Get To Know Hillary Clinton’s $350 Billion College Plan

Get To Know Hillary Clinton’s $350 Billion College Plan


BLAKE NEFF
Reporter
2:04 PM 08/10/2015

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has unveiled an ambitious plan that she says will give every American the ability to attend college debt-free. Clinton’s plan has an estimated cost of $350 billion over 10 years and will essentially work by trying to exert federal pressure on states.

States would receive $175 billion in new grants from the federal government. In return, states would be expected to direct more funding toward public colleges and to implement measures to slow the growth of tuition. By giving public colleges substantially more money, Clinton hopes the schools will opt to keep tuition under control and to offer loan-free aid for any student unable to entirely cover tuition on their own.

Notably, though, Clinton’s plan doesn’t include any provisions for capping the growth of tuition rates, one of the key drivers of college affordability.

In addition to her four-year college plan, Clinton is also adopting President Barack Obama’s proposal for making two-year public community colleges completely tuition-free. Clinton’s plan has many more details aside from just trying to fiddle with tuition. Other reforms she’s pushing include:

-Allowing Pell Grants to apply entirely toward living expenses rather than school tuition

-Letting current holders of student loans refinance at lower interest rates, effectively reducing how much they will be expected to pay over the lifetime of the laon.

-Expanding the size of the AmeriCorps service program, which offers education benefits for participants. Clinton would grow the program from 80,000 members to as many as 200,000

-Punishing private colleges that have too many graduates struggle to pay off loans.

Clinton plans to pay for her program through raising taxes on high earners by capping the amount they are allowed to claim in itemized deductions each year. The tax increase would boost federal revenues by an estimated $600 billion over the next decade, giving Hillary enough to fund her program and then some.

But since Clinton’s proposal would require the collaboration of both Congress and the fifty states, it’s unclear how feasible it is. Congressional Republicans are unlikely to sign off on a major tax increase, while Clinton’s efforts to brings states along could run into the same roadblocks Obama encountered when he tried to have states expand Medicaid coverage.

Still, Hillary’s plan allows her to cover her left flank in a Democratic race where college affordability has become a huge talking point. Martin O’Malley has already unveiled his own debt-free college plan, while Bernie Sanders has gone even further and pledged to spend about $70 billion a year in federal and state funding to make all public four-year colleges completely tuition-free, similar to the systems currently used in some European countries like Germany.

Without skipping a beat, Republican presidential candidates have lined up to criticize Clinton’s plan for its cost.

“We don’t need more top-down Washington solutions that will raise the cost of college even further and shift the burden to hardworking taxpayers,” Jeb Bush said in a statement sent to the Tampa Bay Times. “We need to change the incentives for colleges with fresh policies that result in more individualization and choices, drive down overall costs, and improve the value of a college degree, which will help lead to real, sustained four-percent economic growth.”

Senator Marco Rubio similarly criticized the plan for funneling money to traditional centers of higher education rather than focusing on the potential of online education, skill certificates and other alternatives to traditional college programs.

Republicans haven’t ignored the issue of college costs, though. Rubio has produced his own plan for reducing student loans, which includes promoting programs where students would have their education paid for in return for a set percentage of their future earnings. Fellow candidate Scott Walker fought rising prices in Wisconsin by imposing a tuition freeze on the University of Wisconsin.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/10/ge...#ixzz3iTFEwb5k

Now tell me Hillary, why should Americans who can't or don't go to college pay taxes to pay for the tuition of those who do? Yes, we all should pay towards ensuring our state and public colleges and universities are sound and of high caliber, and we should also require that the institutions be affordable for average Americans, you know the way it was when we went to college. It would help to stop the insanity of all these foreign students taking up seats that should be going to American Kids. It would also help to ensure that our public colleges and universities are sensible, frugal and are setting a good example of high productivity and efficiency which of course converts to affordability with great results.

Only 30% of Americans go to college. There is no reason on God's Green Earth for the other 70% to pay taxes or incur debt to pay for the college tuition of those who do. The problem isn't that college students have to pay to go to college, the problem is our public colleges and universities are charging far too much for what they're delivering and student loan programs under the current structure are criminal. Students aren't forced to make their payments, graduates aren't getting the jobs they expected to have in the time frame they should, and the economics of education are out of whack, regardless of who pays for it.

Parents who don't have jobs can't pay to send their kids to college. Students who need to work their way through school can't find jobs that allow them to do that. Parents and students who somehow figure out a way to survive during the 4 years now have to struggle along for several more years while they await their college graduate finding a job that sustains them and provides them enough wage to both live on their own and make their student loan payments.

But American lifestyles are messed up as well. My parents paid to send both my sister and I to college at the same time. We were lower middle income during those years. We lived in the same adorable 2 bedroom home my Dad bought when we were 4 and 5. Our parents never had a new car. We never took a vacation. We did go to the metro areas twice to see baseball games and stayed in a motel one night for each trip to the two different cities to see our state's two different baseball teams. We had a wonderful rich life, but very conservative. And both my sister's and my university educations were all paid off in full 1 year after we both graduated.

So, how colleges and universities were operating and how banks were making students loans then is exactly how they need to be doing it now.

Therefore, no Hillary. Your idea stinks to high heaven.

How about addressing the real problem which is the cost of college increasing exponentially? Student loans, grants, tuition forgiveness, and whatever else won't fix that. But a HUGE part of what is encouraging tuition costs to skyrocket is how easy students can get money for college to *pay later*. When its not your own money we don't think of how good of a deal it is or how affordable it is even when we think we will have to pay it back one day because of course by then we will all be making 6 figure incomes and it will be quite simple.... right? That is the thinking and how screwed up it is. Also in each college how many students are getting what scholarships and exactly for what? Most scholarships aren't for top academic achievement but based on race or sports. Those scholarships aren't free though but instead the other students tuition goes up so the others can get a free ride. Scholarships for other then top academics need to be banned from the schools themselves unless afforded by outside groups, sports, race crap, gender crap, and so forth need to be kicked to the curb. Also how about a law that mandates every school needs to post a yearly report online as well as deliver to every student a detailed breakdown of where their tuition costs went exactly. When students see themselves being fleeced for sports programs, liberal arts programs, and other NON academic crap they will be up in arms and the school will be held accountable.