By the numbers: Sandy Baum and Alexandra Tilsley at the Urban Institute estimate that more than a third of the total subsidies required for universal free public college would flow to students from families earning $120,000 or more, who already tend to enjoy better K-12 educations. Related:Higher education is a public good, and public goods should be universalSupporters of free tuition say that talking points about free-riding “millionaires and billionaires” are misleading — not least because millionaires and billionaires are far less likely to send their children to public universities. And crucially, supporters say, under the Sanders and Warren plans, that spending would be financed by raising taxes on the rich. But Jordan Weissman contends in Slate that to quibble about the relative progressivity of different college tuition funding proposals is largely to miss the point. For many proponents, universal free public college is part of a broader political vision to establish higher education as a public good that everyone buys into, like the fire department or library.

Source: New York Times December 03, 2019 22:52 UTC