By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
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Did Obama Just Introduce a ‘Public Option’ for Higher Education? (The Nation)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal says free community college for all would be easier to run and more popular than means-tested financial aid models like Pell Grants.
The headline benefits of the plan are obvious. The White House estimates that it will benefit nine million students to the tune of $3,800 a year. Given that community college students disproportionately come from poorer families, that’s a major plus. It will help boost and stabilize an important civil and education tool consistently threatened by state-level austerity. And it’s good for the economy too, as there’s no story about the twenty-first-century economy that doesn’t have an increased need for education playing a major role.
But it may also herald a larger shift. For the past generation we’ve seen higher education move from a model where it was largely free, to one where it is expensive and discounted for poorer students. Obama’s proposal is a move in the opposite direction, the sort of vision proposed by people like Sara Goldrick-Rab and Nancy Kendall who argue that the first two years of all public colleges should be free. And when you dig deeper into the economics of this story, there are additional benefits. By embracing this public option, we can lower hidden taxes on the working-class and avert reactionary political coalitions, while also helping to contain costs and create a reasonable set of regulations.
Follow below the fold for more.
Why Is the Financial Industry So Afraid of This Man? (Salon)
Sean McElwee and Lenore Palladino say blocking Roosevelt Institute Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz from an advisory panel is just one sign of the financial industry's influence over its regulators.
December Caps Off a Year of Strong Job Growth But Stagnant Wages (Working Economics)
Elise Gould looks at the 2014 data and says that while the numbers are mostly positive, it's concerning that at this rate, we won't reach pre-recession labor market health until August 2017.
There's An Awful Side to the Jobs Report (Business Insider)
Shane Ferro says that while the December jobs report was largely good, the drop in average hourly earnings is a sign of trouble, especially with basically flat wage growth since early 2010.
Kicking Dodd-Frank in the Teeth (NYT)
Gretchen Morgenson breaks down the details of a Republican bill that claims to make "technical corrections" to Dodd-Frank, but would actually seriously weaken financial reform.
As White House Defends Unions, States Go on the Attack (AJAM)
Republican midterm victories at the state level will mean more anti-union "right to work" laws and other policies that weaken the labor movement, writes Ned Resnikoff.
New on Next New Deal
Can Community College Systems and Infrastructure Handle Free Tuition?
Rachel Kanakaole, New Chapters Coordinator for the Western Region of the Campus Network, questions whether community colleges can handle the increased enrollment that will come with free tuition.