Free Tuition - How Progressives Win

[PsychoBabble]

Budget negotiators struck a deal late Friday that could make New York the largest state to offer tuition-free public higher education.

The $153 billion state budget agreement includes the Excelsior Scholarship, which covers tuition for any New Yorker accepted to one of the state’s community colleges or four-year universities, provided their family earns less than $125,000 a year.

Proposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in January, the scholarship taps into one of the Democratic Party’s most popular ideas and advances a bipartisan movement to lower the cost of college that is taking shape across the country.

CA is also tackling education and health care issues following Progressive policies, i.e. policies that help plain old regular people survive and thrive.

While we need to continue the fight at the Congressional/Prez level, I still think our best weapons are local legislative and policy successes, decisions/actions/results that make Trumper types eventually say "Hey, what the Hell?!? What can't I have ME some good stuff in MY crappy/selfish state?"

The best convincer ... is UNEQUIVOCAL success ....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/new-york-to-become-the-largest-state-to-offer-tuition-free-public-higher-education/2017/04/08/3fe0563a-1c8b-11e7-9887-1a5314b56a08_story.html

[Throck]

1. Trade school programs need to be developed at the community college level.

It would raise the bar for skilled trades people.

[PsychoBabble]

2. Republicans are always talking about ...

... Tax cuts and misc. other forms of SLEFISHNESS/GREED as the way to stimulate the economic engine ... though, as of yet, with decades of trying, we haven't seen the evidence of this trickle down theory consistently succeeding.

So ... WHAT IF EVERY STATE IN THE USA OFFERED FREE TUITION ... AND FREE HEALTH CARE?

How would THIS impact the economy? How many people would be spared economic disaster, and then becoming a further econmic burden on the public?

How many small businesses would start, and thrive, because entrepreneurs could take the leap without fear of personal economic disaster beyond their start-up capital -- and when they would not be ALSO rolling the dice on their family's health by choosing to start a business?

YET -- have we as Progressives SOLD this idea in any significant way to the American public?

Not really ...

In the Bill Clinton years (for all of his charisma), we started chasing "GOP light" principles, and it has gotten us NOTHING.

NOTHING.

NOTHING.

It is time for something different.