Since college educated folks tend to vote Dem. the free college idea is one maybe we should

[Quixote1818]

be looking at more closely? I like the idea to begin with and if it helps enlighten folks and to vote Dem then it's a no-brainer for us. I think when you get folks from the country into a bigger city, give them a bit more education, put them around very diverse people, they may become a bit more enlightened and their values change.

[Hoyt]

1. Good point. Definitely think education helps in this respect and of course others.

[rustysgurl]

2. I agree

To paraphrase the late, great George Carlin, those in power don't want an electorate possessed of critical thinking. They want people just smart enough to do the mundane jobs required to line the pockets of the rich, but dumb enough not realize what is being done to them.

Educating the masses would certainly fly in the face of that, hence the Republicans' being against anything that smacks of free education.

[Budi]

6. Emotional reactive memes, rapid-shoved onto social media with no qualifiers as to what it meant.

That playbook has been relentlessly deployed as a social media targeting tool for 4 years...

They are overused and damaging.

[JI7]

7. Yup, people angry that THEY worked to put their kids or even themselves through college

It's a serious issue and I don't know why people refuse to see this.

It's just like the LAtinx thing. Some on the left insist people are this way or that way. When many of them are conservative and don't see themselves as being as part of certain groups.

The people upset about the free college aren't wealthy types , it's working class types. THe wealthy types tend to support it since they have money and they will just go on more vacations and things if they don't have to pay for college.

[BarackTheVote]

16. Yes, it is a moral failing

that for whatever reason, we want to punish subsequent generations because we had it hard back in our day and there’s no reason they shouldn’t have to struggle, as well! It’s a regressive mentality. We should make every effort to make each generation’s lives a little bit easier.

And the benefits of higher education are vast, and opening up job opportunities is just the beginning. It introduces people to new perspectives, new ways of thinking and criticism, new opportunities for socialization. It’s good for everyone when everyone is educated.

And for that matter, publicly funded education would encourage people to go to college not just to strengthen their earning power, but to explore their interests and alternate paths without having a strict clock to when they’ll go broke or not be able to pay off their education until they’re retirement age.

There’s no down side. Again, it’s all in the messaging, and we should not let regressive mentalities keep us from doing what is right for our kids and our country, period.

[JI7]

17. The problem is that those upset tend to be lower income working class types . These aren't privilege

types who "got theirs so fuck everyone else" .

[JI7]

20. I agree . We need to provide options and use terms like assistance , relief etc

[PTWB]

13. Progressive policies are overwhelmingly popular!

https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/461106-majority-of-voters-support-free-college-eliminating-student-debt


The survey found that 58 percent of registered voters said they would support a proposal that would make public colleges, universities and trade schools tuition-free. The same group also said they would back a plan eliminating all existing student debt.

...

Seventy-two percent of Democratic voters said they are in favor of making higher education tuition-free and eliminating student debt, compared to 40 percent of Republicans. Fifty-eight percent of independents, meanwhile, said the same.

When broken down by income, 67 percent of respondents who make less than $75,000 a year support such a proposal, compared to 51 percent who made $75,000 or more on an annual basis.

Two top-tier progressive presidential candidates — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — have both released plans that aim to drastically reduce student loan debt.

While Warren’s student debt forgiveness plan is capped at household incomes of $250,000, Sanders’s plan would wipe out student debt for all.

[Budi]

4. Biden's Education Policy Plan (he's already on it & it's fair for all)

NVEST IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES AND TRAINING TO IMPROVE STUDENT SUCCESS AND GROW A STRONGER, MORE PROSPEROUS, AND MORE INCLUSIVE MIDDLE CLASS

The Biden Administration will build on community colleges’ success and unleash their full potential to grow a stronger, more inclusive middle class by:

*Providing two years of community college or other high-quality training program without debt for any hard-working individual looking to learn and improve their skills to keep up with the changing nature of work.

In 2015, President Obama and Vice President Biden proposed to make two years of community college tuition-free for hard-working students. Since then, Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden have championed progress toward this goal, and hundreds of state and local College Promise programs have expanded access to free two-year or four-year college educations.
As president, Biden will build on this progress by enacting legislation to ensure that every hard-working individual, including those attending school part-time and DREAMers (young adults who came to U.S. as children), can go to community college for up to two years without having to pay tuition. Individuals will also be able to use these funds to pursue training programs that have a track record of participants completing their programs and securing good jobs.
Importantly, this initiative will not just be for recent high school graduates; it will also be available to adults who never had the chance to pursue additional education beyond high school or who need to learn new skills.
And, students who do want a bachelor’s degree could then transfer to a four-year school, including to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions that play vital roles in their communities. This plan will be a federal-state partnership, with the federal government covering 75% of the cost and states contributing the remaining obligation. The federal government will cover up to 95% of the cost for Indian Tribes operating community colleges serving low-income students.


*Creating a new grant program to assist community colleges in improving their students’ success.

The Biden Administration will support community colleges implementing evidence-based practices and innovative solutions to increase their students’ retention and completion of credentials. Reforms could include academic and career advising services; dual enrollment; credit articulation agreements; investing in wages, benefits, and professional development to recruit and retain faculty, including teacher residencies; and improvements to remediation programs. The Biden plan will also help community colleges around the country scale successful programs to help a larger number of students.


