As a student from a low-income family with plans to go to college, I am scared by the cost.
Sure, scholarships are out there, but unless you’re a genius, chances are a full ride isn’t something to count on, and anything less than that is made up with a part time job or a student loan that you’ll be stuck paying years later. It’s not the best thing to look forward to.
Assembly Bill 1356 proposes a 1 percent tax on Californians who earn an annual income of $1 million or more, generating about $2.2 billion per year to pay for the cost of tuition for in-state students at University of California, California State University, and California community colleges.
This proposition comes at a time when the cost of a higher education has been rising over the past decades. From 1969 to 2015 tuition costs at UC has risen 530 percent and CSU has increased by 685 percent. A year of full time enrollment and campus fees cost on average $13,500 for a UC, $6,850 for a CSU, and $1,400 at a community college, not including living costs.
So tuition free college sounds great. This would solve so many problems that students have been facing and would allow them to choose a college without having to worry about cost or letting tuition affect their choices.
Of course this proposed bill is not without its downsides and issues. Should this bill be passed it would add on another 1 percent tax to those who earn $1 million or more.
The richest 1.5 percent of Californians are already responsible for about half the state’s income tax revenue, and Proposition 55 was approved to continue taxing those people at a higher rate until 2030 in order to provide education and health care funding.
Last year another 1 percent tax on the $1 million or more group to fund mental health programs was approved.
The point being that this tax would add on to the large amount of taxes that the wealthy already pay. However there is a reason that they pay heavier taxes than those who earn middle or working class wages.
This bill would generate $2.2 billion, and allows everyone to go to college for free, then the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. If the overall result is a higher education available to anyone regardless of income, then the answer is simple. Free college should be a requirement of the state and furthermore it should be a requirement of the country. After all, New York already has it. Only 49 states left to go, so why not make it 48.
Considering that more and more jobs are requiring college degrees, making it difficult for a student to rely on just a high school degree.
Afterall every American has a right to equal education, so why not include college into that group of free education. It’s not exactly equal education if some people are able to receive a higher education than others just because they can afford it.
Equal opportunities is the basis of this country and if we can’t even have equal opportunities in education then how can we expect it anywhere else.