Procon debate: Should public universities offer free tuition?
ProCon Issue in the News: Undergraduate students living in Texas with family incomes of $100,000 or less receive free college tuition and fees at schools within the University of Texas System. The program is an effort to “reduce debt and make college education more affordable for Texans from low- and middle-income families.”
“Ensuring that students are in a position to attend college without incurring further debt is extremely important to all of us,” said Board Chairman Kevin Eltif. “As long as we are here, we will continue our work to provide an affordable and accessible education to everyone who chooses to attend a UT institution.”
While many Texas families with teenage children may be breathing a sigh of relief, not everyone is happy with the plan. Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison called the plan an “abuse of power” that would make college education in Texas “more socialist than California.” The lawmaker proposed cutting state funding to the university system as a result.
Several private universities have also recently announced free college tuition for some students, including Brandeis University, Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and St. John’s University. MIT will cover tuition for undergraduate students whose families have an annual income of less than $200,000, and will also cover all other costs if their families have an income of less than $100,000. Three other schools offer tuition-free education to students from families with incomes less than $75,000.
The median real household income in 2023 was $80,610, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
