldn't need for many of the positions that currently require them? Would granting the public access to free higher education en masse really level the playing field? Or would it just eliminate the value of a college education, making it the equivalent of a high school diploma, and force people to get a Master's degree to be taken seriously, then a PhD? We may end up merely raising the educational bedrock.
Most of us can agree that something needs to be done to make prosperity more accessible across the class spectrum. Yet free college only deepens the class divide, perpetuating the belief that you need a college degree to be productive and provide meaningful insight as an American employee.
Perhaps instead we should give in to the spirit of pragmatism and have faith in the idea that talent can bloom within those who have attained a higher education as well as those who have been exposed to wisdom through experience.
Skyler Adleta is an electrician in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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