Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton is preparing to roll out her plan for expanding access to college and reigning in student debt during a swing through New Hampshire.
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Clinton will do this, according to the campaign, by incentives to states that agree to provide “no-loan tuition at four-year public colleges and universities”.
The plan is an effort to address a major financial stress for many American families and satisfy a central demand of the Democratic party’s liberal wing.
A new grant program would be available to states that commit to a no-tuition guarantee at community colleges and a no-loan guarantee at four-year public colleges and universities, the campaign said.
Hillary Clinton’s plan would allow graduates to refinance existing loans at current rates and consolidate four existing programs that allow graduates to make income-based loan payments into one that caps repayment at 10 percent of income, with the balance forgiven after 20 years.
“Too many borrowers around the country are overly burdened or treated unfairly as they repay their student loans”, Clinton told The Chronicle of Higher Education in a 2007 interview.
Low-income families will also be able to use Pell Grants to pay for room and board costs. Clinton’s campaign estimates that allowing refinancing would save 25 million borrowers roughly $2,000 a year over the life of their loans. Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley has also introduced a debt-free college plan that calls for public colleges and universities to freeze tuition rates.
Clinton’s leading Democratic rivals have already outlined proposals to make college more affordable. To do this, billion a year would be provided by the federal and state governments.
Even so, college affordability has emerged as a major issue on the presidential campaign trail, as families face the highest debt burden in generations.
“Clinton has not abandoned that concept”, reported the Chronicle, noting that her advisers are now weighing whether to draft another “bill of rights” for those paying off student loans. Her team conducted weeks of meetings with experts on the issue to develop the proposal, including policy staffers for liberal leader Sen.
Clinton’s plan borrows some ideas from Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
‘There’s something wrong when students and their families have to go deeply into debt to be able to get the education and skills they need in order to make the best of their own lives, ‘ Clinton told students and teachers in Iowa shortly after announcing her campaign.
The plan appears designed to appeal to the younger voters who flocked to Barack Obama, helping secure his path to the White House twice.
Another key proposal would specifically help ease the burden for students attending historically black colleges, according to Politico.
While military veterans and lower-income students 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.
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