Undoubtedly, Sanders’s rhetorical question reflected one of his deepest convictions: that public college education should be free to everyone, and that existing student debt, all $1.6 trillion of it, should be canceled. ADADEqually undoubtedly, there are legitimate concerns about certain categories of student debt, especially the billions that have been incurred to pay for sketchy for-profit colleges or overpriced master’s degrees. Still, the appropriate answer to Sanders’s proposition is “No.” For all of his lofty altruistic talk, the democratic socialist’s student debt plan actually violates basic principles of social justice. In short, the Sanders plan amounts to a huge subsidy for the middle class — and above. As it happens, it’s not clear that the student debt burden is as unmanageable as Sanders implies.

Source: Washington Post October 21, 2019 21:56 UTC