2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders' idea for free tuition at public colleges deserves an A [View all]ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)for not thinking it through and making unanticipated consequences inevitable.
Trillions of tax dollars would be wasted on those whose families already can afford tuition anywhere, " fixing" what's not broken.
Families of those kids as well as families that could afford to pay part of the freight at private colleges would swarm Berkeley, Michigan, UVa, and other public university jewels, endangering the fiscal health of private colleges.
Most poor students would have an even harder time competing for public colleges than they do now. And even if they were admitted, they likely would not live within commuting distance, and could not afford room and board.
In comparison, HRC advocates an affordable $100 billion a year program called "America's College Promise" (Google it) that is targeted on those who cannot now afford college and avoids all the traps SBS's plan falls into.
In addition, HRC's plan, unlike SBS's sucker-bait for well-off white millenials, already has shown itself to be politically feasible. A version implemented by a Republican governor in very red TN has proved very popular with employers as well as with voters. Unlike SBS's plan, ACP is guaranteed to increase the supply of post-secondary degreed workers, as well as to decrease poverty.