Bernie Sanders’s ‘College for All’ Plan Is Fair, Smart and Achievable
Bernie Sanders’s ‘College for All’ Plan Is Fair, Smart and Achievable
By Heather Gautney andAdolph Reed Jr. - TODAY 11:34 AM
It is hardly news that higher education has become increasingly difficult to access for more than three decades in this country. The proximate causes also are well known: escalating costs, stagnant incomes, and a shift away from federal grants to marketized student loans. This problem has long since reached crisis proportions for many people. Some are deterred from even considering a college education. Those who do graduate are often saddled with crippling debt. Moreover, concerns about cost and debt often distort selection of programs of study, undermine completion, and encourage elaborate strategizing—including attending multiple institutions—to minimize costs.
The neoliberal fantasy that it is possible to “do more with less” has both driven and obscured the deeper source of this problem, i.e., the steady retreat from the principle that providing for the general welfare, including a baseline of services that enable all members of the society to realize their human capacities, is a fundamental role of government and should be among its highest priorities. That principle has given way before a steady bipartisan assault on public goods of all sorts. Public higher education has become particularly vulnerable to this juggernaut in the aftermath of the Great Recession as state governments have invoked fiscal stress to justify often draconian cuts in funding for public colleges and universities.
The 2016 presidential campaign presents an important occasion to focus attention on the crisis in access to higher education. Bernie Sanders’s social agenda, and his College for All Act in particular, make a powerful statement about the centrality of higher education as a public good—or as he puts it, “a right, not a privilege.”
Sanders’s plan would eliminate undergraduate tuition at 4-year public colleges and universities. It would also take serious steps to relieve and reverse the burden of student loan debt by enabling borrowers to refinance their loans and by cutting interest rates for undergraduate students almost in half...
Read more:
http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanderss-college-for-all-plan-is-fair-smart-and-achievable/
About the authors:
HEATHER GAUTNEY Heather Gautney is an associate professor of sociology at Fordham University. She is a volunteer on Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign and a co-organizer of Higher Ed for Bernie.
ADOLPH REED JR. Adolph Reed, Jr. is a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a volunteer on Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and a co-organizer of Higher Ed for Bernie.