Climbing Up the Wall Streets for the Students
During the 2016 presidential race, an Independent Senator from Vermont arose to the occasion and challenged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Governor Martin O’Malley for the Democrat nomination. Senator Bernie Sanders introduced plenty of new daring policies. One of those policies was the “It’s Time to Make College Tuition Free and Debt Free”, which immediately drew in most of the millennials attention.
Senator Sanders first introduced a legislation at the 114th Congress 1st Session, May 19th 2015 titled “College for All Act”. One of the main points highlighted in the legislation was “We live in a highly competitive global economy, if we want our economy to be strong we need the best educated work force in the world.” I agree with that statement due to the fact that more jobs are now requiring higher level education. We can’t move forward with our economy, if our future leaders aren’t educated thus being unable to work which will lead to a significant rise in the unemployment rate and a decrease in overall productivity. Senator Sanders main goal was to make college affordable for everyone. The main argument against Senator Sanders is from the Republican candidates John Kasich, and Jeb Bush. Both claim that we should leave the system the way it is now, letting the states decide what’s best for higher education. However, during the 2008 Great Recession the states dramatically cut the funding for a higher education thus
Senator Sanders continuously makes comparisons between the United States education system and many European countries. While his comparisons are harmless, they quite frankly make little sense. The top three most educated workforces in the world both pay for tuition, A quote on the Senators homepage notes that Germany recently abolished college tuition, and "Finland, Norway, Sweden and many other countries around the world also offer free college to all of their citizens." So lets look in
During one of his campaign programs, Presidential-candidate Bernie Sanders stood before a thousand applauding and cheering people. This man just announced, as hopeful future President of the United States, that he planned to make college free for every US citizen. Many young adults favor Bernie Sanders, and other political leaders, idea of free tuition because they believe that it will open more doors for them and allow them to not worry about the burden of student loans. However, there are many reasons that regulating free college education could hurt our society and economy that people don’t often realize. College education should not be free because it would raise taxes, it would devalue the worth of a college degree, and it would pave the way for more welfare dependency.
It is necessary to have free college tuition in order to help advance the well being of our country. One reason is that competition for a job is constantly increasing which makes it almost necessary to have a degree. Those who have a college degree are more likely to get a job than those without because of their additional knowledge and understanding. Sanders has a “College for All” act which makes going to college not only tuition free but also debt free. This plan has an estimated cost of $75 billion a year. The College for All act states that “the federal government would cover 67% of the cost, while the states would be responsible for the remaining 33%” (All Act). According to Sanders, countries like Germany, Finland, Norway and Sweden are tuition free (berniesanders.com). That being said, he believes that in order to get on their level of education, we most offer free college as well. With more educated people in our country, as a whole, we can improve upon the accomplishments of the nation.
Greenblatt discusses solutions by both the federal government as well as the state. Since Obama has been in office, his administration has been working on repayment plans. The basic function of the repayment plan is that once the student graduates and is working, the payment plans will be refinanced according to their new income. Since Obama’s term is almost over, the article discusses the current presidential candidates’ proposals for student debt. Sanders had said that he wanted to make four years of college free for students; people opposed of this idea because taxes would go up. He explained that the federal government would pay for most of it and the state would pay for the remaining. Both Clinton and Sanders favor lowering interest rates on student loans for the borrowers. Unlike Sanders however, Clinton would like to make community college free as opposed to 4 years of college being free for students. Trump has stated that he would like to help the issue with student debt but he has not discussed what his plans
Nowadays, tuition and expenses are exceedingly high, to the point that some students are forced to drop some of their courses or even worse stop going to school and continue working. Further, the average student who graduates today from a 4-year school owes $28,000 in student debt. This has alarmed government officials and concerned citizens alike; as a result, yielding many state and federal level proposals aimed at decreasing the financial burden of students. One campaign which recently launched last September 2015 and supports the advocacy of alleviating students’ debt is the America’s College Promise Act, more commonly known as the Heads Up America Campaign.
He makes a strong effort, aimed at creating a sentiment towards government, colleges, and student loans that will solicit change to the system in use today. Whether or not his endeavor worked is still yet to be seen 4 years later, as students today still struggle with the same problem featured in the article: vast amounts of student loan debt. Proposals of “free community college” by former President Obama, and “debt free public college” by Secretary Clinton, but America voted against such ideas. The question lingers whether or not the current administration will take
Nearly 75 percent of Americans believe the cost of education should be the responsibility of the federal government. What is indisputable is the fact that there are major flaws with our higher education system. Americans are fed up with this system and the power that it wields over our life! Any smart presidential candidate would notice Americans’ anguish over this problem and develop a solution to not only make college more affordable but possibly free and to solve the paralyzing issue of college loan debt once and for all. This will truly provide Americans with the freedom and the pursuit of happiness they are entitled to and ensure your placement in the oval
On the end of the Democratic Party, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders presented comprehensive plans to help eliminate student debt, although they vary on how to deal with the cost of education and how much the government should pay (Josuweit, 2016). Clinton created the “New College Compact,” to address both the current and future educational costs, her main focus on addressing existing debt and allowing borrowers to refinance student loans at the rates allowed to students taking out new loans, which Clinton claims would provide to relief to twenty five million borrowers (Josuweit, 2016). In addition to this, Clinton wants to reduce interest rates on new student loans which would facilitate enrollment in IDR plans (Josuweit, 2016). On future tuition, Clinton claimed she would provide help so that students never have to borrow to pay for tuition and other fees attending a four year public college in state (Josuweit, 2016).
