A resolution that seeks to make the college and university experience debt-free for students was introduced in Congress today. (Our very own U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva was among the representatives who introduced the House version. By the way, the resolution is sponsored by all Democrats).
They want to increase financial aid, lower tuition and offer options to get a degree quicker.
In a statement by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, who is the primary sponsor of the Senate’s version of the proposal, the congressmen and women involved highlighted the fact that the cost of going to college has increased by about 300 percent in the last three decades. They also said that graduating with debt has detrimental long-lasting effects in the country’s economy (college graduates who are unable of buying a house, starting a business, etc.).
“Student loan debt is now the highest form of personal debt in the nation, reaching over $1.3 trillion for 38 million student loan borrowers across the country,” the press release said.
A statement by Grijalva:
“Education remains the single greatest avenue of upward mobility our society has ever known. But the mounting costs of higher education place it out of reach for too many Americans, holding them back from their full potential or burdening them with unimaginable debt for years to come. In the richest nation on earth, there is no excuse for erecting and maintaining these barriers to professional growth.”
A statement by Schatz:
“Our message is clear: we need to do more to make college more affordable for all students so that they can graduate without debt holding them back. The federal government, states, and schools all have a role to play in cutting the cost of college. This is a problem we can solve, and we can start by working to make sure institutions receiving federal funding are doing their part to make a degree more affordable and accessible for all students.”
This resolution is backed by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (they want to put the issue at the top of priorities in the 2016 presidential campaign), according to a write up by The Huffington Post.
The article says that about 71 percent of students who get a bachelor’s degree graduate with debt that averages about $29,000, according to a 2014 White House report.
From the Post:
A paper co-authored by the PCCC and Demos, a liberal think tank, argues that debt can be reduced through a combination of educational offerings and accountability measures. The groups’ suggestions include increasing the number of advanced placement courses and early college high school programs that are offered, ensuring that schools aren’t using federal money for advertising and requiring schools with large endowments to guarantee debt-free college.
In January, President Obama proposed making two years of community college free for any student who has a GPA of at least 2.5, is enrolled at least part-time and is working on completing a program or transferring to a four-year university.
Arizona’s U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego is also involved with the movement.
This article appears in Apr 16-22, 2015.
While I’m of the opinion that, especially at state universities, tuition is much higher than at should be (mostly due to high administrative costs), what the Democrats’ proposal will do is actually lower the value of higher education. I guarantee that it will also lower the quality to where people just won’t go to a university unless they want a degree in highly theoretical sciences or mathematics.
If it doesn’t cost you something, chances are it’s not worth anything.
I have often said, the solution to our medical crisis is a free education set up on a military style system of get the education for doctor, nurse free with a 4 hear obligation to work at a set salary in government run medical system, use current hospitals, imagine doctors/nurses who for 4 years got free education, degrees then paid a reasonable living salary, then once they complete the obligatory 4 years can go into private practice, if its good enough for our service men/women why not for a medical system that would drastically reduce hospital costs, medical costs! Do away with the insurance companies by setting up a optional “free to every citizen” medical card as they have in Canada, UK, see how quickly the leeches on society the insurance companies go the way of the dinosaur!
Its not free. The government has to get the money somewhere and it come from the citizens. They also have long waiting lists that can go months if you need surgery. I have known people to come to the US to have surgery because of the wait time.
I continue to insist that higher tuition remains a Wall Street scam. Look up Professor Wolff’s analysis on http://youtube.com/.
That said, in California (and I suspect the rest of the nation) Wall Street bond-rating extortionists told the chancellors if they wanted attractive construction bonds ratings for potential investors they would have to put up as *collateral* something else besides ever-tighter state revenues. Student tuitions would do just fine, thank you very much.
If students wished to attend college, well, heck, they could always get a student loan…
That sent tuitions into the stratosphere. States no longer felt the need to fully fund colleges, as tuition fees–paid with student loans–would pick up the slack. College construction bond ratings soared on the backs of impoverished students.
In addition, and to add injury to injury, college loan-industry IOU’s have become a trillion dollar, bankruptcy-proof cash cow, for the investment class–that pays little or no income on this revenue source.
Overall, that’s what happens when the investment class gets major tax breaks. They get to keep more of their money to *lend with interest* to folks who desire an education. Whereas, previously, (pre-Reagan, pre-Clinton) those same investment class folks actually paid their fair share of taxes in proportion to the benefits they received under our economic system and colleges were fully funded…
By the way, the scarcity of MD’s across the land is America’s gift to the AMA. Decades ago doctors lobbied for “birth control” on the profession by limiting the number of med schools and med school graduates in the U.S. Tinkering with the law of supply and demand thus gave us a constantly growing demand for doctors as the population grows–with a supply number frozen in place… Doctors can now charge what the market will bear.
Each state needs at a minimum 4 to 5 more med schools. And public policies that make parasites of the investment class should cease. They, too, should pay taxes toward our civilization. Where’s FDR when you really need him?
Be well.
This is as ‘progressive’ as the Pelosi/Reid/Obama ideas that were passed in 09-10. at least $ 17 Trillion more in debt! It will transfer the debt of students to pay the fattened benefits of administrators, teachers, and students on to taxpayers as more debt is piled onto everyone else beyond the tens of trillions already printed under the Obama watch.
Who is going to pay for this? If students want lower education costs, let them work for it! Go to community college first, limit non-educational costs, no frats, spring break, dumb extracurricular pursuits, and no tuition assistance for non-employable majors–look it up! Also, not everyone should go to college either!
In the end we’ll all be better off if these communists, open borders and free entitlements fools like Grijalva are sent to the ash bin of history as with the supreme soviet and Cuban/Bolivarian Revolutions.
Our whole society only benefits from educated people.