The Sanders Administration: Education Exceeding
The elimination of student debt... the implementation of a single-payer healthcare system... handling the tax system. These and various other accomplishments were pushed through and pushed hard by the Sanders Administration. While the people were desiring out, it was still a hard-fought battle because they had to combat opposing politicians in Congress and maintaining momentum for their successes. And perhaps now is when it would come in. While the yearly budgets were relatively modest, focusing mainly on taking money from the military and adding to schools along with some other incentives, here they were largely more ambitious. Namely, the new budgets called for the additio of new taxes on corporations and the extensively wealthy to raise funds needed for new programs. This was tied in with the greater effort to go after the tax havens. Each one of the new taxes or tax increases would be done for the purpose of helping to fund new program and provide new opportunities. While the Sanders Administration wished to pass as much as they could, they were also aware that they would face the most opposition here and went over to try and prioritize what they could.
The main one was the so-called "College-For-All" intiative. The College for All Act would provide at least $48 billion per year to eliminate tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities, tribal colleges, community colleges, trade schools, and apprenticeship programs. According to the Sanders administration, it should not be difficult for students to be able to pursue their educatation, regardless of what field they desire to go into. After all, by increasing the number of professionals such as doctors, public lawyers, blue collar folk and so on, it would provide plenty of opportunites for people to do so. They emphasized that whether it be community colleges, trade schools or formal college/university, everyone should have a fair chance. Of course, the administration and Department of Education would work to make sure all of this goes smoothly as there were various aspects to address. Things like the allocation of resources (plenty of pundits and commentators noted the subject of how colleges invested in football stations or athletics mroe than their actual studies), ensuring the fairness (concerns over embezzlement were brought up) and also how much to cover. Beyond analyzing the coverage of tuitation, factors regarding housing, books and so on were to be taken into consideration. This and various other details were debated and worked out.
Regardless though, the core concept remained. Students go pursue higher education, not having to be concerned about college debt impeding their futures. Passing the act was among the most difficult challenge for the Sanders Administration and they knew that it was already plenty difficult with everything already accomplished. However, the upcoming nature of the primaries loomed over the heads of the politicians and the Sanders Administration's open-door policy on knowing which elected official voted for what and making it clear, meant that it would be easy to find out who voted the way they did. Other questions remained such as private universities, who were largely unaffected by the decision though the minor influences were still considered, such as allocation of resources.
This did not go without criticism unsurprisingly. Some were relatively grounded and showed concerns over cost or maintanace while others were emotional and inflammatory. The Sanders Administration did its best to address these concerns and the supporters did as well, especially as the debates and counterpoints were shown across media. It did show a growing gap between certain groups of people and the need to deal with overall ideas or trends of thinking. Insulting stereotypes and deragatory comments on college students or so on would backfire, especially as counter-points were thrown and instead seem to further unite most of the youth toward these reformistic ideals. It seemed to symbolize the beginnings of a large and more radical cultural shift.
Despite this, the Sanders Administration would end up managing to push through and pass it, being proudly signed by Bernie Sanders. Various young people, their parents and guardians felt further relief as another burden would be taken from their shoulders. Universities had to make their adjustments. Scholarships would be shifted around, namely to assist students in other manners, such as for low-income students unable to live on campus or shifting to renovate in different departments. The talks and actions were being done. International students were also being included and the debates with those being discussed and the details hammered out.
While other projects were shelved for the time being, the Sanders Administration did have one final boost. Substantial increases and reforms to the public school system. Besides further beefing up the system, the goal would be to ensure that people involved in the teaching careers and those associated, such as librarians, library technicians and so on would be better financially compensated for their work along with working to get the best educators. After all, educators and their associates had a massive responsability so proper support would be needed. Many people applauded this while others showed their concerns for one reason or another. Regardless though, it provided a topic of discussion for the upcoming elections.