In the recent debate regarding the implementation of free college tuition across the United States, Jon Wiener, a Los Angeles journalist for The Nation, and Kelly Field, chief Washington reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education who covers different federal education policies, discuss why college tuition should be abolished in the United States of America and the role of both Democratic and Republican parties on the debate. In the article, “It’s Time to End Tuition at Public Universities - and Abolish Student Debt,” published by the Nation in March 2015, Jon Wiener annotates the crippling debt that college
Iris Palmer, the senior policy analyst with the Educational Policy program at New America, notes in her article The False Promise of “Free College” that there is no denying the appeal “free college” offers to students pursuing a college degree. In this article, Palmer discusses several reasons why presidential nominee Hillary Clintons’ plan for free college would not have been beneficial to the United States, or to students hoping to earn a college degree. Although the articles main focus is about the plan created by Clinton, it ultimately can be used to form an argument against the general plans for “free” college tuition as a whole. The article lists several reasons why “free” college tuition would not solve the problem of the lack of students
For many in the middle class student debt has a strong and relentless grasp on their economic future. In their article "Why Free Higher Ed Can't Wait" Jeje Biola and Belinda Rodriguez state that, "Student debt has reached a record total of over $1.3 trillion" (6). This has left many people wondering where this is coming from and wanting change. This number is just too high in the minds of the average American. In the last few years free college tuition has been a hot topic in American politics, as recently as the 2016 presidential race. Candidates such as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton proved to be a huge push for free tuition. The raising college tuition rates effect all Americans in some form or fashion, so support is quickly rising especially
One of the most popular ideas offered is to increase taxes for the rich in order to reduce interest rates for student loans. This has also been a very popular topic during the Presidential Campaign of 2016. United States Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed an idea in his 2016 presidential campaign that calls for free higher education. His solution urges public colleges and universities to meet the financial need of the lowest-income students. He also proposes that low-income students use state, federal, and institutional aid to cover additional expenses. He has also stated he would like to see an increase in federal aid programs for college students in debt. Another Democrat in the 2016 presidential campaign is Hillary Clinton. She has proposed a higher education plan called “The New College Compact”. "No family and no student should have to borrow to pay tuition at a public college or university, and everyone who has student debt should be able to finance it at lower rates", Clinton stated in speech she gave in New Hampshire. The plan aims at lowering interest rates of current student loans and encourages students to attend and graduate higher education schools. One change that was made by the federal government was by President Obama in 2010. He reformed the Direct Loan program into the “Obama Student Loan Forgiveness” program. Some of the policies issued in this new program include making people
America is dealing with a student loan debt crisis were are $1.2 trillion in debt and that continues to grow. As college tuition contines to rise and interest rates on student loans are very high it is time to take action. Bernie Sanders wants to make college affordable and lower the rates on students loans. The exigency is the unaffordability of college and the extremely high intrest rates Bernie realizes the problem and now must address education reform.
In 1958, the National Defense Education Act provided college students up to one thousand dollars a year in loans, but the average annual loan was actually only five hundred dollars or less because students could afford the rest of tuition on their own. Interest began at three percent a year after graduation and could usually be paid off in ten years. (Good 590-591) These statistics are a far cry from today’s, with student loan debt surpassing one trillion dollars and many graduates paying off loans well into middle age. As a result of the government shelling out billions of dollars in loans and inflation, colleges have had to increase their tuitions thus creating a college “bubble”. In the past year or so many political leaders have proposed plans to pay for two years of community college, such as President Obama, or for a full four years, such as Bernie Sanders, a frontrunner for the democratic candidacy. Even states like Tennessee,
The words “free college tuition” spark interest in any college student with accumulating debt. In fact, this topic is so incredibly supported that Bernie Sanders implemented it as a core interest in his 2016 campaign. Once Hillary Clinton became the Democratic nominee, she decided to take it on herself with an extensive plan that guaranteed students free tuition. Unsurprisingly, free tuition resonates extremely well within the student demographic. To forty million Americans, free tuition eliminates the largest problem for students: debt (Hess, 2017). However, free college tuition generates the inverse of what these low-income and middle-income students believe. In fact, free college cripples them from multiple perspectives; students will end up spending more financially, will be less likely to graduate with a degree, and will be subjected to more inequality and less exposure.