Only a liberal would think this is fair and make sense.

Promoting free education and meritocracy are not mutually exclusive.

If everyone gets into college for free, where is the meritocracy in that? All it does is lower the value of a college education and raise the costs. Besides, why should I pay for your college education?

Where's the meritocracy in a giant paywall for those unable to afford getting into a good school despite having all the skills and qualifications necessary to do so?

Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!

http://fortune.com/2017/11/03/trump-gop-tax-plan-cuts-2017/

Just getting in doesn't matter all that much. They still have to do the work to graduate.

I don't know, the real divide here seems to be rich v poor.

PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED AND TAUGHT TO FIGHT THEMSELVES INSTEAD OF THE RULING CLASS.
RACE VS RACE
RELIGION VS RELIGION
POLITICAL VS POLITICAL
CLASS VS CLASS
SEX VS SEX
WHEN YOU ARE DIVIDED, YOU ARE WEAK.
WHEN YOU ARE WEAK, YOU HAVE NO POWER.
WHEN YOU HAVE NO POWER, YOU HAVE NO CONTROL.

There's technically no divide since it's the same argument one says these two are different and not balanced and to be fair it could be said of everything but it determines how you float your boat.
F**k I sound like my grandpa

There are a LOT of divides, but yeah, left and right is the nutshell.

Try this for logic: college should be just free. For everyone.

Problem solved.

Try this for logic: nothing, but nothing, is "free". My son, who is a college English teacher, doesn't make salary from good wishes and pats on the back.

We had colleges in the 1950's that never charged a cent as long as you had the grades for them. How did we pull that off? Were they run on good wishes and pats on the back?

I'm a schoolteacher. My students don't pay a cent, and yet a paycheck magicly appears - you know what, I'm going to stop there because we both know full well where this is going: we had tax funded higher education in the 1950's and the economy handled it just fine, why couldn't we replicate that today?

I am shocked. My grandparents paid over 30k to send my mom to college in the mid-50's.

Colleges were NEVER free. That is why after WWII they instituted the GI Bill to help veterans PAY for college. Even state and community colleges charged something back then.

Colleges were cheaper back then because not as many people went to college and colleges had competition for students. They had to manage their costs to attract students who could afford to pay.

Now with government-backed loans and every kid thinking they must go to college, there are more students then seats and colleges have raised their prices and lowered their standards. The law of supply and demand.

Got a source?
Here’s mine: http://factmyth.com/factoids/state-universities-began-charging-tuition-in-the-60s/

In the past two years, 12 states have enacted legislation to join them. The state rush to offer free tuition began with Tennessee in 2015, but other states quickly followed. Arkansas, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island have started programs, and Nevada plans to launch one this year.

Buyer beware.