Talking heads and rivals say that Bernie Sanders’ proposed free tuition to state colleges and universities is a radical left-wing idea. But is it radical? Let’s check some facts. When I enrolled at Fort Lewis in 1984, I paid $379 for tuition and fees per term ($870 adjusted for inflation to 2015 dollars). In 2015–16, FLC tuition and fees come to $3,800 per term, an increase of 437 percent.

I attribute this inflation to the state of Colorado divesting from higher education. Colorado ranks 49th in state spending per student and from 1980 to 2011 cut funding by almost 70 percent. In 1983 families paid $0.40 and the General Fund paid $0.60 on the dollar; in 2012, families paid twice as much.

Is Bernie a socialist, or just proposing that we return the middle-class cost of college closer to what it was not so long ago, which would seem to be a good thing? And what was radically socialist about the Reagan years? Coloradans should be able to see that the cut-everything Legislature has shifted the burden of educating workers away from the corporations that benefit from having a trained work force at their disposal, and onto the middle class.

This isn’t political, it is how our state priorities have changed. I would have found it very difficult if not impossible to attend FLC at today’s rates. But I’m sure our lawmakers have a good reason why my kids should have to pay 437 percent more than I did.

Derek Ryter

Durango