California had a great public college system for a very long time. But they charge tuition now, like just about everywhere else. (Princeton recently stopped charging tuition and room&board to qualified students - just about everyone accepted with income < $160,000 gets full freight.)
My dad went to Emory and the U of Chicago. He had to pay a nominal amount for tuition at those private schools (a few hundred a quarter, I think). It wasn't free, but it wasn't anywhere near as expensive as now and it was manageable with part time and summer jobs.
The point is, we can't easily go back to those days of nearly free 4-year universities (as Martin points out, community colleges are a different matter). There are lots and lots of reasons why (universities being addicted to foreign students that pay full-freight; lack of space and facilities; issues with diversity ("Why should the 1% get full freight?" is a good question with lots of reasonable answers); etc. "Free college" now is snake oil.
The problem with college isn't that it's not free, it's that it is so off-the-chart expensive in too many cases. Having kids work 10-20 hours a week and a few weeks in the summer to pay for college is fine. Having them $100k+ in debt for 10-20 years is not. That's why "debt free college" was, and is, a sensible approach.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
My dad went to Emory and the U of Chicago. He had to pay a nominal amount for tuition at those private schools (a few hundred a quarter, I think). It wasn't free, but it wasn't anywhere near as expensive as now and it was manageable with part time and summer jobs.
The point is, we can't easily go back to those days of nearly free 4-year universities (as Martin points out, community colleges are a different matter). There are lots and lots of reasons why (universities being addicted to foreign students that pay full-freight; lack of space and facilities; issues with diversity ("Why should the 1% get full freight?" is a good question with lots of reasonable answers); etc. "Free college" now is snake oil.
The problem with college isn't that it's not free, it's that it is so off-the-chart expensive in too many cases. Having kids work 10-20 hours a week and a few weeks in the summer to pay for college is fine. Having them $100k+ in debt for 10-20 years is not. That's why "debt free college" was, and is, a sensible approach.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.