Dear Mr. Snyder,

I read, with great interest, your op-ed titled “Why free tuition is a necessity” and am simply dumbfounded you chose to use the word “free.”

Your solutions to give “free” tuition to students are not even close to free and to use that word is misleading and disingenuous.

Why should students not pay in order to become more highly educated? The cost of higher education is typically recouped with higher-paying jobs but let’s face it, not everyone who receives a four-year degree gets a job within their field of study or, for that matter, a job at all.

This is the way of the world. Would you extend the scope of “free” tuition to include a guarantee of a job upon graduation? If so, how would you pay for it? Further reductions in military spending? Re-shifting of funds from the prison system leading to early paroles and more crime? That is, quite simply, the law of unintended consequences.

I would have rather you proposed a thorough review of the entire budget with a winnowing out of wasteful programs that President Obama promised but failed to do.

There is no free lunch, Stephen. I feel sorry for those who are saddled with excessive debt after college, but make no mistake, those individuals knew what they were getting into by attending college. Their student loans spelled out exactly what the terms and requirements were for both parties and to cry about it after the fact is immature.

If I bought a house that was too big for my budget because I thought I’d be making more money down the road and it doesn’t happen, I would have no one to blame but myself when the bank forecloses on my property.

In closing, you are correct in stating there is nothing formative or glamorous about living in debt. It is clear to me, however, that the majority of those in that situation arrived there primarily from their own poor decisions such as attending college without sufficient funds while at the same time drinking three to four nights a week while surfing the web on their iPhones and eating out way too much.

Regards,

Gary Youngberg