Stop calling it "Free College"

[catnhatnh]

There is no such thing and the only people who push the term are republicans and people trying to smear Bernie. They talk about opposing "free college", but what they mean is they oppose free tuition for you. See, the colleges give free tuition to some elites-for instance high SAT scorers and top academic students and there is an easy argument that they most deserve a free education. But another group-elite athletes also get a free ride. Now you can argue that in fact it is they being used but ain't nobody will claim an all-american running back was spotted dropping off tuition checks...The rich and political elite-their offspring may actually be paid for but they are often slipped into legacy slots ahead of better students of lesser means...

So far this can all be dismissed as socialist whining, right? The college decides who gets scholarships and accepts cash from others to balance the books and life goes on, one more day in our great democracy...

Until you consider this-it ain't just tuition that balances the books-each and every year those schools get a minimum of 150 billion in socialistic, non-free market dollars poured in from federal and state governments. What has really been built is a large public school system that routinely charges only average middle class students tuition!!

And that is where the spin comes in. There is not a campus in this country that is a thing more than K-12 writ large. In a country that admits that an associates degree is an absolute bare minimum requirement to demonstrate entry level competence to jobs, anything LESS than a "Free" college education becomes one more subsidy to employers. Or failing that stop the 150 billion to colleges and distribute it to those previously priced out of the market and doomed to lower value lives by oligarchs more than willing to leave some behind. And the elite can go to the "colleges" that will exist without that funding.

There's my argument-public colleges and universities are just one more part of public education, both payed for and owed to all. Will it cost more when all are given the same benefits we bestow on the elites-yes. But either we are a democracy or not. Bernie isn't offering free college-he is endorsing full public education.

[Live and Learn]

1. I don't see a problem with free education at all.

An educated populace is imperative to our survival.

"The cornerstone of democracy rests on the foundation of an educated electorate." - Thomas Jefferson

"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson

[rurallib]

2. we could call it an investment in our most important asset.

[msongs]

3. bernie could quit voting for military approrpriatons and pay for colleges instead :-) nt

[JackRiddler]

8. Oh yeah, agreed.

But you know well that this ain't going to be addressed by any of them. It's a matter of trusting that he's probably going to be less of a butcher than the Bushes (and the Clintons) have been in practice. Or less inclined to. It's not like presidents are usually in charge of that. How to put this? This year you may be able to go after Wall Street! But not if you also (openly) go after the MIC and the perpetual imperialist war. (I hate talking like this, it's what I hate in all your "realistic/pragmatic" bullshit artists. And in my life the only thing I've felt more outrage about than economic injustice is war. But what can be done? Certainly not in the sphere of conventional politics, yet, and that's where we still are: talking about elections.)

[MeNMyVolt]

4. SBS, "It’s Time to Make College Tuition Free and Debt Free"

That's called free college.

[catnhatnh]

6. No

It's public education.

[MeNMyVolt]

7. OK n/t

[Travis_0004]

9. For free

[Skwmom]

5. It's also NOT free b/c in getting a better paying job you pay the money back VIA taxes. n/t

[restorefreedom]

12. +100 nt

[doc03]

10. Someone has to pay nothing is f-----g free n/t

[lostnfound]

11. You are absolutely right. "Free tuition".

In a country that has been indoctrinated with anti-tax, anti-social Friedman economics for forty years, the term "free college" sounds unrealistic and financially irresponsible.

[Vinca]

13. People who view knowledge over dollars understand.

The GOP is also in a difficult spot because they have to keep their base dumb as stumps to win anything.