'Free' College Is a Terrible Idea. Here's a Better One

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that President Trump is “demanding aides present a plan to tackle student debt and the rising cost of a college education, worried that he has no response to expansive plans from Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats he may face on the ballot next year.” They cited unnamed “administration officials,” so take it with a grain of salt. The story claims that that, inside the White House, the president's anxieties are boiling over, for fear that Warren may have a populist upper hand on him, with her promise to forgive federal loans for graduates earning under $100,000 per year, with phased-out forgiveness for those earning between $100,000 and $250,000.
 
Perhaps the bigger populist promise of a would-be president Warren is the commitment to make all public college “free.” I don't know if the president really is sweating over his need to compete with this proposal, but I do know that it would not be easy to compete on a populist terrain with someone who was promising “free” college and the complete absolution of debt one freely took on.