In the United States, the college tuition rates have gone through the roof. The average American college graduate earns a college degree along with at least $26,000 of debt. (That’s a low figure.) To hear that Germany’s Lower Saxony voted to make tuition free for all students, including international ones, seems like a dream come true.
Or is it?
The Minister for Science and Culture, Gabrielle Heinen–Kjajic, stated that they “got rid of tuition fees because we do not want high education which depends on the wealth of the parents.” Throughout the German nation it appears that the government agrees with her. Hamburg’s Senator for Science, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, says that, “It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge.” Whenever the government gets involved to give something away for free, it backfires.
It becomes a dangerously slippery slope when the government feels they need to fund higher education. Much in the way of the economy, when you flood the market with too much of a good or service, (or college educated graduates) it’s rendered worthless.
If every student in Germany can attend college for nothing, how does it distinguish you above the crowd? The truth is, it doesn’t. Much in the way There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TINSTAAFL) the same holds true for university education. At some point, in some way, people are going to pay.
When the government gets involved in paying for higher education, what it really means is that the people who are ruled by said government will pay. Increasing taxes will continue to the point that it will choke hold the national economy. The cost to maintain universities goes up every year. This will result in a rise in taxes, a dip in quality and a flood of useless degrees. People will still find themselves in menial jobs because EVERYONE will have the same level of education. At some point, there needs to be an academic distinction in the job market. Germany has removed it in an effort to make everyone the same; college educated and underemployed.
Free college educations only result in compulsory college taxes. Where’s the freedom in that?
