The importance of education, Bernie gets it!

[kenfrequed]

I think any serious candidate needs to consider the importance of providing education to the people of the country they represent. I would actually go a step farther than Bernie and suggest a permanent lifetime education system that would assist people whose occupations and source of livelihood were eliminated by economic and technological changes.

One of the functions of the GI Bill was not merely to provide a benefit for those people that sacrificed for democracy abroad, it had a pragmatic benefit of staggering the return of workers into the workplace so soon after recovering from the great depression. It had the benefit of assisting in fueling economic boom and helped people learn the skills that would improve our nation.

We need a new, New Deal!



http://thehill.com/policy/finance/242362-sanders-to-unveil-bill-promising-free-tuition-at-public-universities

[NYC_SKP]

2. eliminate undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities!

A new GI bill, I love it!

[kenfrequed]

5. Yup

Could use a really good name since it is about all American citizens.

[Jefferson23]

3. Recommend. n/t

[tblue37]

4. The GI Bill was one of THE major factors in creating the middle class in this country.

The educational benefits allowed young men from the working class to become well-paid professionals; the housing benefits made home ownership (the foundation for middle class wealth accumulation) possible for people who would not have had that opportunity before; the provision of government subsidized healthcare protected GIs from the sort of financial catastrophe that now destroys the lives of hardworking people, even those with insurance, and traps them in a debt hole they can never dig out of.

Now, of course, the GI Bill susidies for education are less generous, even though the cost of college has risen at an outrageous rate, and the health care provided by the VA is difficult--or even impossible--for many to access, and too often the quality of care provided is undermined by inadequate funding and lack of oversight.

[kenfrequed]

6. We do have to take better care of our Vets.

But personally I think education should be free to all.

[tblue37]

7. Yes, of course. My point was that providing such subsidies for education, home ownership,

and healthcare created a thriving middle class that was the foundation for our booming postwar economy.

Obviously other factors also bolstered the US economy--e.g., the enormous manufacturing capability we had developed to produce what was needed for the war effort; the fact that the social and physical infrastructure of all our potential economic competitors was in a shambles, since the war had been fought on their soil, not ours; the economic boost provided by the New Deal, which offered non-GIs some degree of the economic safety and opportunity that the GI Bill provided for vets.

And the Marshall Plan helped Europe recover from the war's devastation, thus creating vast markets for our exports.

The point is that the policies most certain to increase a society's overall wealth and well-being are those that benefit the most people, while policies that enrich the few while immiserating the many lead inevitably to economic instability and catastrophe, as well as personal, family, and community dysfunction and violence at all levels--not just interpersonal violence, but also political violence within and between societies.

[kenfrequed]

8. Agreed.

Definitely, we need to invest in our people!