By Jamie Beauvais | @bouvoir
Coming off the back of his victory in the recent Nevada caucus, Bernie Sanders, in an interview with 60 minutes, laid out his ambitions of ensuring free infant child care and subsequent pre-kindergarten education to every child in the USA. Funded by the federal government and administered by states and public schooling systems, the plan would provide at least 10 hours of daily child care for children up to the age of 3, leading into funded education thereafter.
As was the case for Sanders’ Medicare for All pledge and the promise to wipe out outstanding student debt, the $1.5 trillion price tag of Sanders’ child care and education pledges; which would be paid for over a decade, would be financed through increased taxation on Extreme Wealth. The notion of increased taxation and the proceeding spending on Sanders’ pledges isn’t without its sceptics. When asked about the feasibility of paying for universal child care and education, Sanders highlighted the spending made by his potential Republican counterpart.
“How are you going to pay for over $750 billion on military spending, how you going to pay for a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the 1% in large corporations, which was what Trump did?”
The question of affordability surrounding Sanders’ pledges and the rebuttal of spending priorities will continue to be at the forefront of the national conversation, in accordance with this, Sanders’ proposal for free infant care and pre-k education is another line in the prevailing debate surrounding the feasibilities of democratic socialism.
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