Free College Education. Cure or Curse?

I've written on this topic many times but I still feel the need to write about it even more because even people who are very intelligent support the idea of free tertiary education. I, on the other hand, do not. What bothered me the most about people who disagree with me is they always start with the line, "What's differentiates us is that I believe that education is a right..." This made me think, "Well, so do I!" I just don't think it should be free.

Let's start with the idea that our rights should be free. This is totally untrue. Take, for example the right to life. This is not in question but no one would ever think that people's living expenses should be shouldered by the government. Let's move on to the right to own property. No one (at least no one sane) is suggesting that people should be given free land or property. I would agree that no one should bar anyone from the access of quality education - that is to say, Universities and Colleges cannot disqualify on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex or even political ideology.

A number of my friends have put forth the thought that their own lives have drastically improved after they got their degree and they wish that everyone has this advantage. While I'm happy for them, this will not apply across the board, unfortunately for a number of reasons:

1. More college graduates will not mean more quality college graduates. Any HR officer can tell you that differentiating the good from the bad college grads is not an easy task. That was true before and that still is true now. It's even harder now as there would undoubtedly be more college grads to sort through. I've said this before and I'll say it again. We need quality, not quantity.
2. Speaking of quantity grads, salaries will go down. The law of supply and demand dictate that a higher number of professionals will mean more will be willing to take work at a lower rate. Lower rate of work means it might be harder to get a good paying job here and we end up with the problem that Nurses had many years ago - all the good ones, simply leave the country. The ones that do stay, don’t get paid well.
3. Got a problem with the government? Better shut up! I'm not saying in any way that people shouldn't voice their opinions against the government. What I'm saying is that, if you have free tertiary education, the politicians will have a big say in which university gets more or less money. And if a particular University doesn't stay in line (Hi, UP), they can easily see their own budget slashed by the very politicians who passed this free tertiary education law.
4. People don't appreciate free things. While I was in UP, I did notice a lot of people dropping out of school. Some of them dropped out for financial reasons while more dropped out because they simply didn't attend class because our tuition back then was inexpensive - 900 pesos for a 3 unit class is pretty cheap! What more when education is free? I expect UP to see a surge in the number of failures they'll give out. The idea being, "I can always take it next semester."
5. People might take the wrong courses. Have you met people who have never used their degree in any way, shape or form? There's a bunch of them! With those who paid for their own tuition, you can't say it's a waste but it's a waste they shouldered. For those who's tuition was paid for by someone else, that's a totally different story. Now, I've worked for a company that sent people to school with the purpose of hiring them right after. In other words, they saw their own need and addressed it directly. That way, people wouldn't get degrees they didn't need.
6. What's the use of K-12? Ninoy Aquino pushed for K-12 with the very purpose of allowing the masses to be more equipped for the workforce when they turn 18. Now that college would be subsidized, we're actually pushing back the working age to 21 or 22 for most of our labor force.
7. Why tertiary education? A college education is good. But it's not the only good. TESDA offers vocational courses so people can start their own freelance businesses. An associate's degree is also not a bad idea. Working straight off from high school is also not a bad idea. Why fund only tertiary education and not the entrepreneurial dreams of a young man? Consider also what happens when someone decides not to go to college so he can provide for his family. He'll be entering the workforce earlier and will start contributing taxes to fund someone else's college degree. Think about that.
8. It removes the edge of having a college education. Since almost everyone can get one, it removes the edge that people have them. In other words, college education will be the new, "high school graduate" requirement we see in job qualifications. Soon, all companies will be requiring a college degree and that pretty much sums up point number 6.
9. It will be costly. Wait, what? How can free education be costly? Remember that nothing is free. With the government practically assuring spending for state colleges and universities, you'll no doubt end up with school administrators using money in more wasteful ways. I mean, they didn't earn it and the money will come in anyway so why should we budget wisely. And guess who ends up paying for all that. Does the line on your payslip which says, "Withholding tax" mean anything?
10. Loans! What's the next source of funds to taxes that the government can get? International loans! And it's easy! It's an investment for our future. In my opinion, it's a very poor investment if we allow everyone who got a free education to leave the country.

This is why I think this free college education which is already being implemented is like a ticking time bomb. And you have other senatorial candidates proposing that school allowances be also subsidized.

I say we see the effects that K-12 has on our workforce and improve on that. I do, however agree that public schools should still make primary education free if they're able.

And that's my take on free education.