This week, long-shot presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders introduced legislation to make 4-year public colleges and universities tuition free:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/make-college-tuition-free
According to his website, "$70 billion a year in assistance – two-thirds from the federal government and one-third from states – would replace what public colleges and universities now charge in tuition and fees. The federal share of the cost would be offset by imposing a tax on Wall Street transactions by investment houses, hedge funds and other speculators."
Beyond the populist rhetoric about letting hedge fund fat cats pay for all of this (could you really raise $46 billion in taxes without killing the revenue source in a year or two?), this strikes me as wildly impractical.
First, college costs are already out of control in part because of the availability of easy loans. What would control the costs at these schools if the government was covering 100% of the cost?
Second, how would those schools eligible for subsidies scale to meet their increased demand? And what would that do to the cost of the program?
Third, what would the impact be on schools whose students weren't subsidized? Lots of private colleges are struggling now, imagine if their competition was now free?
Fourth, the states would have to cough up a third of the cost - that sounds like a tough sell when many states are dealing with tight budgets and trying to constrain higher ed spending.
The senator's website tries to answer some of these points here:
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/collegeforallsummary/?inline=file
I'm not convinced his math is remotely close... Thoughts?
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