Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders announced the details of his plan for tuition-free college Tuesday, saying “we must revolutionize the financing of our higher education system.”
Speaking outside the U.S. Capitol, the Vermont senator called it a “national disgrace” that some students are deterred from pursuing college because of its cost and said it was “unacceptable” that college graduates postpone home purchases because of loan burdens.
Sanders, an independent and self-described socialist who caucuses with Democrats and is running in the Democratic primary for president, said that his plan would eliminate tuition at four-year public universities and colleges. It would be paid for with a financial transactions tax.
It would expand work-study programs at those schools, as well as implement a long-standing Democratic proposal to lower interest rates on federal student loans and allow students with college debt to lower the rates on their outstanding debt.
Sanders’ proposal, the latest in successive efforts by Democrats to address rising college costs, is far more expansive than the one President Obama proposed in his budget. Obama’s would guarantee two years of tuition-free community college to students who maintained a 2.5 grade point average.
Obama’s community college policy was an “important step forward,” Sanders said, but inadequate for the students who go to four-year schools for whom community college is not appropriate.
Sanders declined to say what role his plan would play in the Democratic primary. Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner, has said she will introduce a plan to lower college debt, but has not done so.
The White House estimated that the Obama plan would cost taxpayers roughly $80 billion over 10 years between the federal and state governments.
Sanders’ proposal would cost almost that much each year, or $750 billion over 10 years, according to his estimates.
In his plan, states would offer tuition-free higher education, and for every $1 they committed, the federal government would reimburse state governments $2. “All qualified” students would qualify for free tuition, Sanders said.
Offering tuition-free college “is an expensive proposition,” he acknowledged. The financial transactions tax would raise $300 billion annually, according to Sanders’ office’s estimates. It would impose a 0.5 percent on stock trades, a 0.1 percent fee on bonds and a 0.005 percent fee on derivatives.
Sanders, however, insisted that tuition-free college is realistic, citing the fact that it is available in other countries, such as Germany, Denmark and other Nordic nations.
