Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent Thanksgiving evening defending the idea of free college for all children in the United States, even for wealthy families.
Ocasio-Cortez highlighted a new campaign ad from Mayor Pete Buttigieg criticizing Democrats like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren for proposing the idea of free college tuition, arguing that the wealthy did not need their college tuition to be subsidized by taxpayers.
“This is a GOP talking point used to dismantle public systems, & it’s sad to see a Dem candidate adopt it,” she wrote on Twitter.
She then shared the following five points to defend the idea:
1. Universal public systems are designed to benefit EVERYBODY! Everyone contributes & everyone enjoys. We don’t ban the rich from public schools, firefighters, or libraries bc they are public goods.
2. Universal systems that benefit everyone are stronger bc everyone’s invested!
3. When you start carving people out & adding asterisks to who can benefit from goods that should be available to all, cracks in the system develop.
4. Many children of the elite want to go to private, Ivyesque schools anyway, which aren’t covered by tuition-free public college!
5. Lastly, and I can’t believe we have to remind people of this, but it’s GOOD to have classrooms (from pre-k through college!) to be socioeconomically integrated. Having students from different incomes & backgrounds in the same classroom is good for society & economic mobility.
Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for president.