Bernie and Hillary Join Forces To Release "Revolutionary" Free College Plan

[liberalnarb]

The Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns have teamed up to combine the two candidates’ plans to make higher education affordable in a commendable compromise that might finally lead to real change in our country. Since the beginning of the race, both candidates have been determined to fight for affordable college and university tuition, but they have had a few key disagreements. Sanders wanted free tuition for all public colleges, while Clinton focused on refinancing student debt and investing in cheaper forms of higher education. The new plan slashes tuition fees and addresses existing student debt.

Clinton famously criticized Sanders’s plan by saying, “I am not in favor of making college free for Donald Trump’s kids.” In other words, she did not want to introduce universal free tuition because it would amount to a government subsidy for the rich who don’t need one.

Now Clinton has adopted some of Sanders’s free tuition pledges; she will make tuition free for around 80% of Americans but introduce an income cap on free tuition so the richest Americans still have to pay “by making in-state colleges and university free for students from families making $85,000 a year or less. That income threshold would then climb by $10,000 a year until 2021, when in-state schools would then be free to all families who make $125,000 or less.” She reiterated her original promises to close tax loopholes and use the $350 billion saved over a ten year period to refinance student debt to unprecedented low interest rates. She also says she will make it impossible for the government to profit off of student loans.

http://occupydemocrats.com/2016/07/06/just-bernie-hillary-join-forces-release-revolutionary-free-college-plan/

[one_voice]

1. I've heard bits and pieces...

sounds great. I want to read it. I hope they have something for students that are currently drowning in debt too.

This is what I want to see. The two together...unbeatable. Add the rest of the Dems and we're golden.

Trump and the repukes can go to hell. We'll kick ass up and down the ticket.

[Hortensis]

32. From the L.A. Times, One Voice.

Note Sanders' "make life immediately better" comment near the bottom. It suggests details not mentioned here.

Before teeing off on Trump, Clinton’s campaign detailed her new college plan, the result of continuing conversations with Sanders. The biggest proposal would grant tuition-free enrollment at in-state public colleges and universities for students from families making up to $85,000 annually. The income benchmark would increase over four years to $125,000, applying to an estimated 80% of families.

Clinton also plans to use executive action to provide a three-month moratorium on student loan repayments for federal borrowers. The "time-out" would give students a chance to work with the U.S. Department of Education to consolidate their loans and reduce their monthly payments.

The plan received an uncharacteristically warm embrace from Sanders, who has so far declined to formally endorse her. Sanders was supported during the primary by the overwhelming majority of young voters, who often cited his promise of universal free tuition at public institutions. Clinton previously had offered a more limited plan for debt-free college. Her new plan does not go as far as Sanders’, whose plan included no income limit, but moves significantly in his direction.

In a sign that Sanders and Clinton are increasingly aligning as the party prepares for its convention later this month in Philadelphia, the Vermont senator said the proposals are "a result of the work of both campaigns." "This proposal, when implemented, will revolutionize the funding of higher education in America, improve the economic future of our country and make life immediately better for tens of millions of people stuck with high levels of student debt," Sanders said in the statement.

[Dawson Leery]

2. kick

[lonestarnot]

3. YES! Now that's what I'm talk'n bout!

[liberalnarb]

5. It's phenomenal.

[lonestarnot]

8. Fantasisimo!

[woolldog]

4. I'm not really in favor of this emphasis on free college.

How does free college benefit children (mostly black and brown) who are stuck in primary and secondary schools that can't even begin to prepare them adequately for college? Who is disproportionately dropping out before even coming close to attending college? They will not be able to take advantage of this.

The money that is paying for this plan would be better off going to improving primary and secondary education. Instead this is like a pretty little band-aid on a gaping wound.

[liberalnarb]

6. What about the millions of Americans being crushed by student loan debt?

There are different solutions for different issues.

[woolldog]

12. I graudated with 6 figure student loan debt.

So I understand, although it's gotten much worse since I finished school.

[PowerToThePeople]

14. I will have to read the plan

I agree with you. New college grads coming out debt free competing with others with student debt levels higher than their yearly salaries. Will this put downward pressure on wages that have already been stagnant for a couple of decades?

I am hesitantly positive on the idea, for the moment.

[AgingAmerican]

7. It gives them a shot at a future

I didn't make it past eighth grade, yet managed to earn a Bachelors degree later on in life.

Are you saying not having a shot at college is better?

[woolldog]

11. I'm asking whether the resources spent on sending kids to college free

might be better spent on "revolutionizing" primary and secondary education. The vast majority of poor inner city students are not at schools where they are being prepared for college. So the prospect of free college is cold comfort to those students who will not likely benefit from this plan. It will not improve their poor primary and secondary schools. This program amounts to a transfer of wealth out of inner city, academically struggling schools, to more affluent (but not wealthy) schools and school districts.

Just some food for thought.

[AgingAmerican]

19. No it shouldn't

You are implying that free college is racist, and you are dead wrong on all points.

[woolldog]

20. I'm implying that when it comes to America's educational system

free college should not be THE top priority. It's akin to spraying Lysol on a gangrenous limb.

[bettyellen]

31. I think she is stating that this free college policy will benefit all but the kids who most need it.

Similar to fdrs housing programs. They both will deepen some existing divides. Inner city secondary schools often suck, and are dangerous. Kids graduate HS without being prepared for HS, let alone college.

[NWCorona]

10. For me it's not an either or issue.

[woolldog]

13. Well, where are their plans for revolutionizing primary and secondary education?

in struggling schools? This will have the biggest beneficial impact, not free college. Those proposals are aimed at the bourgeoisie and winning their votes, not the poor.

