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'We Have a Better Idea': Sanders Unveils College for All Act as Trump Targets Higher Education
"Instead of increasing the cost of college in order to give more tax breaks to billionaires," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, "we are going to make public colleges and universities tuition-free."
May 21, 2025
As U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans move to gut federal student aid programs to help fund tax cuts for the rich, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday will introduce legislation aimed at making public colleges and universities tuition-free for most Americans.
The College for All Act of 2025, shared exclusively with Common Dreams ahead of its official introduction, would eliminate public college and university tuition and fees for students from married households earning $300,000 or less per year or single households earning $150,000 or less.
The legislation would also make public community colleges and trade schools tuition-free for all students, and provide grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and other institutions to eliminate tuition and fees for eligible students.
Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who will introduce identical companion legislation in the House, presented the bill as a direct counter to Trump and congressional Republicans, whose emerging reconciliation package and proposed federal budget for the coming fiscal year would enact deep cuts to federal higher education funding—while delivering huge tax breaks to the richest Americans.
"Instead of increasing the cost of college in order to give more tax breaks to billionaires, we have a better idea," said Sanders. "We are going to make public colleges and universities tuition-free so that working-class students can succeed and are not burdened with a lifetime of debt."
Jayapal, a senior House Democratic whip and chair emerita of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said that "Congress can and must ensure that working families never have to take out crushing loans to pursue an education."
"The College for All Act will free students from a lifetime of debt, invest in working people, and transform higher education across America by making a degree more accessible to poor and working families across this country," she added. "This is more important now than ever as Trump continues to attack education in this country through attempts to strip funding from universities and to dismantle the Department of Education."
"Young people should not have to go deeply into debt to get the education they and our nation need. We must make public colleges and universities tuition-free."
The legislation stands no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Congress, but it represents an alternative vision for higher education that has proven extremely popular with the American public. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found that 63% of U.S. adults support making public colleges and universities tuition-free.
More recent polling has shown similar support, with Democratic voters overwhelmingly backing the proposal as higher education costs rise and students graduate saddled with massive student loan debt.
Sanders plans to introduce the legislation Wednesday morning at a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP Committee hearing on the state of higher education in the U.S., where public college costs more per student than in any other country except Luxembourg, according to the Education Data Initiative.
"Making public colleges and universities tuition-free is not a radical idea," declares a summary of the College for All Act provided by Sanders' office. "Other wealthy countries like France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland made their public colleges and universities tuition-free or virtually tuition-free several years ago."
"Over 50 years ago, many of our most prestigious public colleges and universities were also tuition-free or virtually tuition-free," the summary notes. "In a competitive global economy, we need the best-educated workforce in the world. Young people should not have to go deeply into debt to get the education they and our nation need. We must make public colleges and universities tuition-free."
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New Report Shows Working-Class Americans Live 7 Years Fewer Than Rich
"The massive income and wealth inequality that exists in America today is not just an economic issue, it is literally a matter of life and death," said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Mar 07, 2025
People living in the top 1% of U.S. counties ranked by median household income live on average seven years longer than their counterparts in the bottom 50% of counties, according to a Friday report from Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent representing Vermont and the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
"The massive income and wealth inequality that exists in America today is not just an economic issue, it is literally a matter of life and death," said Sanders in a Friday statement announcing the report.
What's more, the stress of living paycheck to paycheck "also leads to higher levels of anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease and poor health," Sanders argued, in a nod to some of the survey responses included in the analysis.
The analysis echoes findings by other researchers that higher income is associated with greater longevity. According to a Congressional Research Service report from 2021, life expectancy has generally increased over time in the United States—with the exception of during Covid-19 pandemic—but "researchers have long documented that it is lower for individuals with lower socioeconomic status compared with individuals with higher socioeconomic status. Recent studies provide evidence that this gap has widened in recent decades."
The findings in Sanders' report relied on county-level data in the United States between 2015 and 2019, the five years prior to the pandemic. For that time period, Sanders' staff matched each U.S. county with both median household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau and average life expectancy data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, according to the report.
