I wrote this diary a couple of days ago, before the debates. I’ve been trying to come up with a way to justify posting it, going back and forth on whether it would actually spark any kind of real discussion on a real issue (or devolve into pie fights and HRs). Then one of my favorite diarists on DKos posted a diary explaining the state of the system today, and it pushed me over the edge. So, here you are, for better or for worse.
Edit — deleted references to a politico article . I agree with commenters and thought better of it.
It’s admirable to offer free tuition for public schools, in principle. I personally believe that at least undergraduate school should be universally accessible to anyone who wants to attend, with every reasonable opportunity afforded for any student to graduate with minimal or no debt (in public AND private schools). But there are holes in Bernie’s proposal that I fear will be filled with unintended and harmful consequences.
I don’t see how it solves the problems presented by private schools. Does anyone else?
Additionally, I am concerned that states are apparently going to be asked to fill a 1/3 gap in funding. In many states, taxes will not go up to fund this unfunded mandate. Let’s all be realistic—I live in Wisconsin, the money is coming from the elementary schools and government employee wages, assuming my idiot governor doesn’t find a way to sue his way out of the program altogether. For many states, it could mean disruption to services that affect far broader groups of people than just students.
Next, I am concerned that offering only free public tuition with no other reforms aimed at allowing affordable access to private schools will cause structural changes to the post-secondary system that largely harm disadvantaged groups along racial and class lines and exacerbate the crisis. Public schools are not equipped to serve, and cannot/will not take, every qualified student that applies (See, for example, this). Yet, I believe that the prospect of free tuition will cause a stampede toward these schools by everyone who plans to go to college.
At a minimum, the applications process for public schools will become a blood sport. I don’t know how that would work out, but I can think of a few ways it could. First, it could cause a collapse of enrollment at many private schools, resulting in shutdowns and fewer educational opportunities for students who don’t make the cut into the public school. That is, people who are otherwise qualified to attend college and don’t make the public school cut don’t get to go to college at all or are shuffled into a non-college option, limiting their opportunities in life.
Second, it could create a two-tiered system of people who make the cut into public schools and have no debt, versus those who do not make the cut and are saddled with private school debt. If you’ve been paying attention to affirmative action case law in the Supreme Court for the last 25 years, you know why there might be issues here. The best “on paper” students tend to be the wealthier and whiter students, who come from wealthier communities with better schools. There are potential class and racial consequences that must be accounted for in any college affordability plan that purports to be universal.
Then again, it could all work out somehow. However, nothing in Bernie’s plan reassures me that anyone on his team has given any significant amount of thought to these problems, and how to avoid them. It’s one thing to talk about the principle of affordable college and promise free tuition to some. It’s another thing entirely to tackle the systemic problems that cause untold suffering among the next generation. We have to do better for students.