Topics in the News: College Tuition
Joe Biden on Education
: Aug 2, 2024
College loan forgiveness up to $20,000 per student
In June 2023, Senator JD Vance voted for a Joint Resolution that would "provide for congressional disapproval of an October 2022 Education Department rule that allows for loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 in loan debt for federal student loan borrowers
and another $10,000 for such borrowers who also received a Pell Grant. The rule limits eligibility for such loan forgiveness to borrowers with a maximum adjusted gross income of $125,000, or $250,000 for joint filers. The rule also extended, through the
end of 2022, the suspension of student loan payments, the cessation of interest accrual and the suspension of involuntary loan collections." The vote was on passage. The Senate passed the resolution by a vote of 52 to 46, thus the resolution was sent to
the President. President Biden vetoed the resolution and the House failed to override the veto. However, the Supreme Court struck down the rule. [Senate Vote 135, 6/1/23; Congressional Quarterly, 6/1/23; Congressional Actions, H.J. Res. 45]
Click for Joe Biden on other issues.
Source: 2024 Trump Research Book
JD Vance on Education
: Aug 2, 2024
Student loan forgiveness is a windfall for the rich
In June 2023, Vance voted for a joint resolution "for congressional disapproval of an October 2022 Education Department rule that allows for loan forgiveness of up to $10,000 in loan debt for federal student loan borrowers. Under the provisions of the
joint resolution, the Education Department rule would have no force or effect, canceling the loan forgiveness program and reinstating loan payments and interest accrual that was suspended under the rule." The vote was on passage. The Senate passed the
resolution by a vote of 52 to 46. President Biden vetoed the resolution. However, the Supreme Court struck down the rule. [Senate Vote 135, H.J. Res. 45, Congressional Quarterly, 6/1/23]Vance Tweeted: "Forgiving student debt is a massive windfall to
the rich, to the college educated, and most of all to the corrupt university administrators of America. No bailouts for a corrupt system. Republicans must fight this with every ounce of our energy and power." [Twitter, @JDVance1, 4/27/22]
Click for JD Vance on other issues.
Source: Twitter posting in 2024 Trump Research Book
Kamala Harris on Education
: Apr 8, 2024
Forgive student loan debt for 850,000 public servants
This is intended to be a discussion about student loan debt. But really, it is, from my perspective, a discussion about who are our public servants and what we, as a society and as a country, owe them.And who are our public servants? They're teachers.
They are nurses. They're firefighters. They are police officers. They are librarians. They are bus drivers and social workers. This is who our public servants are. And yet many are silently struggling with student loan debt.
We have forgiven, on
average, $70,000 of student loan debt for over 850,000 public servants. And for folks in general, we have forgiven over $144 billion for over 4 million people.
I'm announcing a new plan to forgive more loans for 25 million more Americans, including
millions of our public servants. And that means, for example, if you've paid undergrad loans for 20-plus years or graduate loans for 25 or more years, your loans will be completely forgiven, regardless of your income and even if you did not graduate.
Click for Kamala Harris on other issues.
Source: Vice Presidential 2024 press release: "Student Debt Relief"
Ron DeSantis on Education
: Jan 16, 2024
Make universities back federal student loans
We're going to provide help with the student loans, but not the way the Democrats want. I think it's wrong that taxpayers would have to pick up the burden on somebody's student loan. The universities have facilitated a lot of the debt. Because they're
happy if you're going 6 years to get a 4-year degree because you get more loans--they grow their administrative budgets. So we're going to have the universities be responsible for backing the student loans. That's going to change the incentives.
Universities are going to have an incentive to graduate people on time, and to get them in programs that they're going to be gainfully employed. So, you're going to have less Zombie Studies. You're going to have more engineering. You're going to have
more things that are practical.A degree from a 4-year brick-and-Ivy university is one way you can be successful. It's not the only way. We need to tell young people that there are multiple pathways, including work force education & the skilled trades.
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Source: CNN Town Hall: interviews of 2024 presidential candidates
Chase Oliver on Education
: Dec 23, 2023
Empower parents & students instead of federal involvement
EMPOWER PARENTS & STUDENTS IN EDUCATION: At the federal level, the best policy on education is to remove the federal government's involvement in education. I support abolishing the Department of Education and block granting
those funds back to states to be returned to taxpayers. I also support getting the government out of the student loan business so market forces can lower the cost of higher education over time.
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Source: 2024 Presidential campaign website VoteChaseOliver.com
Chase Oliver on Homeland Security
: Dec 23, 2023
Cut defense spending to pay for college loans
I will immediately end the Federal backing of student loans by asking Congress to make all current loans interest-free, while simultaneously ending all future government-guaranteed loans. I would then make the discharge of interest revenue neutral
by requiring the Department of Defense to cut costs by closing overseas bases and installations and bringing our troops home, instead of engaging in expensive nation-building and peacekeeping missions abroad.
