Free Community College in the United States of America

Introduction

College prices today are wildly expensive. The average tuition price for an in state student going to a four year state college is about $9,410, an out of state student has an average of $23,890 due, and for a four year private school on average a student could be expected to pay $32,410 (college board). These students are most often fresh out of high school with very little real world experience and suddenly they are expected to make life changing decisions that will cost them thousands of dollars. The prices above do not even include necessities like room and board, meal plans, and inevitable expenses like extra food, entertainment, and clothes.  These costs have risen insurmountably from 1997 the average tuition and fees for a private school increased 157%, the average out of state tuition and fees at a public school increased 194%, and finally the largest jump is in state tuition a a public four year university at an enormous 237% (Briana Boyington. “See 20 Years of Tuition Growth at National Universities”, (U.S. News & World Report L.P), 4). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the total consumer price index inflation increased by 52.7% from 1997-2017(Boyington, See 20 Years, 4.). This means that the rate of inflation has risen much higher for college tuition than the average student. So clearly there is a problem with the current cost of tuition. A solution to help ease the cost for these young students is to make tuition at community colleges free.

The Problem

The differences between those that have degrees from higher education and those with only a high school diploma are everywhere. As of 2015 college graduates have on average earned 56% more than those without any post high school education (4). The differences in education also affect things such as employment. For example after the great recession in 2008, the percentage of college graduates in the workforce has risen 21% where as the percentage of people with only their high school education in the workforce actually declined about 8% (4). This statistic would help account for the fact that recently there has been a higher percentage of college graduates in the workforce than high school graduates. Statistically those that have just graduated from highschool face other problems too. For example they are less likely than college graduates to be homeowners. Also college graduates are more likely to contribute to a 401k retirement plan than high school graduates (4). This goes to show that a college degree is less optional than it appears and rather than individual choice it has become an intrinsic part of being a productive member of society. Due to the immense amount of evidence it is hard to ignore the fact that higher education is becoming less and less of an individual’s choice and much more of a requirement if the individual wants to succeed and remain competitive in today’s workforce.

Proposed Solution

President Obama proposed the idea to make the first two years tuition for community colleges free nationwide in 2015 (2). In this plan students would have to maintain a 2.5 grade point average, go to school at least part time, and maintain progress in completing their goal (3). President Obama’s plan also had requirements for the community colleges themselves. First they would have to offer programs in which the credits would transfer over to a four year university, or they could have occupational training programs that maintained high graduation rates and would lead to degrees and certificates are valued in the workforce (3). As for funding President Obama’s plan stated that the federal government would cover a majority of the costs at 75% and the state governments could fund the remaining 25% for the eligible students (3).  

Evidence of the Solutions Success

Although President Obama’s plan to make the first two years of community college free has not been passed nationwide, variations of it have been implemented in several places around the United States. For example, in Chicago 2015 a program called the Star Scholarship was implemented (5). Under this program students that went to public school that graduated with a B average and demonstrated that they could keep up with college level coursework were rewarded a free ride in community college as well as free textbooks (5).  Since this program began about 1,000 students a year, or in other words 5 percent of each of Chicago’s public schools graduating classes have claimed this scholarship to attend their local community colleges. As of 2017, the first class that was awarded this scholarship has two thirds of students either already graduated or right on track to graduate with an associates degree or with a certification for one of many fields (5). Another way in which the Star Scholarship program has proven to be successful is the percentage of students that have graduated in two years with this scholarship is the same as the national average of students in community colleges that graduated in three years (5). Also the retention rate after the first year for these students in Chicago were twice the national average at an impressive 88 percent. Through the Star Scholarship program students could pursue their American Dream and receive a higher education without the added stress of lifelong debt.

A similar program has been placed in Tennessee, but it is statewide rather than just citywide. This program is titled the Tennessee Promise and encourages students to pursue a higher education by either going to community college to work for an associates degree or complete a certificate program or attend a College of Applied Technology. After the creation of this program the percentage of college enrollment has increased from 57. 9 percent to 62.5 percent in just one year. While this may not seem that significant of an increase, it was a larger increase of college enrollments that all seven years before this program combined (6). The scholarship will only cover the costs remaining once any rewards from the FAFSA or outside scholarships are used and they will be paired with a mentor to help guide them through their post high school education (6). Also in order for the student to be eligible for this scholarship they must enroll in a community college or College of Applied Technology the fall semester immediately following their high school graduation. The student must attend all mandatory meetings and maintain a 2.0 grade point average in a community college or maintain satisfactory progress in a College of Applied Technology throughout their college career (6). Also the student must complete 8 hours of community service with a participating organization in order to help give back to the community (6). This scholarship will cover the student’s tuition either until they complete their respective goals or they have reached five semesters worth of coverage (6). The first few years since the installation of this program have shown growth in Tennessee’s college allowing for a wider variety of students to pursue a better life.

