By Andrew Pillow
Bernie Sanders’s free tuition platform may actually be realized. Albeit on a smaller scale than he first envisioned.
Rhode Island’s governor, Gina Raimondo (D), is attempting to make her state the first to provide free tuition for every student who wants to go to college. Raimondo estimated the total cost of such a program to be around $30 Million, which she described as a “drop in the bucket” relative to the state’s $9 billion budget. The proposal still has to pass, but Rhode Island has a large democratic majority.
According to The Big Story (AP), Raimondo contends that free tuition is needed to keep pace with the changing workforce:
“As a country we have to start asking ourselves, ‘Isn’t it the right thing to do now?'” Raimondo said in an interview Friday. “What’s the magic of 12th grade? Once upon a time, that’s what you needed to get a job. Those days are long gone and vanishing quicker every day.”
Read more here.