According to a report published by the Brookings Institution, Bernie Sanders’ plan for tuition-free college would help wealthy families more than low-income families.
“Students from higher income families would receive a disproportionate share of the benefits of free college, largely because they tend to attend more expensive institutions,” Urban Institute Senior Fellow Matthew Chingos writes. “My results indicate that families from the top half of the income distribution with dependent students attending public in-state two- and four-year colleges would receive $16.8 billion in dollar value from eliminating tuition, as compared to $13.5 billion for students from the lower half of the income distribution, a difference of 24 percent.”
Chingos points out that, for most students, non-tuition costs like living expenses exceed tuition. Tuition-free college would not decrease non-tuition costs.
On the campaign trail, Hillary Clinton has criticized Sanders’ free college plan for being expensive. She argues it’s not necessary for children of wealthy parents — Donald Trump for example — to get free college tuition. “Clinton is certainly correct that the Sanders free college proposal gives significant benefits to relatively affluent students,” Chingos writes. Clinton’s higher education plan involves debt-free public college, where a combination of tax hikes and conditional grants would help students attend in-state public universities without taking loans.
Chingos also points out that, given the price reduction, some higher-income students would be more likely to shift from private colleges to public colleges. That increased competition may make it more difficult for low-income students to gain admission to public colleges.
To be fair, Chingos admits his analysis does not include any effect free college would have on enrollment, nor does it account for Sanders’ tax reforms.
Also, the bottom-fourth of income earners would have the lowest non-tuition costs remaining when tuition is eliminated: $8.3 billion combined. Interestingly, the second-richest fourth of families would pay more combined in non-tuition costs ($15.3 billion) than the highest-fourth ($14.5 billion).
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
