2016 Postmortem

Bernie wants to make tuition free for every student and prospective student. His plan requires that states pay 30% of the costs and of course, Congress must first pass the legislation. There are two problems with this. First, no Republican in the Senate or House will support it because it substantially expands the federal government's role in people's lives. Limiting the size of government is the central foundation of Republicanism. The second problem is that state legislatures must pay their 30% share (many millions $$$) by including it in the state budget. Over half of the states legislatures are controlled by Republicans with huge majorities in many states. They won't pass it. Other states may well not pass it because of serious budget problems. Some states are dealing with huge deficits. I expect that some Democratic controlled legislatures won't pass it because of major budget problems and because providing free college is of lesser concern than other priorities that affect more constituents.

Clinton addresses the problem in two ways: lower the interest rate on student loans and make it easier to repay loans (for example, extend the payback period with no penalties). Secondly, work with universities to lower tuition by reducing college operational costs. A president can actually be quite influential in lower interest rates. As a retired college prof, I can provide pages of ways that colleges can reduce costs. I would wager that Clinton will set up a national consortium that works with colleges on a regional basis to cut costs. She might even tie the awarding of federal grants to colleges to demonstrated reductions in tuition. One other point: she is very concerned about the likelihood that free college will end up closing private colleges and universities. And most of them are small colleges that respond to specific needs. Community colleges will likely go belly up.

Clinton's way is very acheivable. But it's not inspiring or more exciting than saying 'free college for everyone!' The problem that I have with Bernie is that he is promising things that he knows he cannot acheive. Clinton is providing 'here's how we can do it' specificity that actually makes sense. It's more honest but it doesn't fill sports arenas.