Bernie Sanders’s ‘College for All’ Plan Is Fair, Smart and Achievable

[UglyGreed]

Of all the candidates, only Sanders proposes an alternative to the neoliberal model of higher ed.

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.”


http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanderss-college-for-all-plan-is-fair-smart-and-achievable/

[peacebird]

1. K&R!

[jwirr]

2. In LBJ's war on poverty it was recognized that investment in

education was not just for the student but for the company they would someday work for and most of all for the development of the country. We have lost that somewhere in the last 40 years and it is a big part of our economic problem.

Back then it was all about investing in our country. That was what Glass-Steagal did by making sure the money stayed in the community. And that was what education did also. Today it is the exact opposite. All our investments are "over there". And that includes the military money we spend in other countries.

No wonder our own citizens are getting poorer all the time. We do not invest in them.