Question for this journal entry - Why do other countries offer free college tuition?
Source Citation - Quamruzzaman, Amm, Jose M. Rodriguez, Jody Heymann, Jay S. Kayfman, and Arijit Nandi. Are Tuition-free Primary Education Policies Associated with Lower Infant and Neonatal Mortality in Low- and Middle-income Countries? Www.ac.els-cd.com. 9 Sept. 2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2016. <Are tuition-free primary education policies associated with lower infant and neonatal mortality in low- and middle-income countries?>.
This source investigates a very interesting questions that was I discovered in previous research? Why do countries offer free tuition in the first place? Many would say that countries offer free tuition in hopes of gaining a more-educated population that is not swimming in debt. However, there are numerous other benefits to offering free tuition. One of them is something that you may not have guessed. This article investigates the claim that offering free college tuition will lower infant mortality in poorer countries. This article explains a study that examined that very claim. The assumption they made was that there was a direct link between maternal education and the improved health of children. The study found that in fact maternal education does improve child survival rates and overall health in general. This was found to be true even when confounding variables such as paternal characteristics were factored in. Their overall results showed that countries with free tuition were shown to have 15 fewer infant deaths per 1000 births.
This source provides compelling new evidence and approaches to my overall question. Although, infant mortality is not a major issue in the U.S., it is a significant issue in other countries. After reading this, I can see why poorer countries would want to implement tuition-free college. However, this source leads me to pose new questions about my topic. Why would countries who do not have issues with infant mortality and child health want to implement tuition-free college? Since the U.S. does not have significant problems with infant mortality, is it still going to improve the current rates of infant morality if we implement tuition-free college? Also, I wondered about the question of "Why Bernie Sanders use this information in their arguments?" Is it because the promise of no debt is more appealing that a decrease in infant mortality rates? This source is valuable in that it provides new perspectives to an issue that has until now been focused solely on debt.
This source responds to first source in that it provides a counter argument to the importance of offering free tuition. The first source, Bernie Sanders' campaign website claims that free tuition is important as it keeps young adults out of debt. This source would disagree with that statement by stating that free tuition is important for lowering infant mortality rates and improving child health. I agree with this source in that free tuition is important because it can lower infant mortality rates. Overall, lowering such rates is more important that lowering debt.
This source has led me to numerous new questions. First, "What is the infant mortality rate in the U.S.?" I want to investigate this question in order to gauge if it is truly an issue that is capable of being fixed by free tuition. I also need to ask what the other benefits of tuition-free college are that may not be obvious as first. This source does a good job of answering the question I posed for this journal entry in that it provides solid evidence as to why other countries provide free college to their citizens. This changed my assumption of free tuition only benefitting the students that are buried in debt. I had never thought of the other effects that it could have such as lowering infant mortality.
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