Edwards borrows an idea from Heinlein

Heinlein writes in his science fiction book Friday

"a grassroots economist noticed that college graduates earned, on average, about 30 percent more than their fellow citizens who lacked bachelor's degrees. Such an undemocratic condition is anathema to the California Dream, so, with great speed, an initiative was qualified for the next election, the measure passed, and all California high-school graduates and/or California citizens attaining eighteen years were henceforth awarded bachelor's degrees"

John Edwards has "pledged to start a government-funded public higher education program called 'College for Everyone.'"

Of course, Edwards probably doesn't intend to just give everyone a college degree. But many, many 18-year-old Americans are not qualified to do college work. So if Edwards really wants to make college accessible to everyone he will have to force colleges to greatly lower their standards to the point where students are no longer doing what we now consider college level work. Edwards will, therefore, be causing young people to get college degrees even though they have not attended a "real" college.