Expansion of the US Community College System
Despite scholarships and financial aid opportunities, many students in the United States (US) are overwhelmed by the steep cost of domestic college tuition. Even with a multitude of federal-level (Free Application for Federal Student Aid, America’s College Promise Act of 2021, etc.) and state-level (California Promise Program, Virginia Tuition Assistance Grant Program, etc.) policies to help relieve the financial stress of college, the reality is that the cost of higher education continues to rise at an unaffordable rate (Denning 155). Since 2011, the cost of tuition has increased in all types of higher education institutions: public two-year (7%), public four-year (9%), and private non-profit four-year (14%) (College Board 13). This is particularly concerning when average income is not increasing at a proportional rate: in 2020, the median household income showed “a decrease of 2.9 percent” (United States Census Bureau). As one would expect, as college costs climb while income stagnates or decreases, economic barriers deter people from attending universities. In our first world meritocracy — a system where societal advancement is earned through skill — less or lower-quality education puts people at a natural disadvantage when competing for employment in any market scale: locally, nationally, and internationally.
From the global scope, if economic barriers discourage Americans from pursuing higher education, they will be at a competitive disadvantage against more educated candidates. For instance, numerous European countries such as Greece, Norway, and Sweden offer free tuition (M. Lynch). Because of this financial accessibility to higher college, it is not uncommon to see Europeans return to higher education and pursue additional degrees — something much rarer in the United States (Vandenberghe and Debande 428). This same logic applies in the converse direction: citizens from countries with less academic accessibility than the US are at a competitive disadvantage against more educated Americans. Evidently, people born in countries with more educational opportunities are far more likely to succeed in the international market. This fact undermines a fundamental principle of a meritocracy: to eliminate any unjustified biases in society, especially in the economic aspect. Hence, achieving a truly equitable market would require making education financially accessible worldwide. It would be impractical to attempt to tackle such a complex issue like educational inequality from a global approach when societal factors such as government and economic structure differentiate each nation. Thus, I suggest for US leaders to improve its domestic education system through any means appropriate based on its own national data. While some argue that increasing need-based financial aid is a practical method to make American higher education more affordable, a better solution is to expand the community college system. This would make college more accessible to a wider pool of aspiring American students, thereby allowing them fairer competition in the international marketplace.
Admittedly, the federal government offers an impressive and commendable amount of financial assistance to students each year. The US office of Financial Student Aid provides “more than $150 billion in financial aid every year” in grants, loans, and work-study. This funding is distributed among “approximately 5,600 colleges and career schools” and “makes college education possible for more than 10 million students each year.” This number equates to “83.8% of first-time, first-year undergraduate students receive financial aid in some form” (Hanson). This incredible effort by the government has opened the doors to education to so many students and need-based financial aid should definitely be continued. It provides an academic gateway to economically marginalized groups such as African Americans, immigrants and student parents.
But as typical with impressive statistics like this one, the large numbers hide a few caveats which reveal that the system is not as efficient as the office of Financial Aid presents. As many American students including myself have experienced, obtaining financial aid is not as simple as it seems. There are a plethora of criteria that students must meet to qualify them for aid; these qualifications include demonstrating satisfactory academics, being a US citizen, having a social security number, having a high school diploma or some equivalent… and the list continues. The criteria becomes even more complicated with additional eligibility requirements for “non-U.S. citizens, students with criminal convictions, and students with intellectual disabilities” (Federal Student Aid). Checking off these tricky requirements is only half the battle. After qualifying to receive financial aid, there is another slew of criteria (parents’ marital status, number of dependents in household, cost of attendance at prospective institution etc.) which determine the amount of funding. Frankly, with so many factors that go into calculating a student’s aid, the outcome is quite unpredictable and the expected family contribution often comes out higher than expected. In essence, to get financial aid is a difficult process and at times does not deliver adequate financial support.
My financial aid covered less than 6% of my college tuition. This was severely less than the value my family anticipated based on our circumstances. Our appeal for increased financial aid was denied and we were forced to borrow massive student loans from the government. This segways into another flaw in financial aid.