The life expectancy gap was greater when comparing higher-earning urban and suburban communities with lower-earning rural communities. "Urban and suburban counties with a median household income of $100,000 have an average life expectancy of 81.6 years, while small rural counties with a median household income of $30,000 have an average life expectancy of 71.7 years—a 10-year gap," according to the report.
A boost in earnings also translated into a boost in life expectancy. For example, "among rural counties, a $10,000 increase in median annual household income is associated with an additional 2.6 years of life expectancy," according to the report.
The analysis also includes qualitative data collected by Sanders, who asked working people via social media survey how stress impacts their lives. The outreach generated over 1,000 responses from people around the country.
According to the report, Caitlin from Colorado said: "Stress isn't just an inconvenience for me—it's a direct threat to my heart. Living with a congenital heart defect and multiple mechanical valves means that every surge of anxiety, every sleepless night worrying about bills, isn't just mentally exhausting—it physically wears on my heart."
"Living paycheck to paycheck while supporting a family stresses me out. We are always just one financial emergency from being homeless," said Patrick from Missouri.
One person also reported having to go without preventative healthcare because they are between jobs and can't afford the care without insurance.
The report offers a number of policy solutions to address the key findings of the analysis, including raising the minimum wage to at least $17 an hour, guaranteeing paid family and medical leave, and passing Medicare for All, which would enact a single-payer health insurance program.
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Sanders Says Senate Should Probe DOGE and Subpoena Musk
"My constituents in Vermont and constituents all over this country want to know what the hell is going on with the federal government right now," the democratic socialist senator said.
Mar 06, 2025
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions—on Thursday urged the panel to launch an investigation into the Department of Government Efficiency and its de facto chief, Elon Musk, "the richest man in the world, to testify about his plans for running the federal government."
"I think everybody on this committee and the people of America understand who is running the government, and it's not going to be the secretary of labor," Sanders said during Thursday's HELP committee hearing on the confirmation of Keith Sonderling, Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's nominee for deputy labor secretary.
"We must find out what is going on in the federal government. And the way we do that is bringing Mr. Musk before this committee."
"With all due respect to President Trump's nominees, the... person who is running the government right now is Elon Musk," Sanders asserted.
"Mr. Musk has taken it upon himself, with the support of President Trump, to virtually dismantle the United States government," the senator said.
Sanders noted various attacks on agencies, including efforts to oust over 80,000 employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs and get rid of half of the Social Security Administration's employees, "at a time when Social Security is now grossly understaffed."
"Mr. Musk has ordered [the Department of Health and Human Services], the Department of Labor, and the Department of Education to fire employees, hand over confidential and sensitive data, and defy judicial orders," he added.
"My constituents in Vermont and constituents all over this country want to know what the hell is going on with the federal government right now," Sanders said. "And it's not going to be the next deputy secretary of labor who is going to tell them."
"So if we are serious... about our oversight responsibilities, we must find out what is going on in the federal government," he added. "And the way we do that is bringing Mr. Musk before this committee."
Sanders' call for an investigation into DOGE and subpoena for Musk came on the same day that Trump convened an in-person Cabinet meeting during which he clarified that the department secretaries are in charge of their agencies, not Musk. Multiple administration officials told Politico that "Musk was empowered to make recommendations to the departments but not to issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy."
Musk was in the room for the meeting. As Politico reported:
The president's message represents the first significant move to narrow Musk's mandate. According to Trump's new guidance, DOGE and its staff should play an advisory role—but Cabinet secretaries should make final decisions on personnel, policy, and the pacing of implementation.
Musk joined the conversation and indicated he was on board with Trump's directive. According to one person familiar with the meeting, Musk acknowledged that DOGE had made some missteps—a message he shared earlier this week with members of Congress.
"As the secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go," Trump later explained on his Truth Social platform. "We say the 'scalpel' rather than the 'hatchet.' The combination of them, Elon, DOGE, and other great people will be able to do things at a historic level."
Since its launch, DOGE has been plagued by statistical and accounting mistakes, as well as overzealous and errant firings of thousands of critical government workers, including people in charge of nuclear and air traffic safety and pandemic response.
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