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Education Desk
The Education Desk is our education blog focusing on key areas of news coverage important to the state and its improvement. Evidence of public policy performance and impact will be reported and analyzed. We encourage you to engage in commenting and discussing the coverage of education from pre-natal to Higher Ed.Dusty Rhodes curates this blog that will provide follow-up to full-length stories, links to other reports of interest, statistics, and conversations with you about the issues and stories.About - Additional Education Coverage00000179-2419-d250-a579-e41d385d0000

Chicago Lawmaker Pushes For Tuition Free College

ilga.gov

Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign surged in part because of his tuition-free college platform. Now one of Sanders' backers -- State Representative Will Guzzardi-- is bringing that concept to Illinois.

Guzzardi says it would make Illinois' public universities and community colleges a draw.

Guzzardi, who is a Chicago Democrat, says if Illinois taxed wealthy people and profitable corporations at higher rates the state could bring in enough money to do this, while also erasing the deficit.

"I think if we're going to ask the taxpayer to contribute more in order to fix this current budget crisis -- we're going to have to ask the taxpayers to contribute more. And if we're going to do that, we need to be able to say: Here's what you're going to get in exchange," he said.

Guzzardi says he'll travel to campuses around the state this fall to promote the idea. 

Amanda Vinicky moved to Chicago Tonight on WTTW-TV PBS in 2017.
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