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When College Was Free
How Reagan’s War on Education Changed America
In the mid-20th century, the United States stood on the brink of a radical transformation, one in which higher education was seen not as a privilege for the few, but as a public good for all. During the 1960s, college tuition at many public universities was either free or nominal. Yes. You read that correctly. College in many states used to be free. It worked.
States like California offered world-class university education at no cost to residents. It was a time when education was viewed as an investment in the future of the country, a way to cultivate informed citizens, drive innovation, and promote equality. But that vision didn’t survive the ideological backlash of the Reagan era.
When Ronald Reagan assumed the governorship of California in 1967, he brought with him a fundamentally different philosophy, one that viewed education not as a public right but as an economic commodity. His shift wasn’t just about budgets. It was about fear.
Reagan’s advisors warned him of a growing problem: too many young people, particularly from working-class backgrounds, were using their college education not just to advance economically but to question the status quo. College campuses had become hotbeds of civil rights activism, anti-war protests, and calls for social justice. The student movements of the 1960s terrified the political elite. These young people were not passive consumers of education. They were radicals, organizers, dissenters. They were, in the Marxist sense, a dangerously educated proletariat.
And so, Reagan acted. As governor, he slashed funding to the University of California system and began the long process of transforming free education into a market-driven model. He famously said, “Taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing intellectual curiosity.” Behind that snide dismissal was a strategic aim: limit access to higher education for the working class, and you limit their ability to challenge the power structure.
This wasn’t just a California policy. It was a blueprint. When Reagan became president in 1981, he continued his assault on accessible education nationwide. Federal student aid was slashed. Pell Grants were gutted. Student loans, previously a last resort, became a primary funding mechanism. Over the following decades, tuition skyrocketed, student debt exploded, and the idea of college as a birthright slowly eroded.
What was once a public good became a private burden.
The consequences have been profound. An entire generation now carries crushing debt. Millions are priced out of education entirely. And the very thing Reagan feared; a politically engaged, critically thinking public, has been systematically weakened.
Because make no mistake: this was never just about money. It was about control.
A well-educated public is harder to manipulate. It asks questions. It demands answers. It organizes. When people learn to think critically, they stop blindly accepting the narratives of the powerful. They recognize structural injustice. They demand a fairer world.
Reagan understood this. So did his allies. That’s why they dismantled the system. Not to save money but to save power.
And we are living in the consequences. The United States has the highest student debt load in the world, a dangerously unequal education system, and a generation that is increasingly disillusioned with democracy…not because they’re apathetic, but because they’ve been betrayed.
We could have had free college. We almost did. But we were warned that an educated people might demand too much freedom.
- Too much justice.
- Too much truth.
- So instead, they gave us debt.
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They gave us distraction. And they called it reform.
It’s worth remembering that the same man who dismantled public education in America also popularized a phrase that would come to define a movement: “Make America Great Again.”
For millions burdened by lifelong debt, locked out of opportunity, and silenced by economic survivalism, it doesn’t feel great. For those whose futures were sold off to keep the powerful comfortable, it feels like betrayal.
Reagan promised greatness, but delivered austerity. He feared an educated populace and he ensured we’d pay the price for generations.
But it’s not too late to change course. We can restore education as a public good if we choose to.
Here’s how we begin:
- Cancel existing student debt. Free millions from economic chains that never should have been forged.
- Make public colleges and universities tuition-free again. Fund them through fair taxation, particularly on the ultra-wealthy who’ve profited most from an uneducated workforce.
- Invest in community colleges and trade schools. Because higher education should serve everyone, not just the elite.
- Elect leaders who believe education is a right, not a privilege and hold them accountable when they don’t act.
- Reject the myth that debt equals value
An education system should lift people up, not bury them in bills.
A better America isn’t built on slogans. It’s built on truth, justice, and opportunity.
Free college won’t fix everything.
But it’s a damn good place to start.
