Senator Bernie Sanders will introduce a bill this week that would make four-year public universities in the United States tuition-free. Much like his presidential campaign, it’s not going to go anywhere, and, much like his campaign, it’s going to prod Hillary Clinton to make affordable higher education a bigger part of her own platform. God bless this crusty, crusty man.
Bloomberg Politics reports that Sanders, the 73-year-old Independent who represents Vermont, will introduce the legislation today. In a statement, he wrote that it’s modeled on how many European countries structured higher education:
We live in a highly competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best-educated work force in the world. That will not happen if, every year, hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and if millions more leave school deeply in debt.
Countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden and many more are providing free or inexpensive higher education for their young people. They understand how important it is to be investing in their youth. We should be doing the same.
We used to lead the world in the percentage of our people who graduated college. Today we are in 12th place. We used to have great universities tuition free. Today they are unaffordable. I want a more educated workforce. I want everybody to be able to get a higher education regardless of their income.
Clinton has also expressed general concern about the cost of higher education; an aide of hers generated minor excitement earlier this month when he mentioned “debt-free college” in an interview.