It is only right that the DoD bear part of the cost, as mounting debt is as big a threat to our security as any foreign enemy, Finally, I would allow students to stabilize their financial situations by allowing student loan debt to be
dischargeable in bankruptcy just like any other loan. I want a well-educated populace that can compete with the minds of any other nation, but not at the cost of our nation's financial and retirement security.
Click for Chase Oliver on other issues.
Source: 2024 Presidential campaign website VoteChaseOliver.com
Ron DeSantis on Education
: Dec 6, 2023
Don't make truck drivers pay for brick-&-ivy gender studies
Another thing that's burdening young people are these student loans. Now, I don't support having a truck driver having to pay a student loan for someone that got a degree in gender studies. That is wrong, we should not have taxpayers do that. What
I'm going to do though is I'm going to get to the root cause of the problem. These student loans are going to be backed by the universities because they need to have an incentive to produce gainful employment for people. They should not be indulging in
ideological studies. They should be focusing on things that work, and we're going to take some of this money and we're going to move it to actual vocational training. In Florida, we doubled apprenticeships. We have more truck drivers, these are in-
demand skills. Don't let anybody tell you that the only way you can be successful is through a four-year brick-and-ivy degree. That's one way you can be, it's not the only way, and we're going to fix that problem in the United States of America.
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Source: NewsNation 2023 Republican primary debate in Alabama
Mike Pence on Education
: Jul 2, 2023
Student loan forgiveness not about helping the middle class
The majority of people that would have benefited from this student loan forgiveness are people with multiple graduate degrees. So you're going to say to working Americans, to truck drivers, to people working in the
trades, 'we're going to take your taxes and pay down a part of the student debt of doctors and lawyers and Ph.D.s.' It's just- it, nothing could be further than the truth. This was not about the middle class.
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Source: CBS Face the Nation on 2023 Presidential primary hopefuls
Bernie Sanders on Education
: Aug 28, 2022
Loan forgiveness helps working families & low-income people
SEN. ROY BLUNT (R-MO): I just thought it was monumentally unfair to people who didn't go to college because they didn't think they could afford it, unfair to people who paid their loans back, unfair to people who got higher education in an area that
the government didn't make loans, and just bad economics. I think it's going to have a long-term devastating effect on a student loan program that worked pretty effectively until the federal government assumed responsibility for that program.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Well, he's wrong. 60% of the benefits go to people who were on Pell grants, 87% of the benefits go to people who are making $75,000 a year.
I know it is shocking to some Republicans that the government actually, on occasion, does something to benefit working families and low-income people. I don't hear any of these Republicans squawking when we give massive tax breaks to billionaires.
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Source: ABC This Week on 2024 Presidential Hopefuls
Joe Biden on Education
: Feb 16, 2021
Write off $10,000 in student debt, not $50,000
Q: We need student loan forgiveness beyond the potential $10,000 your administration has proposed. We need at least a $50,000 minimum. What will you do to make that happen?BIDEN: I will not make that happen.
I do think that, in this moment of economic pain and strain, that we should be eliminating interest on the debts that are accumulated, number one. And, number two, I'm prepared to write off the $10,000 debt, but not $50,000.
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Source: CNN Presidential Town Hall 2021 with Biden & Anderson Cooper
Kanye West on Budget & Economy
: Oct 9, 2020
Reduce debt; restore sound economy
Restore the sound national economy. Reduce household debt and student loan debt.
God has plans to give us hope and a future.-- Jeremiah 29:11
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Source: 2020 Presidential campaign website kanye2020.country
Joe Biden on Social Security
: Aug 21, 2020
Protect Social Security & Medicare: "You have my word"
Sen. Elizabeth Warren [introduced the topic with] "Joe Biden has some really good plans--Plans to increase Social Security benefits, cancel billions in student loan debt, and make our bankruptcy laws work for families instead of the creditors who
cheat them."Biden pointed his finger at the camera when he called Social Security a sacred promise. "If I'm your president, we're going to protect Social Security and Medicare, you have my word," he said.
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Source: B.Jansen in USA Today: 2020 Democratic National Convention
Bernie Sanders on Education
: Jun 2, 2019
Forgive student loans for both higher ed and trade school
Q: Elizabeth Warren unveiled her college plan that cancels up to $50,000 in student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans. What's your plan?
Sanders: Our plan forgives massive amounts of student debt. Every place I go, you ask people about student debt, they're paying $50,000.
If you go to graduate school, medical school, could be $300,000, $400,000. That is insane. Our plan will cancel a substantial amount of student debt and in some ways probably go further than Senator Warren's.
And when we talk about higher education, not just college. There are a lot of young people who are not academically inclined who need to get trade skills.