Grants — financial aid from the government that is not expected to be repaid — usually only cover a portion of a student’s tuition, not the full cost. The remainder of tuition is typically covered through student loans — money that is expected to be repaid. Even with a reduced interest rate which applies specifically to student loans, many graduates experience student debt which trails them into the first decade of their career or more (Crew). The loan return payment schedule does not sync up with the usual employment schedule well: for most types of federal student loans students have a “six-month grace period” after graduation or leaving school before the government demands installment payments from them (Federal Student Aid). Although some students are successful in finding solid employment right after graduation, other students job hunt for a few months before they land a position. It may even take a few years before they find employment that pays a satisfactory salary. As a result of this conflicting scheduling, some students are faced with payments that they are unable to cover at that point in their career. Postponing paying their debts to a later time when they are probably more financially independent and stable is also not a good option because interest would cause the debt to continuously increase. An unfortunate, but not unheard of case is newly graduates not being able to pay installments just yet, consequently postponing their payments, which perpetuates their student debt. Undoubtedly, this long term financial stress that American students experience may hinder their ability to pursue other goals that demand financial investments. In other words, they will most likely prioritize paying off their student debt over other expenditures. In this way, the expensive US higher education system indirectly and unfairly sets its students at a disadvantage against foreign students. Students from other tuition-free nations saved financial resources which they can now use to further develop their careers or follow alternative aspirations.
As I have stated before, federal financial aid has proven to benefit many people and ought to continue to assist students. But by and large, it is unfeasible for American society to rely on financial aid in any form (grants, loans, work-study) to overcome educational accessibility. This is especially true now when the volume of funding the government directs towards higher education fluctuates so much. In 2021, the College Board reported that “Total federal grant aid decreased by 32% in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2010–11 and 2020–21. Pell Grants declined by 39% ($16.4 billion) and veterans’ benefits declined by 3% ($405 million).” The cost of tuition is on the rise and clearly, the amount of financial aid to each student is not keeping pace. Rather than going through a complicated process of checking eligibility, calculating unique amounts for each financial aid applicant, managing installment payments for years, and so on, why not just make more low-cost colleges available for American students?
Not only would increasing the number of community colleges in the US help mitigate the painstaking financial aid process, but it would also open up more seats in college admissions — a problem that providing financial support does not resolve. Many aspiring students recognize their financial inability to attend pricier institutions and thus, apply to community colleges where tuition is much more affordable: usually a few hundred or thousand US dollars each term, compared with the tens of thousands dollars at other institutions. However, the 100% acceptance rate at such institutions result in class capacities often being reached: this is due to “tendency of democratic societies to produce more ambition than opportunity” (Nielsen, Kelly). More and more Americans want to pursue higher education through the community college route, but sometimes there is not enough space in community classes to accommodate all the prospective students. Inevitably, students at community colleges are forced to compete against each other for class openings, and sometimes students are unable to enroll in their desired courses. A simple solution is to open more community colleges. In the United States — the supposed richest country in the world — there is no reason that the nation cannot open more low-cost higher education options (Crew). This solution would help many current students avoid crippling debt and provide an outlet for so many other people who want to pursue an education at an affordable cost.
Again to be clear, I am not suggesting that increasing community college is a panacea to global student financial stress. Distinct societal aspects, namely government and economic structure, would determine whether expanding community colleges would be effective in that community. For instance, in third world countries where securing necessities like food and medicine take precedence over education, it may be unwise to direct federal funds towards opening more schools.
Optimistically, within the next century the entire planet can be at a developed enough stage higher education is accessible from every corner of the globe. At that point, one subsequent step would be to standardize the quality of education; academic caliber should not vary much across community colleges. This means setting baseline standards for student-teacher ratios, qualifications of professors, minimum number of units for graduation, variety of majors and types of degrees offered, etc. Another step would be to make community college completely free rather than just low-cost — at least the first two years. This would further remove financial stress from students and foster even more education in the US. In essence, unless affordable quality higher education is made ubiquitous, the global economy will overall favor people from more educated regions. Thus, expanding the community college system will help maintain fairness in the worldwide meritocracy — rightfully giving all people an equal playing field to succeed in the global market.
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