Tuition-free postsecondary education may seem like a stretch in our current economic climate, but it is not impossible, as Jordan Weissman describes in an interesting thought experiment over at the Atlantic. More people need to go to college than ever before in order to have a shot at a living wage. Why not make college free if it’s as necessary as elementary and high school, especially if we could use existing federal funds to do it?
Weissman argues that we could use existing federal financial aid to cover the costs of all students in public colleges if we eliminated federal financial aid to students in private college. Using just tax breaks and grant funds, which total about $77 billion a year, the federal government could eliminate tuition at public colleges, like the University of Washington. Students at private colleges, like Seattle University, would lose access to programs like the Pell…
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