While the
race for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations remains an
early and crowded one, the Student Loan Ranger thought it might be a good time
to start getting an idea of where some of the candidates stand on student debt.
We're glad
to see that so many candidates are making student debt a priority this early in
the race, because it is usually an issue that candidates don't take a public
position on until the general election. Since there are almost too many
hopefuls to count right now, we'll just focus on the current top two from each
party.
Hillary Clinton
Democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton rolled out her higher education plan, called The New College Compact, this past
August. The plan can be summed up by a quote from a speech she gave in New
Hampshire the day it was officially released: "No family and no student
should have to borrow to pay tuition at a public college or university," Clinton said. "And everyone who
has student debt should be able to finance it at lower rates."
The plan
isn't so much about new ideas, but about picking and choosing from policy
proposals currently being batted around by both sides of the aisle. Therefore,
it seems to hit some liberal as well as conservative notes.
To reduce future student debt, Clinton
proposes offering grants to states that reinvest in and work with their public
colleges to allow students to attend with a minimal, wage-based contribution
and no debt. Community colleges would
be completely tuition free.
Existing
student loans would see a significant decrease in interest rates and
simplification of the current myriad of income-driven
repayment options. The plan would also encourage higher college completion
rates, require college creditors to require more flexible and robust education
methods and require colleges whose students are unable to reasonably repay
their loans to contribute to a program that supports schools that serve
low-income students.
The $350 billion price tag may prove to be one of the most
controversial parts of the plan. Clinton proposes this be paid for with
tax adjustments for the wealthy.
Ben Carson
While
Clinton's proposals focus on increasing funds for higher education assistance,
Republican candidate Dr. Ben Carson has somewhat of an opposite view. His
solution for paying for college comes in the form of existing Pell Grant
funding and, as he noted during a 2014 interview, "there is a four letter
word that works extremely well, it's called w-o-r-k, work."
In
a more recent interview, he expands his position
to say that while student
loans are OK, their interest rates are not. He says that schools should
carry part of the responsibility of student loan debt by paying for the
interest on the loans for the students they enroll.
In
a more official statement on education, Carson criticizes the federal
Department of Education, but unlike other Republican candidates who have called
for it to be eliminated, Carson would like to use the
department to
"monitor our institutions of higher education for extreme political bias
and deny federal funding if it exists."
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