Tennessee free college is a good example to follow. However, relying on lottery dollars effectively is a huge regressive tax. That came about in 2014, a couple years before Bernie was on the national radar.
Even though it is popular, I rather doubt implementing Tennessee Promise today would work in that state because of our messed up tribal politics.
If Bernie just stuck with free college as a workforce development plan, that is a winner.
Pell grant ($6,095/yr) to anyone that applies to the public school/community college of your choice, with incentives to stay in state, close to home.
Here is $50,000 forgiveness for college (Warren's plan) for the sake of going to college, no good.
I would actually say "fairness" is a huge issue, it is the defining issue why people vote.
Flat out handouts to 'elites' who can "afford" fancy schools would go over very poorly with working class folks.
Here is a comment about Warren's plan that makes a lot of sense.
I recently finished paying off my student debt. I know all about the obscenity of the exploding cost of college and the inability to refinance loans. I also grew up in the suburbs that every pundit says is so key for Democrats to take the White House in 2020. In fact my parents' Congressional district was among those that flipped red to blue this last midterm. Let me assure you: a plan to simply forgive student debt is going to play VERY badly with these voters. These are people who have typically benefited from structural advantages far more than they care to admit (my parents are your typical "everything I have is because of my own hard work" mentality, which obviously is easy to say when you were born into these very same well-to-do suburbs). Blatant handouts are met with knee-jerk repulsion. Tell the neighbors I grew up with that their tax dollars will go to bail out someone who took out $100k to go student Russian Literature at NYU and then -shock!- didn't spin that into a 6 figure salary, and watch these suburban voters swing right back to Trump en masse. What would play better to these voters? Solutions that reward hard work. Some loan forgiveness for legitimate community service. An interest plan where interest grows a bit each year, rather than slamming new graduates with the full rate and not giving them a moment to breathe. Incentives for paying off more than your monthly due. There must be other creative solutions to this, but handouts aren't the answer.