“Lowering college cost may increase the quality of admitted students. There will be more competition. “free” college doesn’t mean free admit. Students will go through the same application process. The only difference will be the cost. I think it’s a great idea.”
However, many of our public schools are absolutely packed. Classes are huge, people are taking well more than four years to graduate because they can’t get into the classes they need. Admission is unbelievably competitive at many public schools. Do we really need more people trying to get into these colleges? If public universities get even more competitive, the people who will get accepted are those with the highest test scores and grades—ie, generally the wealthier students whose families could afford it anyways. Great, free college for the rich, and the poor can’t even get accepted.
I also wonder how housing costs play into this. For many public colleges, the cost of tuition is not much higher (or even possibly lower) than the costs of food and housing. You could have your tuition be “free” yet still owe tens of thousands for those costs, because it seems that everyone wants to live on campus and feels entitled to have that experience.
You subsidize what you want more of. We already have so many college graduates that are only able to get jobs that don’t require a degree. I wonder why it’s necessary to have even more.