Can We Make College Free Again?

Can We Make College Free Again?

Isn’t it time we stopped student debt in its tracks?

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Can we make college free again? Up until the 1970s, tuition at many of America’s public colleges was free. But since then, right-wingers have been waging war on public universities. They pressured states to slash funding for higher education, pushing public-college tuition through the roof, and helping banks rake in hundreds of billions off college loans. No wonder student debt just hit $1.5 trillion.

It gets worse: Women hold two-thirds of that debt, and black college grads are five times more likely to default than white grads.

This is not an accident: The free-marketeers who made us a nation of debtors had a plan. But now, so do we.

The College for All Act would cover tuition at public community colleges for all Americans, and tuition at public four-year universities for families making less than $125,000.

We could pay for it right now with a small “Robin Hood” tax on Wall Street speculation, or by repealing Trump’s corporate tax cuts.

Isn’t it time we stop student debt in its tracks?

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Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

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