Hillary Clinton dissed Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) proposal to make college free for all Americans by noting that taxpayers should not have to pay to send Donald Trump’s children to college.
Sanders has long pushed for free tuition at state colleges and universities, but Clinton on Saturday said that students at those schools should just be able to graduate debt-free.
“I believe that we should make community college free. We should have debt-free college if you got to a public college or university. You should not have to borrow a dime to pay tuition,” Clinton said. “I disagree with free college for everybody. I don’t think taxpayers should be paying to send Donald Trump’s kids to college.”
Watch the clip:
Germany for one has free higher education. Other European countries may well do so also. Here in America we have graduates saddled with a mountain of debt that can take decades to pay off if ever. And we have state governments slashing funding to education at all levels. here in AZ our state leg. killed funding to community colleges completely and cut our state’s 3 universities by 100 million dollars this year as the state runs a surplus. Just so there can be a corporate tax cut …again.
Just sayin’
Hillary didn’t score any points with that one. She ignored, but surely knows, that the colleges that men like Trump send their children to would not be free in any case, since they are all private schools. It is the state universities and colleges that should be free - for one thing we already pay for them with our taxes, and that used to be their primary funding.
This is not the first time Clinton has used this red herring about “paying for Donald Trump’s kid’s education.” Personally I would have absolutely no problem with kids of the wealthy going to public colleges tuition-free, since the plan to is to increase taxes on the wealthy to help pay for everyone to go to public colleges tuition-free. Of course many will go to private colleges, but for those who go to public college they should be treated like everyone else, just as we do with K-12 public education. Because Bernie is right – today a college education is, for most people, as important to making it into the middle class as a high school diploma was 50 years ago.
I personally have no problem with anyone’s kids being allowed to go to community college or taxpayer-paid state colleges, etc., for free, so long as they are otherwise eligible. Like Hoppy, above, mentions, the likes of Donald Trump wouldn’t even avail himself to that benefit because he would very likely send his kids to private colleges – therefore, not eligible for taxpayer dime. As darrtown, above mentions, the U.S. is so far behind the rest of the civilized world with this issue – and the states don’t care. Even California, with its wonderful history of great education for all hasn’t been realized in decades. Seriously, I have to wonder why–WHY–supposedly smart corporations won’t get behind this nation churning out a better, well-educated workforce. No sense of pride anymore, no sense of creating those “bootstraps” I’ve always heard of – but rarely have ever really seen or had the opportunity to pull. We are such a disgrace in so many ways.
PP, you finished your comment while I was formulating my thoughts and fumbling with the keyboard. Very clumsy at the moment. Can’t wait to go through with this surgery (neuro) my regular neurosurgeon and the newer one are suggesting. We’re starting all the stuff now. Until then, I fumble a lot and other stupid stuff.
Great post, btw.