An Analysis Of Bernie Sanders's Free Tuition Program

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Analysis of Bernie Sanders’ Free Tuition Program Bernie Sanders, current candidate for the President of the United States, Democratic party affiliation, believes that all students deserve the opportunity to receive an affordable, quality education from the earliest stages of schooling to high-level degrees. He has sponsored bills to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, as well as to drastically reduce interest rates on student loan debt. While his plan is not well defined, according to USA Today, Bernie Sanders plans to pay for “free tuition” with tax increases specifically at this time under consideration: .5% fee on stock trades, .1% fee on bonds and .005% fee on derivatives. One problem with this plan is even with …show more content…

College graduates are already experiencing difficulty finding well-paying jobs and careers today. Free tuition does nothing to help grow the job market but just adds competition through degree inflation. This could cause degrees to be less meaningful and a rise in unemployment with college graduates aiming for better jobs. While we can acknowledge that these programs may be utilized in other countries with some success, many of these cultures have static labor markets, strict entrance requirements for their universities, and have other cultural limitations that prevent pursuit of degree by average or slightly above average students. A student who has only been academically focused without work experience, may not be the best candidate for a job as someone with less education and more experience. In fact, Germany, a country that offers free college based on merit, actually graduates fewer college …show more content…

Some of our greatest innovators and entrepreneurs did not complete college, for example: Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, Rachel Ray, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ted Turner to name a few. This certainly does not mean college is unimportant, but it testifies to the fact that how one becomes innovative and successful in technological fields does not always require a college degree. Sanders’ program does not address performance while in college, dropout rate, or post graduate success. There will be many college graduates without meaningful jobs because they pursued college because it was paid for, and not necessarily because they were passionate about the degree they were pursuing and the course that they planned to pursue after college in the

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