No such thing as free tuition IKE SANTA CLAUS and time travel, "free" college tuition " free" tuition will be expensive. Her ers. But that won't ly their families off the ker sounds great in theory but campaign puts the 10-year price of im- plementing the proposal at roughly thing, their families in grand doesn't actually exist in real life. For much of the past year, Bernie $450 billion. The American Associa- And as students joing by, in Sanders' promise to make public high- tion of State Colleges and Universities and become taxpayer ,work, too. er education free for all attracted mul- tells Time magazine that $520 billion they will really feel the billsties titudes of enthusiastic supporters to would be closer to the mark A promise of "free" tuition is mere- tax rates that had to be raised for commodate the half-trillion,fac. his presidential campaign. Last week, cost of their "free" tuition. Hillary Clinton embraced most of the ly a promise to stick someone else with the tab. At half a trillion dollars Besides, making any good or ter. Sanders proposal, paving the way for or more, the tuition tab is already rice free encourages people to waste. him to endorse her formally on Tues- pretty enormous . But if there's any- day and, she hopes, to convince voters thing we should have learned from 40- t. No product was ever valued more highly by being given away for noth- who # FeltThe- plus years of government efforts to A promise of Bern in the pri- keep higher ed affordable, it is that the ing. Enact legislation that lets anyone go to college on the taxpayers' dime, maries to back more Washington pours into holding and we'll see more unmotivated col- free' tuition is her in November. down the cost of college, the more ex- lege students whose time would be far Under Clin- pensive college becomes . better spent elsewhere. merely a ton's new plan, in- Uncle Sam has tried everything- The overconsumption of higher ed- promise to stick state tuition at grants and loans, subsidized work- ucation is already pronounced. Just 59 public colleges study jobs, tax credits and deductions. percent of college students at four- someone else and universities Result? The price of tuition, room, and year institutions manage to earn a de- with the tab. would be abol- board at an in-state, public college has gree within six years. "Today's college ished for students soared from $1,405 in 1971 to students learn a lot less than college from families $ 19,548 today - an increase of 1,300 students once did," writes economist with incomes up percent. Unlike food, clothing, and en- Thomas Sowell. "If college becomes to $125,000. The campaign estimates ergy, the cost of college has raced far free' even more people can attend col- that that would make higher educa- ahead of inflation. As economic stud lege without bothering to become edu- tion tuition-free for more than 80 per- ies, including recent work at the Fed- cated and without acquiring any eco- cent of American families. eral Reserve Bank of New York, have nomically meaningful skills." If only. repeatedly shown, the government aid "Free" K-12 education is replete The hard truth, alas, is that high- meant to quell the flames has succeed- with problems. To turn a famous Hil- lary Clinton phrase, it requires a will- er education cannot possibly be free. ed only in fanning them. If the Clin- ful suspension of disbelief to con- In time, the Rockies may crumble, ton/Sanders pledge becomes law, it is virtually certain that college will be- clude that "free" tuition will improve Gibraltar may tumble - but no poli- tician's promise or electoral mandate come even more costly. Perhaps that higher education. It may be good for will ever make the costs of providing explains why 20 out of 22 economists politics, but making college free will surveyed by NPR judged Sanders' pro- only make it worse. a college education vanish. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. posal a bad idea. Of course, Washington can formal- That has always been the first pillar ly shift the cost of college from stu- of economic wisdom. dents and their families to the taxpay- Even Clinton acknowledges that