HE'S BACK! And loony as ever! Now Bernie Sanders is Vowing to Fight Dems and Republicans to give 'Free' College to All Americans in his Newest Socialism Push

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) has argued that America needs free college. Making his case in The Washington Post this fall, he wrote, in part, “Today, there is universal access to free, public schools across the United States for kindergarten through 12th grade. That didn’t happen by presidential decree. It took populist pressure from the progressive movement, beginning in the 1890s, to make widespread access to free public schools a reality.”



Two professors at the College of William and Mary in Virginia analyzed his proposal and concluded it’s economically and politically unrealistic. Robert Archibald and David Feldman teach in the economics department. They are the authors of “Why Does College Cost So Much?” and here offer their opinion on his proposal. — Susan Svrluga



Tuition-free public education is music to the ears of families who see state university sticker prices continually rising more rapidly than their income. Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) has tapped that sentiment with his proposal to use federal funds to make public college education free for in-state students.



His Senate bill 1373 makes for great sound bites on the campaign trail, but there are good reasons why none of his Senate colleagues have offered any support.



The political obstacles to rewriting the federal role in funding state-supported universities are formidable, and the social case for preferring public institutions to private nonprofit schools is not at all clear.



Sanders proposes using federal tax revenues to pay two-thirds of the current in-state tuition if the state will contribute the other third from increased state appropriations. A quick look at current in-state tuition across the United States shows why this part of the revolution is unlikely to win congressional approval.