Public college should be free
He appeals for legitimacy to the precedent of the GI Bill.
But the GI Bill has always been similar to a voucher plan, the government offering to pay a fixed amount for any eligible student's tuition to any college, university, or other post-high school institution, with minimal restrictions.
And yes, that does include private colleges as well as state institutions, whether church-affiliated or not; if I recall correctly, you could even use the GI Bill to cover seminary or divinity school costs.
And I personally would support an agenda calling for "the GI Bill for all," were anyone to propose it.
But that's not actually Bernie's plan.
Bernie wants to use a tax on "Wall Street speculation" to directly subsidize state public colleges and universities in order to make them tuition free for all students, in-state, out-of-state, foreign, illegal aliens, or whatever.
Private colleges and students attending them will not benefit by this.
And these subsidies will be accompanied by an increased regulatory burden deepening and strengthening the grip of political correctness at these schools and, directly or indirectly, on all of higher education.
Bernie's plan is a secularist and PC attack on private and church-affiliated, religiously committed higher education as well as on the independence of education at state colleges and universities.
If his plan results in states with public colleges and universities cutting aid to private colleges - Pennsylvania, for example, not only supports a system of state colleges and universities but annually provides crucial assistance to such private institutions as the University of Pittsburgh - that will only make the impact of his plan more devastating.
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