Since it was an issue which Rachel Maddow and outgoing Democratic US Senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill, spoke about tonight on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, I thought it would be an appropriate time to talk about this.
Repeat after me: There is no such thing as “Free College”
There isn’t. I don’t care how many people from both sides of the aisle say it, it’s not real. McCaskill said it tonight, and that it had no chance. Maddow repeatedly asked her if it wasn’t time to start talking about it. McCaskill finally affirmed in a sort of mild snidely-whiplash fashion that it could be time to talk about it. But not anything more.
Which causes me untold amounts of teeth gnashing and mumbling, because THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS “FREE COLLEGE”.
Just like there is no Free Preventative Healthcare testing.
None of that is free, somewhere along the line, the money to pay for it either comes from the consumer’s pocketbook at the time of purchase, or John Q Public and the rest of us coughs up some tax dollars and the government scoops up a certain amount of those collective dollars and stuffs them into an Agency or a Program, which then disburses those funds to individuals who are found to be eligible for the service(s) that program offers.
So I beg of you all — get this idea right down into the bedrock of your brain. So that the next time you are somewhere and someone starts to bitch about ‘those lazy Democrats want to go to school for free! My college degree wasn’t free! Tell them to get a job!’ you’ll have some facts to respond with.
College isn’t ever going to be Free, what a silly idea! Right?
Cause we all know that someone is going to be paying for that education!
Guess what? You’re right, and that someone is ALL OF US, TOGETHER. College students will get a degree paid for out of federal funds. Because a well-educated populace is a productive and tax-paying populace!
It’s cheaper to subsidize a higher education and get tax paying workers out of it than to spend it all managing the increased law enforcement, courts and prisons needed for a populace less educated and more inclined to fall into criminal behavior. Because we are spending that money, one way or another. Personally, I’d opt for the Send ‘em to a University option every time.
You know the Right will eventually call it something, so let’s call it what it is. Because it’s not “free college”. It’s Tuition-Free College.
You’ll still have to pay for books and other supplies, housing, transportation and a whole host of other things. But the cost of getting in the doors and soaking up some knowledge, that won’t leave a huge fiscal burden, shadowing the first decade or two of a young American’s life. Leaving them free to buy a home earlier. To buy new cars sooner. To take more vacations. To be a happier, more productive member of society, earning a higher salary and paying more in income taxes.
Side effects. They matter.
#TuitionFreeCollege
Don’t forget it.