Free Further Education Says Bernie

What's he doing now? Taking the energy of his former presidential campaign in liberty and freedom for all,  not just the lucky few, Senator Bernie Sanders is making waves in the free higher education campaign. It's caught on not only in New York, as a plan to hand out free places to all whose families earn less than 125K pa, but also in Rhode Island who wish to offer two years all inclusive further education.


11th Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has reminded Bernie Sanders that “There's nothing in life that's truly free....Somebody's going to pay for it” (NYTimes) in her realist approach that perhaps distances herself from previous philanthropic ventures in the art world and elsewhere. The undeterred senator is still pushing for federal level legislature to grant access to higher education for all.


The issue with paying for education not only lays in the cost of its delivery but in the cost of maintaining a campus with all aspects of student life. The power, communications, administration, and management all require payrolls and expenditures which, according to President Trump, are bloated. Cutting back on excess expenditures within the education system and finding ways to provide value and efficiency with utilities and services needs to be addressed.


Sanders believes that for a nation that would once be considered number one in the world for free education, that a lot of work needs to be done to be able to claim that standard again. One initiative being offered by the current administration is a fifteen year loan forgiveness scheme which allows students to wipe out their student debt if they've not acquired ability to pay within the decade and a half since graduating. This would help the many families who currently are tied down to long term debts for tuition fees that did not fruit into worthwhile careers.