Joe Biden will remove tuition fees for low and middle income families

The argument

Following the work of President Barack Obama, Joe Biden plans on making all forms of education more accessible and equitable for students. Joe Biden also pledges to increase pay and training for teachers as well. These plans include increasing federal funding to schools, extending loan forgiveness and grant requirements, and increasing the income that students need to meet in order to qualify for financial aid. For example, a student can now be eligible for full financial aid from public institutions if their household income is below $125,000. Joe Biden also plans on replacing current Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. DeVos's education policies have cut federal funding to public schools and favor local oversight, vouchers, and charter schools. Biden's plan for education reform is unique because it focuses on how improving the working conditions and pay for teachers will then improve the education system. If teachers are paid more and treated better, they will teach better and have the ability to access better materials to teach with. Improving education will also improve the job market. More jobs are requiring college degrees, but college degrees are harder to come by because of the cost. Joe Biden is the best candidate to be the next President of the United States because he will help solve those issues by making education more accessible for all.

Premises

Counter-arguments

College should not be free or so heavily subsidized by the federal government. These plans undermine the profit of private enterprise and would severely defund many institutions that rely on student tuition to continue functioning. No college can be free, and the money for student debt forgiveness has to come from somewhere. With the federal government in trillions of dollars of debt and the COVID-19 crisis, these goals are not attainable. Joe Biden's education plan would make students less accountable, force the government to pay billions of dollars unnecessarily, and divert funds from other much-needed resources, such as health and military expenses, into education funding. Joe Biden's planned education policies do not make him the best candidate for the next US Presidential election.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Affordability removes one barrier among several. Completion, not enrolment, determines who ends up holding a degree, and completion turns on preparation, living costs, caring responsibilities and paid work during study — none of which tuition policy reaches. The premise also assumes the jobs follow the degrees; where graduate supply outruns graduate-level vacancies the effect is credential inflation rather than expanded access to those jobs. [Rejecting P2] The description overstates what was proposed and understates what it required. The tuition pledge was confined to public institutions for households below a stated income threshold, and it was a campaign proposal contingent on Congress rather than an executive action — much of it was not enacted. The premise also passes over the cost, which has to be raised somewhere; critics argue that a general subsidy transfers from non-graduates to graduates and leaves institutions under no pressure to restrain their own prices.