The UC-AFT council voted
unanimously to endorse Bernie Sanders for president. Although our national organization has
endorsed Hillary Clinton, we feel that Sanders’ position on free public higher
education, Wall Street reform, universal healthcare, unions, campaign finance,
and climate change represent a rare chance to push for a truly progressive
agenda.
Sanders’ is the only
candidate who has tied the rising cost of higher education and student debt to
Wall Street. His plan pushes to increase the number of
full-time faculty, reduce administrative costs, and increase spending on
instruction. Many of his ideas on
universities coincide with my book Why
Public Higher Education Should be Free.
Some people have asked why we
should tax Wall Street transactions to pay for higher education. The answer is pretty simple, each time that
Wall Street crashes, tuition goes up and student debt increases. Moreover, Wall Street is now engaged in a reckless
attempt to cash in on student loans by creating Student Loan Asset-Backed
Securities (SLABs). If this makes you
think about betting on subprime loans, it should, since the same people are
trying to make money off of indebted students by pooling together risky
packages of student loans.
While Hillary Clinton has
also pushed for debt-free college, her program does not go as far as
Sanders. Furthermore, Sanders clearly
sees that very little of the progressive agenda will be advanced, if we do not
change how political campaigns are funded. He seeking to create a social movement that
will demand a different mode of politics, and therefore instead of asking if he
can get his agenda done in the current system, we should ask can he help us
create a new system.
