Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday unveiled a $350 billion plan to make college affordable and relieve the burden of student debt for millions of Americans, drawing on popular tenets of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, reported The Washington Post.
"College is supposed to help people achieve their dreams, but more and more paying for college actually pushes those dreams further and further out of reach," Clinton said while announcing the proposal at a town hall-style event at a public high school in Exeter, New Hampshire. "That is a betrayal of everything college is supposed to represent."
The centerpiece of the plan, called the New College Compact, would develop a federal-state partnership to increase funding for public colleges and universities in an effort to reduce tuition overall and, more specifically, the portion financed by students. The incentive program would provide grants to states that guarantee "no-loan" tuition at four-year public universities and community colleges. States that enroll a high number of low- and middle-income students would receive more money, as would those that work with schools to reduce living expenses. Because Pell grants, a form of federal aid for students from families making less than $60,000, are not included in the no-debt calculation, Clinton anticipates lower income students could use that money to cover books, as well as room and board, Inside Higher Ed reported.
The New College Compact would also:
- Cut the interest rate on federal student loans "significantly" to eliminate any profit that the government makes on these loans.
- Allow everyone with current student debt to refinance at today's relatively low interest rates.
- Create a new program to help "modest endowment" private colleges keep tuition low and promote better graduation rates. The program will be designed for minority-serving institutions and others that serve a high proportion of Pell-eligible students.
- Expand the AmeriCorps public service program from 75,000 to 250,000 students annually.
- Embrace new accountability measures, some of which may be controversial with colleges. For example, a fact sheet on the plan states that "our colleges and universities should be up-front about graduation rates, likely earnings and likely debt, and how those metrics compare with other schools."
- Strengthen and defend the Obama administration’s gainful employment regulations.
- Close the 90-10 loophole that allows colleges to "prey on veterans."
In order to pay for the proposed plan, Clinton would reinstitute Reagan-era cuts on itemized tax deductions for high-income families. According to the campaign's fact sheet, "we need to make ambitious investments so that cost is no longer a barrier to college education, and the burden of debt does not hold back everyday Americans."
Related Links
New College Compact Fact Sheet
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/p/briefing/factsheets/2015/08/10/college-compact/
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/10/clinton-proposes-a-350-billion-plan-to-make-college-affordable/
Inside Higher Ed
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/10/clinton-proposes-350-billion-plan-make-college-affordable