Hillary Clinton rolled out a $350 billion proposal Monday that her campaign says would help millions of people pay for college and reduce interest rates for student loans.
During an Exeter, N.H. town hall, Clinton told supporters how her parents saved for years to send her to college in order to set her on a “better path.”
“College still holds that promise. A lot has changed in our country -- but that hasn’t,” Clinton said.
What has changed though is the price tag for a college education, an investment that has resulted in racked-up debt for many U.S. students. In 2013, roughly 7 in 10 students had an average of about $28,400 in college debt each, according to the Institute for College Access & Success, an advocacy group that tracks college costs and student debt.
This is fed in part by a steady rise in college tuitions, which have been increasing steadily throughout the past few decades. Further, families' real incomes have not grown at all in the past decade, except for in the top income bracket, a 2014 College Board report found.
Hillary Clinton
Clinton’s “New College Compact" would offer incentives to states that provide no-loan tuition at four-year public colleges and universities. States that do so will be awarded grants from the federal government. States that enroll more low and middle-income students would receive more financial incentives under the Clinton plan, as would states that work with colleges and universities to slash living expenses.
To pay for the program, which Clinton’s campaign says would cost $350 billion over 10 years, Clinton would limit “certain tax expenditures for high-income taxpayers.” That’s a long way of saying close tax loopholes.
Clinton’s plan would also overhaul the federal student loan program. Costs would be lower both for those who already have debt, as well as current private college and university students. Loans could be refinanced at lower rates, and payments would be capped at 10% of discretionary income. Any money owed after 20 years would be forgiven.
Clinton's plan still expects families and students to contribute to their education -- through savings, loans and part-time work if necessary. "We can’t expect the federal government just to pay the bill for free. That’s not how America works," she said Monday.
In her plan, families would be required to make a “realistic” contribution to tuition and students would be required to work 10 hours per week.
Martin O'Malley
Martin O’Malley wants to make education at public universities debt-free in the next five years by lowering public university tuition rates, tying loan repayment to graduates’ incomes and increasing federal Pell Grants to low-income students.
In a policy paper on his campaign website, O’Malley called for immediately freezing tuition rates and then tying tuition to no more than 10% of state median income at four-year public universities.
O’Malley’s plan not just tackles tuition, it takes a more broad view of college costs. He wants to increase Pell Grants and state grants to cover non-tuition costs for students who can’t afford them. He has also called for expanding and modernizing the federal work study program.
O'Malley has also proposed that all graduates have their loan repayment schedules automatically tied to their incomes. Now, graduates have to actively opt in to the income-based repayment program.
Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders has a simple message: Public college education should be free.
It's the biggest prong of the education bill he introduced in the Senate in May. The bill would also lower interest rates on federal student loans, give graduates the opportunity to refinance existing loans at lower rates and stop the government from profiting on student loans.
Annual tuition costs at public colleges and universities total around $70 billion per year, according to Sanders’ office.