Potential Issues With this Plan

Free college for students seems almost too idealistic, so the common question is about whether or not it is even feasible. The cost of free community college would be a large undertaking especially considering the amount of students across the United States that would be able to meet any requirements created for a scholarship. However even though community college is fairly reasonably priced now many graduates continue to go to other institutions, so it is likely that the students that would be taking this scholarship would be students that were initially on the fence about going to college. Also as a nation the United States is very set in its values such as social darwinism where people see the workforce as simply “survival of the fittest”, so in the United States people might be against creating this policy since they believe that success is based on individual merit. Although this is a common ideology in the United States there are undeniable benefits to the entire community if there are more college graduates. For example communities that have many citizens with higher education have lower crime rates, higher rates of civic involvement, and fewer people with a dependency on government welfare (7). Another argument against this solution is that by making community college free it would devalue a college education and force people to pursue even higher degrees, however, this is already occurring with the saturation of college graduates in the workforce. So by creating free community college it would catch the people that have fallen through the cracks that simply can’t afford college and prevent an enormous gap between those that have earned more money because of their degree and those with much lower paying jobs not because they were not smart, but because they were not financially equipped to handle the student debt.

Conclusion

Free community college has been proven on state and local level to have positive effects on the community and its students. In today’s society college is becoming increasingly necessary for students and with the extreme prices of universities people are being denied a higher education simply because of their financial situation. Higher education has been proven to not only help the individual, but the community as well, so if this policy is implemented then the entire country could reap the benefits. With all of the evidence compiled initiating free community college is a positive solution to college prices being so high.

1-https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-20/see-20-years-of-tuition-growth-at-national-universities

2-http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/16/pf/college/states-tuition-free-college/index.html

3-https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2015/01/08/president-proposes-make-community-college-free-responsible-students-2-years

4-https://www.cbsnews.com/news/workers-with-no-college-degree-fall-further-behind-than-ever/

5- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/opinion/free-community-college-chicago.html

6-https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/thec/bureau/research/promise/2017_TN_Promise_Report.pdf

7- https://www.elc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/BestInvestment_Full_Report_6.27.11.pdf

8- https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/college-costs/college-costs-faqs

Infographic 1-https://www.pinterest.com/pin/129830401730574230/

It was a beautiful summer night with just me and my best friends saying goodbye to the ocean. It was our last day after a week long trip to Ocean City Maryland without any parents. I stood there listening to the seagulls and the waves crashing down on the sand and thought about our amazing time. We went to the beach everyday, I got burned even though I put several gallons of sunscreen on, we out to eat every night, and ate an excessive amount of ice cream. Even just sitting inside the condo that we stayed in was an adventure. We sat around and talked, played Cards Against Humanity, and watched the game show channel a lot. The girls sang Grease songs at the top of our lungs while we would get ready and the guys would sit in the living room and complain about how long we were taking. An hour and forty five minutes is not a long time for three girls to get ready. When I was standing there with thinking about the time I had the past week it felt like freedom and I never wanted to leave.

I shouldn’t have been surprised about this though because I have always gotten a special feeling when I went to the beach. My family would try to go to the beach once a year and it was something I looked forward to more than anything. The beach was my obsession as a kid. I had a huge seashell collection, I read a lot of books about my favorite animal, the dolphin, and of course Ariel was (and still is) my favorite Disney princess. I remember leaving really early in the morning, so it was still dark out, and that was the most excited I could get. Our favorite place to go was Bethany Beach Delaware. It’s a quaint little area that has the cutest little shops. We would spend every day at the beach, swimming, playing in the sand, walking around people watching. It was like my home away from home where I could just hang out with my family and just have pure fun the entire time.

The one thing that never changed each and every time I went to the beach was the feeling that I got when I was there. I felt absolutely peaceful which is really saying something because I never relax. But as soon as I felt that sea breeze all my stress would just disappear. When I looked out at the sea that just went on forever I felt like I was free from everything. It was so huge and powerful it just made me feel small and remind me that whatever problems I was dealing with at the time seem totally insignificant. The beach was always my escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Regardless of how old I was I always knew the beach was somewhere that people could go to to and find whatever they needed. As a child I found fun and when it got to the point where I was on the precipice of leaving home I found freedom. I believe in going to the beach to find exactly what you need.

For my civic issues blog I plan on doing education. I have a lot of information that I have dug up as far as the SAT goes. And I would like to learn much more about our education system as a whole because it is so old and I am curious as to how it has adapted over the years. Another idea that I have is to look up more about Betsy Devos our current United States Secretary of Education because she has come into trouble with the news already.

For my passion blog I have decided to start a new blog reviewing different television shows. I am very excited to watch Netflix guilt free, so this will officially be my new favorite homework assignment.

