“Every child will have the opportunity that education provides,” said Gov. Andrew Cuomo upon finalizing New York state’s 2018 budget two weeks ago. It is the Excelsior Scholarship therein that everyone is talking about, which vows to provide tuition-free public education for students in New York state whose families make up to $125,000. Contrary to appearances, the scholarship is an unproductive step down a path that should not even be taken. The argument against the Excelsior Scholarship is divided into two parts: firstly, free higher education is counterproductive to achieving a more prosperous and educated society. Secondly, even if you believe that free education would improve society, the Excelsior Scholarship will still fall miserably short in reaching its objective.

As the hackneyed expression goes, nothing in life is free. The funding in this case will simply be extracted from taxpayer dollars, which there will not be enough of to pay for the 940,000 people eligible for the scholarship. Cuomo’s plan is estimated to cost $87 million in the first year and $163 million by the third. There is no reason why someone like my grandmother should be forced to help pay for thousands of other people’s education, when she has already labored through years of financially assisting both her children and grandchildren through college. Paying for an education is incumbent on the individual who wants to be educated, not the rest of society.

People like Bernie Sanders and Cuomo often defend the need for free education by citing the national student debt. It is important to note that this bill does nothing to address the 44 million Americans who already owe a collective $1.3 trillion. But even obviating future debt is irrational due to the negative impact it would have on students entering the workforce. According to Pew Research Center, the dropout rate for those who attend a four-year public institution is 36.5 percent; for two-year public institutions, it is 39.9 percent. These numbers would only go up if disinterested college students realized they would face no financial penalty if they were to drop out.

Research by the University of California at Davis showed that perhaps as a result of free community college in the state, schools saw higher enrollment levels, but not higher levels of retention — students who return to college year after year — or graduation. Borrowing money is an important part of the process because it incentivizes students to graduate and actually use their education by getting employed, rather than sitting at home financially free.

The second part of the argument against the Excelsior Scholarship is that even for those who support free education, this is not the best way to go about doing it. Namely, the scholarship only applies to those who finish their degrees on time. This disqualifies more than 90 percent of students at state community colleges, and 60 percent at four-year colleges from being eligible because people must often interrupt their studies in order to work. Moreover, most low-income students often already have their tuition (which ranges between $4,350 and $6,470 annually) covered by federal Pell Grants or state aid. It is the living expenses, books and fees where students need the most financial assistance. All of these extra costs are not covered by the Excelsior Scholarship, so taking out massive loans will still be necessary.

Most shocking of all caveats is that which requires residency in New York state after graduation. For every year that students study in New York state under the Excelsior Scholarship, they must live here for the same amount of years after getting their degree. Such logic is backed by the notion that students ought to stick around and repay the state in the form of labor and high taxes. Those who do not abide, like by getting employed in the other 49 states or overseas, will quickly discover their acquitted tuition costs have transformed back into loans.

Few doubt that education is an area in our society worth strengthening. But in a country founded on freedom, no individual should be forced to pay for the education of another. Fostered in every young American should be a desire to pursue education not through entitlement, but genuine interest and job opportunity. It is this realization that will lead the United States toward a more prosperous and educated future — not the creation of more inane government programs like the Excelsior Scholarship.

Brian Deinstadt is a junior double-majoring in political science and English.