Stop Student Loan Sharking, Make College Free

huffingtonpost.com — Unfortunately we're having the wrong debate here. The important question isn't who should be saddling students with enormous debt — the government or private banks. It's why anyone should be saddling them with enormous debt. The fact is, we don't have to run up a tab to get free higher education. Imagine turning a fee on Wall Street gambling into a "college education for free" card for every American. A small financial transaction tax on bankers' speculative deals could fund free higher education in perpetuity. To jump start the program, we could put a windfall profits tax on the $150 billion in bonuses Wall Street executives are now collecting, thanks to our bailout.

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