[NWCorona]

16. I would like a revamp of the entire education system but I think

this approach will have the most beneficial impact in the near term.

[merrily]

17. If the existence of Problem A stops us from fixing Problem B, we'll never get anywhere.

It's not either or. We can fix a problem at a time. And we can also fix more than one problem at a time.

Hillary is likely going for the vote of millennials that supported Bernie in the primary and thinking "free college" may have been how he got it.

Of course, college is not "free." Once the kids get out of school and get jobs, they'll pay taxes for those who come up behind them.

Meanwhile, you and I and others can be working on better public schools K-12 in all neighborhoods on both the local and state levels, as well as the national level.

[woolldog]

21. But it IS a zero-sum situation.

Money spent underwriting free college for the middle class is coming from somewhere else. And where the amount of money spent on education is limited, it is coming out of the education budget

[merrily]

23. That free college is only for the middle class (or the rich) is a myth and the money will come

from the same places that money for K-12 or roads or war comes. That's how society operates. And, as stated, once people graduate and get jobs, they started paying taxes, too. That also is how society operates.

[bettyellen]

34. It seems to be individual states allowing some communities to be severely underfunded and others

Very well maintained, well stocked and fully staffed.
It's shocking that in some of the hottest and expensive residential areas of NYC reside schools full of poor kids from Brooklyn and Harlem shoved forty in to a room and not given text books. Manhattan doesn't have enoug tax money? It's insane.

[merrily]

37. That seems like grounds for a lawsuit against the City of New York.

There's a SCOTUS case saying that you can't force a school distrisct to distribute school money equally when real estate taxes are by city or town.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Antonio_Independent_School_District_v._Rodriguez

However, that is an older case and the City of New York might be different. Also, the court held that education is not a fundamental right. However, the history of free education in this country says otherwise, at least to the US. All I can think of is that the case was presented poorly. One thing Thurgood Marshall did in the Brown v. Board of Ed case was produce indisputable evidence that separate was not equal, so that the equal protection clause was being violated for racial reasons. In New York, I think the Bronx, the ration of people of color to white people in the underserved parts of the city could raise a racial issue, too, but the lawyers for the plaintiff have to do the kind of work Marshall did for the Brown family--including picking the ideal plaintiff, as Marshall did with Mr. Brown.

[bettyellen]

39. I know there was a case won but on appeal it was lost and the judge said

Something like the state did not owe everyone a good education ... Because some were destined to end up flipping burgers anyway. Quite sad.

[MADem]

22. Really. I'd like the kid who lives in Compton to get the same K-12 education as the kid in

Beverly Hills, frankly.

That's where the emphasis needs to be.

[bettyellen]

35. Exactly my thoughts on it.

[DemonGoddess]

38. ^^^This!!!

[Dems2002]

28. Black and brown students have higher debt loads

I am not going to suggest that k-12 doesn't require better solutions. But there is a lot of time and effort going into this as well. Personally. I think affordable, high quality childcare from 0-5 is essential to close gaps that last a lifetime.


But understand that black and brown students who go to college are currently overburdened by the cost as compared with white students. And this cost factors into many of the, dropping out Nd not completing degrees.

http://prospect.org/article/campaign-challenge-fix-african-american-student-loan-crisis

[JustAnotherGen]

29. Quiet Agreement

And it leaves out the mechanically inclined who should graduate high school in 2023 prepared to charge the College Graduate with no student debt and a brand new condo and car $750 for an HVAC service call on a 95 degree day. Everyone has to make their money at other's expense. That's how commerce works.

I have noted though that she specifically notes 'high quality charter schools' which I *think* will allow parents in black/hispanic zip codes to bypass America and educate their children as they see fit. IE if the Elizabeth NJ school district or Camden NJ school district is failing to provide a Beverly Hills education - let the parents bypass the rest of us to do right by their children by grabbing tax payer funds to take over their schools.

Here's her K-12 Platform.
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/k-12-education/

Waiting 5-10 years for her college grads to pay taxes leaves a huge group of people behind during that time. That's too late for a 4th grader in Camden NJ in 2016.

In her speech yesterday she should have attacked Trumps lapdog Christie for his flat tax per student plan that *supposedly* will lower property taxes across the board. In Atlantic City that would have been huge.

I'm okay with free college as long as she does not back down on charter schools. It gives the people the power.

[quaker bill]

30. why pit one against the other?

when we easily have the resources to do both.

[BobbyDrake]

33. This sounds like the New Deal all over again. Benefits for whites will come easy, while

systemic racism will prevent benefits at all to minorities. This is why ignoring racism to focus exclusively on class is a non-starter with minority communities. They know their history, after all.

[bemildred]

9. Excellent. nt

[nolawarlock]

15. Kudos! This is definitely something I can behind.

I didn't like either of their plans on the subject, frankly, but I like this. This is what happens when smart people join forces.

[merrily]

18. Damn that Bernie Sanders!

[Cobalt Violet]

24. I hope this will help older workers who need to retrain for today's jobs. n/t

[John Poet]

25. All right HILLARY !!!

I can dig this.

[lovemydog]

26. I love this!

I'm really proud of Sanders, Clinton and so many other great democrats who will support this wholeheartedly.

As someone who voted for Hillary in the primary, I'm really glad they're teaming up by concentrating on things that will move us all forward.

It's all about good strong policies that benefit the most people.

[BigBearJohn]

27. Best news I heard all week long!

[Orsino]

36. I would hope that we see more of this.

And hear less from the voices who wanted to silence one candidate or the other. Together, we're stronger.