The case for free college is simple enough: higher education should be for the many, not the few.
Sanders called it "a national disgrace" that many Americans don't attend college "Not because they are unqualified, but because they cannot afford it." Counterintuitive though it might seem, a desire to broaden access and increase the number of young Brits in college was exactly why the U.K. opted for the opposite course from the one Sanders is proposing.
In the U.K., the best way to do that was by charging, not by making college free.
There have never been more young Brits who qualify for free school meals going to college.
If the individual accrues the lion's share of the benefits of a college degree, why shouldn't he or she bear the cost? Asking taxpayers to fund universal free tuition means asking, for example, a farm worker who earns the minimum wage to pay for the education of a student from a wealthy household en route to a high-flying career in law or finance.
You don't need to be an avowed free marketeer to see the problem here; none other than Karl Marx raised a similar objection when he said "If higher education institutions are also free that only means in fact defraying the cost of education of the bourgeoisie from the general tax receipts."
The problem for the likes of Sanders and Warren is that they cannot escape the affordability dilemma that makes it very hard for free college to live up to its promise.
https://reason.com/2019/08/22/democrats-love-to-promise-free-college-but-why-did-u-k-recently-started-charging-tuition/
Sanders called it "a national disgrace" that many Americans don't attend college "Not because they are unqualified, but because they cannot afford it." Counterintuitive though it might seem, a desire to broaden access and increase the number of young Brits in college was exactly why the U.K. opted for the opposite course from the one Sanders is proposing.
In the U.K., the best way to do that was by charging, not by making college free.
There have never been more young Brits who qualify for free school meals going to college.
If the individual accrues the lion's share of the benefits of a college degree, why shouldn't he or she bear the cost? Asking taxpayers to fund universal free tuition means asking, for example, a farm worker who earns the minimum wage to pay for the education of a student from a wealthy household en route to a high-flying career in law or finance.
You don't need to be an avowed free marketeer to see the problem here; none other than Karl Marx raised a similar objection when he said "If higher education institutions are also free that only means in fact defraying the cost of education of the bourgeoisie from the general tax receipts."
The problem for the likes of Sanders and Warren is that they cannot escape the affordability dilemma that makes it very hard for free college to live up to its promise.
https://reason.com/2019/08/22/democrats-love-to-promise-free-college-but-why-did-u-k-recently-started-charging-tuition/
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