Dear Commons Community,

CREDO, the name of a website created by an activist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has established a petition to President Obama to make public higher education free.  I have blogged about this issue in the past. 

The basic financial rationale is that rather than continuing to pour billions more into financial aid programs that often fall short of tuition costs and leave students deep in debt, let’s move to a system of free public higher education. Currently, public colleges enroll 75 percent of all students.  According to data complied for an article in The Atlantic, the case can be made that with a little bit of leadership and will, the federal government could parlay its financial aid funding into a program guaranteeing a free public higher education to all who want it.  As the petition states:

“Making public colleges tuition-free and preventing further debt isn’t just a smart investment in our future — it’s less expensive than what our federal government spends to make college “affordable” now. It’s a lot cheaper than the $69 billion we spent in 2013 on Pell Grants for low-income students, and work-study funding, without even including federal loan subsidies.”

I think this is a cause that is most worthwhile.  If we look at education history in this country, a free public higher education is inevitable.  It is just a matter of when.  Let’s make it happen sooner than later and take a moment to sign this petition.

Tony