Dive Brief:
- The Washington Post analyzes the future of the free college proposal under a Donald Trump administration, which is unlikely to meet support from federal or state government officials over the next four years.
- Chiefly advanced by former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the plan met opposition from Trump campaign officials, who said that most states already have programming in place to make college more affordable.
- Some observers have called for free college alternatives, such as increased investment in the federal Pell Grant program, as a less disruptive method of college tuition support.
Dive Insight:
Free college was an idea that sounded great, but which was never going to receive the support of Congress, regardless of which party took the majority. Not enough states would have signed on for it, and there were few details about how it would be administered without totally harming private institutions.
Many initiatives issued under the last eight years, such as the college scorecard and the takedown of the for-profit industry, will seem to afford an easier time in making the case for deregulation of higher education, because the policies just didn't add up to a more productive, efficient system of helping students traditionally displaced or blocked outright by poverty and poor secondary educational outcomes.