Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a long-shot candidate in the 2016 presidential race, unveiled legislation Tuesday that would require the nation’s federal and state governments to foot the bill for citizens’ college educations.
Sanders said the current cost of college in the U.S. is a “national disgrace.”
“We live in a highly competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best-educated work force in the world. That will not happen if, every year, hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and if millions more leave school deeply in debt,” the lawmaker said in a statement.
Sanders’ proposal, modeled after how higher education is handled in many European countries, would allow U.S. students to obtain a four-year degree for free. But the program would cost taxpayers an estimated $750 billion over the next decade.
Still, Sanders argues that the price tag is an investment in the nation’s future competitiveness in global markets.
“We used to lead the world in the percentage of our people who graduated college. Today we are in 12th place,” he said. “We used to have great universities tuition-free. Today, they are unaffordable. I want a more educated workforce. I want everybody to be able to get a higher education, regardless of their income.”
Sanders’ proposal is dead on arrival in the GOP-controlled Congress but could still have significant political impact, given his presidential candidate status.
President Barack Obama has long advocated for making community college free in the United States. And Democratic presidential favorite Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager recently created some buzz among liberals by dropping the phrase “debt-free college.”
Sanders, a self-avowed socialist, appears to be positioning himself to siphon voters from two of the Democratic Party’s most coveted demographics: young voters and anti-corporation liberals. He’s already doing a pretty good job of engaging young voters via his social media presence, and free college promises can only further endear him to the group.
“This is not a radical idea,” Sanders said of his free college proposal. “Only in a Congress dominated by Wall Street and big money is this considered to be a radical idea.”
The post Sanders introduces legislation to make college free appeared first on Personal Liberty.
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