The concept of a free college education paid for by the Federal Government was not the brain child of the Vermont Marxist Bernie Sanders, but an idea that was briefly pursued by the education advisers of U.S. President Harry S Truman:
"Today the average American of 20 - 24 years of age has completed 12.1 years of schooling, an all-time high...Last week the President's Commission on Higher Education issued a report aimed at pushing the average still higher. It urged that free public education be extended through the first two years of college."
Even as early as 1894 socialism was recognized as wishful thinking.