“Too many of our young people can not afford a college education, and those who are leaving college are faced with crushing debt”.
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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders promised voters earlier this year that he would make all four-year public college and universities tuition free.
While military veterans, lower-income students and those who complete a national service program, like AmeriCorps, would go to school for free in the Clinton plan, others would incur costs for their schooling and living expenses at four-year public universities.
“Hillary Clinton’s plan is very big and ambitious – leading to debt-free college and increased economic opportunity for millions of Americans”, PCCC co-founder Adam Green said. “It will depend on the student circumstances and the institution they are going to”.
Under Clinton’s plan, families would still be expected to make a “realistic family contribution” and students would also fork over some of their earnings from working 10 hours per week.
‘For many students, it would translate into debt-free tuition, ‘ said Carmel Martin, executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, who advised Clinton on that plan. She would also expand income-based repayment programs, allowing every student borrower to enroll in a plan that would cap their payments at 10 percent of their income with remaining debt forgiven after 20 years.
Private universities with “modest endowments” that serve a higher percentage of low-income students, including historically black colleges, would also receive federal funds to help lower the costs of attendance and improve graduation rates. That proposal, which has long been included in President Barack Obama’s annual budget, would raise more than $600 billion in the next decade, according to the Treasury Department.
O’Malley’s campaign has yet to release details on the cost or funding mechanisms of his plan, but its scope suggests it would likely exceed the $350 billion price tag of Clinton’s plan while still falling short of the $700 billion Sanders wants to spend.
College debt has become an increasingly important issue, and politicians are starting to take notice.
College-related debt has tripled in the past ten years, with numbers reaching $1.2 trillion in the beginning of 2015, according to the New York Federal Reserve.
That’s money that could potentially be used to pay for the increased costs of more students attending public schools. Clinton’s proposal relies on states to administer the grant programs, which would require colleges and universities to meet specific targets for student affordability.
“I don’t know who they’re talking to out on the campaign trail”, the Democratic front-runner told a crowd at a New Hampshire community college.
The Clinton campaign sees its proposal hitting a strong middle ground for the left, meeting the standards set by Demos and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, two groups with close ties to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren while coming in at less than half the cost of Sanders’s pitch.
Clinton ducked a question on whether New Hampshire should get more debates, saying merely that she would just show up when asked and would not question the DNC.
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She even mocked the real estate mogul’s ability to articulate a position on college affordability, which Clinton had addressed with a policy rollout earlier Monday.
