Robert Reich destroys Washington Post’s hit piece on Bernie Sanders
The Washington Post just ran an attack on Bernie Sanders that distorts not only what hes saying and seeking but also the basic choices that lie before the nation. Sanders, writes the Posts David Fahrenthold, is not just a big-spending liberal. And his agenda is not just about money. Its also about control.
Fahrenthold claims Sanderss plan for paying for college with a tax on Wall Street trades would mean colleges would run by government rules.
Apparently Fahrenthold is unaware that three-quarters of college students today attend public universities financed largely by state governments. And even those who attend elite private universities benefit from federal tax subsidies flowing to wealthy donors. (Meg Whitmans recent $30 million donation to Princeton, for example, is really $20 million from her plus an estimated $10 million she deducted from her taxable income.) Notwithstanding all this government largesse, colleges arent run by government rules.
The real problem is too many young people still cant afford a college education. The move toward free public higher education that began in the 1950s with the G.I. Bill and was extended in the 1960s by leading public universities was reversed starting in the 1980s because of shrinking state budgets. Tuition has skyrocketed in recent years as states slashed education spending. Its time to resurrect that earlier goal.
Besides, the biggest threats to academic freedom these days arent coming from government. Theyre coming as conditions attached to funding from billionaires and big corporations thats increasing as public funding drops.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/10/robert-reich-destroys-washington-posts-hit-piece-on-bernie-sanders/