Gary Johnson’s college affordability plan and a desire for more local control could help him with young voters worried about college costs.
The Libertarian presidential nominee sat down with International Business Times to discuss abolishing the Department of Education and why college is so expensive.
In advocating his plan, Johnson explained how the process works:
The cost of bureaucracy adds up.
“So if none of this transaction ever occurred in the first place, a dollar would get spent in New York in ways that New Yorkers would have wanted to spend that money,” Johnson said.
Johnson has been praised by ISideWith.com for personally submitting his views to the website. When it comes to education, he is against Common Core standards, as he believes “education should be handled at the state and local level instead of the national level.”
Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act a few months ago, which has been championed by those who advocate for more local control, including those who oppose Common Core. It won’t dismantle the standards completely, though, and the act is not enough for Johnson.
“Why should they have any control at all in the first place? That’s my point,” he said.
Johnson blamed the high cost of tuition on guaranteed government loans, saying that if they “never existed, tuition today would be half of what it is, because colleges and universities would have to go out and attract you as a student.” He continued:
He apologized because “college graduates today have been sold a bill of goods.”
Johnson has a point. College affordability has declined in 45 states, thanks to federal aid. His plan is also similar to Donald Trump’s, who also aims to get the government out of lending student loans.