*Tackling the barriers that prevent students from completing their community college degree or training credential.

There are too many Americans who don’t complete their education or training programs not because of a lack of will, but because of other responsibilities they are juggling, such as a job to pay their bills or caring for children. Often these students and their families also face housing and food insecurity. The Biden Administration’s community college initiative will be a first-dollar program, meaning that students will be able to use their Pell grants, state aid, and other aid to help them cover expenses beyond tuition and fees. In addition, the Biden plan will give states financial incentives to foster collaboration between community colleges and community-based organizations to provide wraparound support services for students, especially veterans, single parents, low-income students, students of color, and students with disabilities who may face unique challenges.
Wraparound support services can range from public benefits and additional financial aid to cover textbook and transportation costs that often keep students from staying enrolled, to child care and mental health services, faculty mentoring, tutoring, and peer support groups. And, Biden will establish a federal grant program to help community colleges create emergency grant programs for students who experience an unexpected financial challenge that threatens their ability to stay enrolled.


*Make a $50 billion investment in workforce training, including community-college business partnerships and apprenticeships.

In 2014, President Obama asked Vice President Biden to develop a national strategy for reforming our nation’s workforce training programs designed to prepare “ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs.” Building on the successful models championed through that initiative, President Biden will make an investment of $50 billion in high-quality training programs. These funds will create and support partnerships between community colleges, businesses, unions, state, local, and tribal governments, universities, and high schools to identify in-demand knowledge and skills in a community and develop or modernize training programs – which could be as short as a few months or as long as two years – that lead to a relevant, high-demand industry-recognized credential. These funds will also exponentially increase the number of apprenticeships in this country through strengthening the Registered Apprenticeship Program and partnering with unions who oversee some of the best apprenticeship programs throughout our nation, not watering down the quality of the apprenticeship system like President Trump is proposing.
Invest in community college facilities and technology. Biden will invest $8 billion to help community colleges improve the health and safety of their facilities, and equip their schools with new technology that will empower their students to succeed in the 21st century.

MORE @:
https://joebiden.com/beyondhs/

[JI7]

5. No, it misses what the real issue is. non whites who don't go to college DO vote Democratic.

It's mainly white people who don't go and especially white men who don't go that support Republicans. These white people were offered educational and other opportunites during the Obama administration and they refused it .

And non whites who DON'T go to college are more likely to vote Democratic than College Whites.

[Budi]

9. K & R THIS ⬆️

Thank you.

[BainsBane]

8. you have to realize how that works in practice

In European countries that don't charge tuition for public universities, admission is based on highly competitive tests. Everyone doesn't get to go. In fact, the rates of post-secondary education are lower in all of Europe than the US. See the third chart on this webpage: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cac.asp
Canada, Japan, and South Korea are the only countries with higher post-secondary education rates than the US.

There are trade offs with all systems and benefits. People need to go into them clear eyed.

[disalitervisum]

10. Stop allowing the Texas Board of Education

to determine what textbooks will be used in our schools. Do you know that it is taught that Moses is an honorary founding father of the United States?

[Massacure]

11. Students should have to earn it.

Personally, I would like to see something tied to the student's performance. Offer them a loan large enough to cover room, board, tuition and fees at a state university and then offer to forgive it if the student meets certain goals. Maybe something along the lines of 80% forgiveness if they exceed a 2.0 GPA, 90% if they exceed a 2.5 GPA, 95% if they exceed a 3.0 GPA and 100% if they exceed a 3.5 GPA.

It rewards students who do well and takes the bark out of any criticism that the government is giving stuff out for free.

[BainsBane]

12. also, the word free should be struck from political discourse

It's publicly funded. Nothing is free.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

14. It might help, but the little evangelicals...

... would probably attend some Falwell religious school and get more embedded.

It's the white evangelicals who keep these elections close at all, diligently and overwhelmingly voting for the Republicans. They were about 42% of all the white voters this time, which is a significantly higher percentage than their share in everyday life.

In contrast, Europe only has about a 2% evangelical population.

[CloudWatcher]

15. So how long has it been since school through high-school was made free?

How many years has it been since education through high school was basically turned into a right?

Think that just maybe our job market has changed since then?

Our choice is to either make college free or bring back the jobs that don't need higher education.

Well, we're constantly told that manufacturing jobs are not coming back. So there really isn't much choice.

[BarackTheVote]

18. Made a deal with Republicans

to ensure that Biden got elected. It was the right move. But at the same time, it drove record numbers of Republicans to the polls, both to vote for Trump and to vote against him—and they split their tickets. Seems to me that’s the obvious answer for why we under-performed. But we kept the House majority and have a real shot at splitting the Senate 50/50, not to mention got the White House, so the doom and gloom feels super unwarranted.

But, yes, if we’d had the capacity to steal the Presidency, obviously, we’d have rigged it to get majorities in both chambers of congress as well. I’d almost have suffered four more years of Trump just to get McConnell out of the Majority Leader position—almost.