Wait.. what? Mind explaining this?

What's to explain? Universal college education cannot be done without tax increases, and increasing taxes on the rural working class to pay for a program that doesn't benefit them is a huge disadvantage to them.

If I'm a 21yo man in North Dakota working the oil fields to support my young family, how would you expect me to react to the idea of increasing my taxes so that white collar kids don't have to pay as much?

Well tax your rich and corporations more - education is singularly able to propel people out of poverty. For your tax increase you get a way out of poverty.

Tanstafl.

Frankly though- the American education problem is just people talking about the loss of manufacturing jobs at two degrees removed.

> education is singularly able to propel people out of poverty

You're using education in an ambiguous way here. Either you're including vocational training, in which case the argument for universal college doesn't follow, or you only mean college, in which case the premise is false.

Vocational training is way under-utilized and promoted in the US, but there are still many many jobs that won't even look at you without a degree in hand. As long as we're careful about where the money comes from, universal education can be a huge win for almost all citizens.