A campaign called Tuition Free Illinois, headed by Illinois Rep. Will Guzzardi, is visiting public universities in Illinois to gain support and advocate for students to receive a free college education.

Tuition-free college will never work

MacKenzie Meadows | Columnist

A free college education cannot and will never work in the United States. Free education regarding two- and four-year universities will diminish education quality, burden taxpayers and is a privilege only some deserve.

NIU students were invited to learn about and support the Tuition Free Illinois Campaign by attending a meeting in the Holmes Student Center, led by Illinois Rep. Will Guzzardi on Monday. The campaign is supported by Chicago Student Action, College Democrats of Illinois as well as other student organizations and says that it has a solid plan to make tuition 100 percent free, according to its Facebook page. If college becomes free, it will flood the system with competition.

If the system is flooded with thousands of more students, there will be more people to compete with for jobs after graduation. It will be more difficult to separate the more employable candidates from the rest of the pool.

Free college means the cost will be tucked into American taxpayers’ pockets. The government would kick in 67 percent, which would equal $47 billion a year, and states would be on the hook for the rest, which would equal $23 billion a year, according to an April 26 CNN Money Report.

Taxes will skyrocket, and when free-tuition students graduate, they will ironically pay for the tuition of others within their own taxes.

There is such a thing as free tuition that already exists — it’s called the United States military. Joining the military, fighting for your country and priding yourself on completing your duties can grant you free college. There should not be an equal playing field when it comes to military veterans and low-income students. The government does offer free college — you just have to serve your country to get it. For example, under the post-9/11 GI Bill, people who join the U.S. Army now are eligible to earn full tuition to the college of their choice for up to 36 months, according to goarmy.com. Free college should not exist to the privileged teens that think the world owes them something.

Crushing debt can’t stop education

Ian Tancun | Columnist

All public two- and four-year colleges and universities in Illinois should be tuition-free.

This is one of the main reasons why I supported Hillary Clinton for president, as she was a strong proponent of tuition-free public universities.

As I wrap up my time at NIU, I have mixed emotions. On one hand, I’m excited to finally be graduating this summer; however, hampering that excitement is knowing that I’ve amassed a great deal of student debt that I will now have to pay back. That horrific realization is one shared by all college students who take out student loans.

From 2015 to 2016, there was a 17 percent increase in the number of individuals who defaulted on their student loans in the U.S., according to a Mar. 14 CNBC article.

Before coming to NIU, I applied to — and was accepted at — the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. Their journalism program is one of the 10 best in the U.S., according to a July 6 article in College Magazine. As much as I wanted to go there, ultimately, tuition expenses dashed those dreams. While I’m happy with the quality of education I received at NIU, I admit cost was the deciding factor in which university I attended.

This should not be the case. College should not be a privilege afforded only to the wealthy or to those of us willing to drown in years of student debt.

My hope is that lawmakers will one day come to this realization and work to pass legislation making this a reality. I’m not holding my breath, however. In the meantime, I’m just hoping not to become a part of the ever-growing student loan default statistics.