The debate in the American politics on the high cost of universities is very frequent. Unlike many countries in Europe and Latin America, universities in the United States are very expensive, even if they are public. That has wide the inequality gap between Americans, and has raised public complaints about if the education at the university level should be free, subsidized or if its costs should stop being so high. What should be done?
Free University Education Model
As an inheritance from the Spanish, Portuguese and French colonizations, most Latin American countries have public universities whose costs are extremely low, or sometimes free. The same goes for many public universities in
Western Europe, in countries like Spain, France, Italy or Germany. This model hasn’t been implemented in the United States, because it would imply an increase in public spending and a subsidy from the State that isn’t part of the American fiscal tradition.
Colleges: Free?
Democratic presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders have proposed that colleges needs to be free, which would imply an increase in public spending. For others, a state subsidy must reduce expenses to those who cannot pay them. The fact is that the United States is moving to new forms of university financing, which don’t imply a debt for life.