College Could Be Free In America If Corporations Paid Reagan-Era Taxes

If corporations paid the same tax rate as they did under Ronald Reagan, governments in the U.S. would have enough money to fund prekindergarten for every 4-year-old in America and higher education for every American attending public colleges and universities, according to a Huffington Post review of government data.The average annual difference, if applying Reagan-era tax rates to Obama-era profits, comes out to $166.7 billion.

That’s enough to cover the estimated $25 billion  in annual costs to allow every 4-year-old in the nation to attend public pre-K programs and the close to $65 billion that students spend on tuition to attend public colleges and universities, leaving close to $78 billion — roughly the amount  that the federal government spent on food stamps during the most recent fiscal year — left over to fund other public policy priorities in the U.S. and abroad.