For the “This I Believe” topics I am debating on my belief of taking a lot of pictures or my belief in taking vacations. I think taking pictures are a good habit because then you can look back on good times. Taking vacations is something that I believe to be important because we all need a little break from our routine to just sit back and relax with friends and family.

As for my passion blog I think that I may stick with what I did last semester which was writing about a school trip I took to Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. I wrote about the places we went to and the odd little mishaps that went on. Although another idea that I could pursue is to write reviews on television series. This idea could work for me because then I could add some productivity to my Netflix addiction.

The civic issue category that I would choose for my blog is either the environment or education. Last semester for the public controversy project my group chose to analyze the SAT, so that is a topic that I could talk about. But I do think that environmental issues are important and would like to study them more.

Preparation for my TED talk began with watching examples of TED talks. I have not really watched them until this year, so I wanted to familiarize myself with them. When watching these I noticed the conversational attitude they had and wanted to replicate it because it seemed to make the topic a lot more interesting. And I wanted my topic to be something that the audience could really connect with, so that is why I chose the topic of nostalgia because it is a feeling we all have that influences us.

I tried to make it a point to connect with the audience by using the pictures of childhood toys and shows that most of the audience would have been familiar with from when they were kids. I also used main topic points like the Penn State throwback game and Beauty and the Beast because they are things that the audience would be familiar with, so my speech would better resonate with them. Pathos was a large part of my TED talk because I was talking about an emotion that influences them in their day to day life and in proving this I used products and other things that they most likely felt nostalgia for. I think I executed audience engagement well because in the beginning a lot of them did react to the images I showed because it did evoke nostalgia. Things I could do better is add ethos to help strengthen the argument to show it is not all conjecture. Also I could have added a few more points to talk about and I could have elaborated more on the topic points that I did have.

While presenting my speech I did try to make eye contact with the audience. I did well particularly in the beginning, but I did falter towards the end when I realized there was still a lot of time left. I also did tend to look back at the screen to make sure the remote was working. In the future I could improve by looking at the camera behind the audience, so I do not look as obvious. I also forgot my speech altogether when I realized the time. I did regain composure, so there is not much I could have done other than become better at thinking on my feet. I would have prepared more topics if I knew I was going to almost run out of time, but when I was practicing my speech I was over five and a half minutes. When looking back at my speech I noticed I forgot some of the elaboration for each point. So for next time I am going to have to remember to elaborate for a longer amount of time. I think my tone worked well, I tried to maintain a more conversational style. I did this best particularly at the beginning with the introduction and then with the Beauty and the Beast topic when I likened the movies gross profit to out of state tuition.

The topic that I want to do for my TED talk is how products that are retro and vintage are trending in pop culture. I will say that it is gaining traction today because the millennial and genZ generation is nostalgic for the past even though it is a time they have never known. Fashion today is mostly plays on what was already popular. For the talk I will include personal experiences that the audience (my classmates) could relate to. For example I would point out how on campus the popular trend is distressed looking clothing, band shirts, and aviator glasses. I will also bring up popular products that they have seen such as vinyl and Polaroid cameras because they all can relate to seeing these products being revived. Another relatable topic that I can speak about is the movie IT. It is a very recent film and it was also highly anticipated. Many people have seen it and it was only a remake. I will point out how excited people were when they pretty much have already seen the movie before. As for ethos I will specify a researcher or institution that I had gotten my information from, so my audience knows that I am getting all of this information from conclusions based on a reputable source. The images I will use are ones that I know that the audience will relate to like old TV shows and popular toys that they probably played with as kids. I will show these right in the beginning and say that the feeling that they are getting while looking at these images is nostalgia. Then I will go on to how this generation is nostalgic for a past that they were never even a part of and I will explain why this generation is like this.

The speech I chose was written by a college student named Seth. The speech was for a Speech 110 class at Centralia College. The topic he chose to cover was about the benefits that napping provides. Seth used ethos, a lot of audience connection, and organization in order to get his message across to his audience.

Seth used ethos by incorporating different well known institutions and people into his speech. For example, he used research done by Harvard, a well known and respected university that people trust. Seth also stated that a popular industry like Google encouraged their employees to take naps. An institution like Google is a household name, everybody knows it, so people are more likely to trust that there is solid evidence supporting their practices. Seth gave examples of well known people such as Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein as people that took naps. People know and trust that these two individuals were intelligent, so the audience is likely to trust that taking naps was a good choice and maybe even helped make them the intelligent people that they were.

Seth also used a lot of audience connection in order to persuade his audience to take more naps. Right in the very beginning of his speech he tossed a bunch of money into the audience which immediately grabbed their attention and made them much more inclined to listen to what he had to say. Also Seth maintained solid eye contact with the audience the entire time. I rarely saw him look at his notecards. He used stories that he knew his audience could relate to as well. He gave a personal story about how as a college student taking naps helped him do well in a particularly difficult class. He knew his audience could connect because it was made up of other college students that were most likely taking a difficult class or have taken one.

