Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed a massive college tuition plan.
Clinton, in a bow to Bernie Sanders’ refrain of free college for everyone, put forth half a plan — the half that addresses the fun part, the “free” school. Typical of most politicians, she left out the vital part: Who’s going to pay for it, and how.
Kudos to her for tapping into a major issue concerning so many families in America whose children would like to attend college. There are, however, several problems with her detail-light proposal. What if Clinton’s plan turns out to be ObamaCare for college?
While it’s easy to see why Clinton wanted to release her plan last week — in order to perhaps divert the conversation from her e-mail scandal — it leaves families with more questions than answers.
Her plan calls for the children of families making less than $85,000 a year to be able to attend state colleges for free.
Structural Problem No. 1: $85,000 in NYC or the suburbs is not comparable to $85K in Kansas. For example, the average home price in Topeka, Kan., is $127,000; in Queens, it’s well over $500,000. So her plan neglects the variance in the cost of living for different states and regions of the country.
Structural Problem No. 2: Why only state colleges? What if a student can’t get into the school in his or her state, especially with the huge surge in applications that would undoubtedly occur with a free tuition program? There are lots of very good private schools. Why can’t they be part of the plan?
Structural Problem No. 3: Since we all know nothing is ever “free,” especially when peddled by a politician, where is all the money coming from to pay for this program? We are talking about $350 billion to $700 billion over 10 years.
If it’s a tax-the-rich scheme, it won’t work. ObamaCare does that, and insurance premiums keep rising, as do deductibles and co-pays.
So let’s hope Clinton can show her work on how to pay for this.