1 Rhetoric Assignment 1

Barrett Hall

COMS 3314

Prof. Testerman

July 11, 2021

Rhetoric Assignment 1

The idea of free tuition has been a topic of interest for some time now, the

Democratic party is a major supporter of this idea and is fully on board to move this

into action. This would be beneficial for the future of America to allow for many

lower income families to better themselves and the country to push their future

generations into higher education at no cost to the parents or children. This would

increase the education level of generations to come and allow for the work force to

better equip to work in higher-level jobs and have a overall better opportunity to

better the community. I think the idea of allowing the future of this country to get a

higher education without hindering the person with years of crippling debt is

something that Me and the democratic party can fully back. President Biden and the

Democratic Party are currently pushing this idea, to allow students to gain access to

a higher education at no financial cost to the student or their family. Some

background on this topic taken from a CNN article shows that the Democratic Party

“…wants to invest an additional $100 billion in Pell grants over the next 10 years,

making them available to more students and increasing the size of the award.

Currently, the lowest-income students are eligible to receive about $6,200 a year

from the federal Pell program.” (CNN Politics). By investing more money into this

low income federal grant to allow for students from below the poverty line, it will
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allow these students to gain access to higher education which they otherwise would

not be able to afford before. This is a relevant issue, which will allow these students

to better themselves and their community by gaining access to a university degree.

By gaining a degree from a University students will be able to turn around and help

the community in which they came from, this would be a win, win for the students

as well as the United States government by putting more educated individuals into

the work force to help their communities out. Some issues that may arise from

putting 100 million dollars into these grants would be a increase in taxes. The US

taxpayers would have an increase in taxes to help cover this massive grant to help

low income students.

The first pillar of persuasion is Ethos, this appeals to the ethics of the

situation. Now some would not agree with the idea, but this idea of free or debt-free

tuition should appeal to the ethics of the United States taxpayers. They would be

helping the youth of their country and allow the future of their countries students to

be able to better themselves by gaining a higher education. The taxpayers would not

only grant these students to be able to get a better education from a university, but

they would be able to change these students’ lives by getting this college degree. The

students after they get their degree would be able to get a better paying job and help

pull their families out from the poverty line buy helping them with their new job

they have gained from this job. The ethical aspect of this topic should appeal to most

taxpayers knowing that they would be helping people who, by themselves, could not

otherwise afford to go to college. The tax raise should give these taxpayers a feeling

of gratefulness that these students could better themselves do to the selflessness of

the American taxpayers. Although many not like the tax increase it will be going to

bigger cause and allows more of the youth to gain a higher education. With 144.3

million taxpayers in the United States, each taxpayer would pay around 1500$ more

in taxes a year. But that money would be put to good use and they would know what

that money went to, verse most of the rest of their taxes is kind of a grey matter on

the remainder of where their tax money goes. That 1500$ a person would help put a

lot of kids who would not get this opportunity without the help of these selfless

taxpayers.

The next pillar of persuasion is Pathos, this will appeal to the emotions of the

taxpayers. The emotional impact on these students’ lives will be tremendous; they

will be overcome with gratitude from the monetary taxes the taxpayers will pay. The

students will also be able to pass this gratitude to their families by allowing them to

get out of poverty by the job they will be able to get by getting a college education.

The emotional impact on the taxpayers will be a great factor to look at as well, as a

taxpayer my self I would feel a lot better about my self, knowing that I am helping

someone in need. I know college is not easy but knowing that the tax money I will be

paying to help other students get a higher education will impact us as tax payers to

help feel better knowing this money will help students in need. By allowing the

taxpayers to feel as if their money is going to a better cause, and knowing what it’s

going towards, they would feel as if the idea of an increase in tax money would work

in favor of helping the community and the country.

The final pillar of persuasion is Logos, the logical aspect of the decision to

support the idea of debt free tuition. Now as I said earlier in this persuasion, the
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monetary aspect of this topic will be pretty straightforward. The Democratic party

wants to implement a 100 million dollar grant over 10 years to raise the initial grant

of 6,200$ per student. This logically all makes sense on paper, the taxpayers will

pay around 1500$ more in taxes a year to help these less fortunate students pursue

their dreams of higher education. The fact of the matter is that this money will go

straight to this fund to help these students go to college without having to worry

about paying tuition, they will be able to go forward in their live to get a better job

and higher wages to put themselves in a better financial situation.

In conclusion the idea that the democratic party and President Biden have

presented by allowing students in low incomes to gain access to higher education

without the burden of crippling debt over their head or their families head. The

students would have a higher paying job so that they can support their family and

pull them out of poverty. By persuading the taxpayers to put this idea into action to

put money aside to help these students, the country will be better off with more

educated people in the work force, as well as allowing for their families to get out of

poverty by using the money from their new jobs to help them.
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Works Cited

Lobosco, K. (2019, April 23). Democrats face a new 'barrier to entry': a plan for college
debt | CNN Politics. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/22/politics/free-
college-2020-candidates/index.html.