The organization of Seth’s speech was done very well. He had three main topics that he introduced right in the beginning. Then he elaborated on them in a clear order. Seth transitioned well between his topic points and stayed very clear on what he was talking about. He stayed on point and did not go off on any tangents or say anything that did not belong in his speech .

Overall I think Seth did a very good job on his speech. He was successful at applying ethos to support his argument, as well as connecting with his audience to keep them engaged, and he had good organization to keep the speech clear. By using these elements Seth’s speech was successful in both content and delivery.

The paradigm shift that I chose is the popularization of vintage goods such as polaroid cameras, vinyl, and clothing. I think this is interesting because the causation seems to be related to nostalgia and the novelty of sentiment. It is common for people to look to the past because they see it as a simpler time. The goods aren’t necessarily better all the time and there are newer, more efficient ways to take pictures and play music. A consequence that I find interesting is that because vintage is trendy, large manufacturers are making their products look like they are vintage. I find this fascinating especially in regards to vintage clothing because originally the point of vintage clothing was either better quality or that nobody else would have it, but now if you walk into stores like American Eagle you will see a whole rack of old band shirts with holes in it to look distressed and old. It is neither better in quality or original now, but people still buy it purely because it looks vintage defeating the purpose of vintage clothing.

Questions that would guide my research are:

• What caused this shift?
• What are the consequences?
• Does buying vintage have a positive, negative, or no effect on consumers?
• Is this shift likely to evolve or fade away altogether?

Overall I do not think my speech was too bad as far as content goes. Looking back I should have added more facts about how the bee population is dwindling and why, in order to give it more context. I think what I did write about though was strong in how it connected civicness, and how it relates to my poster using the rhetorical devices. There are quite a few things I wish I could have changed about my delivery. I get a a lot of anxiety when it comes to public speaking like a lot of people, so that caused me to talk really fast and I said the word “also” very often. “Also” is my version of “um”, and now I know to watch that more for next time. I should have practiced more in a classroom setting. I went the night before in a room to practice and it definitely helped a little, but I think if I did it more then I would have been more comfortable. I also practiced in front of a mirror, but I do not think that helped me much other than watching my hand motions. For next time I think I should record myself, so that I can count how many times I say “also”. I do think the speed at which I talked, and the amount of times I said “also” made my speech more difficult to understand and in effect hindered my message. I also should have added more content to compensate for my fast pace because I had just barely hit three minutes. I do not think the structure of my speech was bad. I used a common place and an ideology as my main topic points and then used examples on how they correlated to being civic. I think having that structure helped get my message across and kept it from being a rhetorical inventory.

• Two ideologies that are prevalent in this Save the Bees Poster are save yourself and save the world. Self interest is something that everyone has, we all want to do what’s best for ourselves. Saving the world is another popular ideology, and according to my artifact the environment could use some saving.
  • The poster is using these ideologies in order to get people to donate three
    pounds and in return they will receive bee friendly seeds that they can plant, thus demonstrating civic engagement.

   

  • These posters are shown in Britain’s subways and online.
    • The audience is broad because it is not specifying a particular group, rather they are creating an audience, which is whoever stumbles across the poster.

• It is common knowledge that people are more likely to do something when they know it will benefit them.

• • Example from poster “almost as much as we need them”
    • The audience will want to know why it would affect them and then when they are convinced they will be more likely to donate.
  • Example from poster  “we are in big trouble”
    • Uses pathos to convince the audience that we are in a dangerous place. If they are in danger it is in the audience’s best interest to donate
  • Example “grow a garden that will help the bees- and the rest of us- thrive”
    • Another example of how the poster uses pathos to appeal to the audience wanting themselves to thrive.
  • Example is “we need them to pollinate our fruits and vegetables”
    • Appeals to logos because logically we the audience can draw the conclusion that we need bees for survival.
  • The organization, Friends of the Earth, stating that they will give the donor seeds when they send the money makes the audience realize that there is something in it for them other than just saving the bees.

• A popular ideology today is that the environment must be saved. This plays into the first ideology because we need the environment in order for us to stay alive.
  • Uses facts to appeal to the audience’s logos.
    • We need bees not just for ourselves, but for our entire environment
  • “Britain’s bees are in trouble. Their habitat is vanishing.”
    • Demonstrates kairos by creating a sense of urgency to the audience. The audience must act soon before the kairos ends.
  • Also another way to interpret the organization giving away bee friendly seeds to the donors gives them another way to contribute back to the environment, demonstrating more civic engagement.

• Self interest and environmental protection are the driving factors in what makes this poster successful. My artifact used these two ideologies to convey to its audience that they should donate and save the bees. After looking at this poster the audience is convinced that it is in their best interest to go out and save the environment by saving the bees.