The chorus of calls for debt-free college education has grown steadily more strident among Democrats as the mild summer of 2015 has worn pleasantly on.
Now, Demos.org, a leftist public policy advocacy group, has detailed what progressives expect any debt-free college proposal to look like.
Any proposal must have five main features, the New York City-based policy outfit told The Daily Caller in an email.
First, Demos.org insists, all undergraduate students must have access to debt-free college. Any acceptable policy cannot take into account someone’s high school grades or test scores, for example, or their parents’ or their own incomes. Every student should be able to feed at the public trough.
Second, Demos.org demands, every public undergraduate college and university in every nook and cranny of America must be free.
Third, the progressive group requires, debt-free college must not apply merely to tuition. “All college costs” must be provided by government largesse. Presumably, “all college costs” would definitely include fees and the cost of books. It could also include housing costs, food costs, travel costs and spending money for things like toothpaste and beer.
The fourth demand uses a heaping helping of jargon. Any acceptable free-college plan, Demos.org asserts, must “facilitate all students having equal access to high-quality public education — i.e. incentivizing investment in instruction and student support services.”
Lastly, Demos.org stipulates, debt-free college proposals must “avoid academic hardship for students and economic hardship for everyday families” when calculating the meaning of “debt free.” Poor students shouldn’t be expected to work too much to make ends meet. Middle-class kids and rich kids with fancy cars shouldn’t be “assumed to have savings and disposable cash they do not truly have.”
Demos.org also wants aid to be “distributed progressively.” That concept is left ill-defined.
“Debt-free college means all students in America should be able graduate without debt,” Demos.org spokesman Donté Donald told The Daily Caller. “This big idea would expand economic opportunity, expand America’s economy, and improve quality of life for millions of people.”
Polling has showed that agitation about reducing out-of-control college costs is the issue that Democratic voters retrospectively say would have moved them most to vote in 2014, a group called the Progressive Change Campaign Committee has claimed.
Earlier this month, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced that the massive investment in grants and student loans by the federal government is a massive contributor to the unbridled growth in the cost of attending college. (RELATED: Feds Discover Their Own Aid Is To Blame For Rising Tuition)
Of the five announced Democratic presidential candidates, three of them have expressed interest in lowering or eliminating the debt burden of college.
Back in May, Hillary Clinton floated the debt-free college idea to show she is “a champion for everyday people,” according to her campaign manager, Robby Mook. (RELATED: Hillary Clinton Floats Debt-Free College To Subsidize Rich People, Fancypants Schools)
Clinton, 67, is a resident of Chappaqua, N.Y. who is worth as much as $50 million and who graduated from private Wellesley College (current annual tuition, fees, room and board: $61,340).
She has been vague and coy about the specifics of her debt-free college plan.
Also in May, Democratic presidential candidate and self-proclaimed socialist Bernie Sanders announced his plan to soak the rich to make tuition at public, four-year colleges and universities free. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders Wants Huge ‘Robin Hood’ Stock Tax To Make College Free)
The Vermont senator’s plan would add a 50-cent tax for every “$100 of stock trades on stock sales, and lesser amounts on transactions involving bonds, derivatives, and other financial instruments.” A group called Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street supports the bill. The group admits that the new federal surcharge would reduce and decrease trading — and suggests that such an economic shrinkage would improve the economy.
Martin O’Malley has made the most modest proposal. The former Maryland governor has called for Congress to slash interest on student loans.
Last month, New Jersey Gov. (and Republican presidential candidate) Chris Christie argued that grand schemes such as the ones proposed by Demos.org and Sanders are not just unfeasible but also morally wrong. (RELATED: Christie Bashes Debt-Free College Plans)
“If college graduates are going to reap the greater economic rewards and opportunities of earning a degree, then it seems fair for them to support the cost of the education they’re receiving.” Christie said. “Earning a degree should actually involve earning it.”
According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, America’s collective student loan debt is currently $1.16 trillion, which amounts to over $28,000 for each college graduate. (RELATED: Obama Throws A Bone To Americans Crushed With Student Loans)
The president of Demos.org is a graduate of Yale University.
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