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Source: CNN State of the Union 2019 interview
Joe Biden on Education
: May 6, 2019
2005: no bankruptcy for student loans; 2015: student relief
In Elizabeth Warren's book "The Two-Income Trap," she castigated the [2005 bankruptcy] bill as favoring special interests, singling out Biden for criticism.Biden's team seems to concede that one provision of the bill that was not heavily debated at
the time but has become more salient since then--a rule that made private student loans nondischargeable in bankruptcy--was probably not a great idea. The campaign notes that what it refers to as the "Obama-Biden administration" formally recommended
that Congress change this in 2015, that in 2016 the Department of Education took administrative action to grant student debt relief, and that earlier in their term they took a range of measures to try to help with student debt--ranging from the "gainful
employment rule" to income-based repayments.
Fundamentally, the point of the bill was to make it harder for people to discharge debts in bankruptcy. Biden's view was that this was a good idea, and Warren's was that it wasn't.
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Source: Vox.com on Elizabeth Warren's "The Two Income Trap"
Kamala Harris on Education
: Apr 22, 2019
Change rules on student debt: reduce interest, income based
I do support debt-free college. I also believe that what we need to do is we need to allow students to refinance your student loan debt. If you took out student loans between the years of about 2006 through 2013, the interest rate was about 7 percent.
What I am proposing is, regardless of the interest rate at the time, repayment would have to be at 3.5 percent. I would require that there be a robust process by which income-based repayment would be the norm.
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Source: CNN Town Hall 2020: 5 candidates back-to-back
Marianne Williamson on Education
: Apr 8, 2019
Free college via public service; and student loan amnesty
If elected, I will work vigorously for the following: - Free college or technical school tuition for every qualified student. If we cannot find ideal offsets for this expense, I'm open to exploring ways that students can repay some of these costs
with a small payroll tax once they start working (based on Oregon's efforts) or through public service.
- Student loan amnesty. need to reduce the interest rate for repayment of loans to a nominal, if not zero, percentage rate. We need to eliminate
the origination fee on federal student loans.
- The most advanced matrix of technical schools in the world. Going to a liberal arts college is not the only option for higher education; we should create more opportunities for people who want to
work in the trades or technical areas.
- Low-cost education for those in middle and older age who have been dropped from our economy yet still retain, as all people do, the God-given potential to create meaning for themselves and others.
Click for Marianne Williamson on other issues.
Source: 2020 presidential campaign website Marianne2020.com
Jill Stein on Education
: Oct 9, 2016
Guarantee tuition-free education pre-school thru university
Q: On Education: Abolish the Dept. of Education & leave school funding & regulation to the states? Clinton: No.
Trump: Yes.
Johnson: Yes.
Stein: No.
Q: On Education: Make public college tuition free for students from families earning
$125,000 or less? Have government help refinance student loans to lower interest rates?
Clinton: Yes on both, using federal subsidies to cover costs. Expand income-contingent loan repayment.
Trump: Trump position unclear.
His education advisor considers tuition subsidies & loan refinancing too costly, advocates private sector handling loans.
Johnson: No. Opposes federally guaranteed student loans, and government subsidies of loans,
though open to negotiating reduced interest rates with banks.
Stein: Yes on both, "guarantee tuition-free education pre-school through university."
Click for Jill Stein on other issues.
Source: CampusElect Voter Guide to 2016 Presidential race
Jill Stein on Education
: May 9, 2016
Wall Street bailout was $17T; student loan bailout under $2T
Q: Young people today are saddled with incredible college debt. You've proposed abolishing this debt. How would you pay for that, and is it really possible?STEIN: It's not only possible, it's essential. If we found a way to bail out the crooks on
Wall Street who crashed the economy through waste, fraud and abuse, we can certainly find a way to help students who are some of the chief victims of that crash. We bailed out Wall Street to the tune of $17 trillion when you include the no-interest
loans and the straight-up bailouts they received. The good news is that student debt is tiny by comparison: only $1.3 trillion. And we have the people power to make this happen. There are 43 million young and not-so-young people burdened with
predatory student loan debt. That turns out to be a winning plurality of a presidential vote, especially if all those students bring out a family member or two! Students are leading the charge to fix this crisis.
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Source: SocialistWorker.org interview of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Nikki Haley on Education
: Jan 20, 2016
Incentivize teachers to work in rural districts
We will aggressively start recruiting teachers to rural districts and, just as aggressively, incentivizing them to stay there. If a student agrees to teach in a challenged district for eight years, we will cover the full cost of their education at a
state university. For recent graduates who agree to the same commitment, we will repay their student loans. For career educators who want to grow professionally and teach in these challenged districts, we will cover the cost of their graduate coursework.
Click for Nikki Haley on other issues.
Source: 2016 State of the State speech to South Carolina legislature
Marco Rubio on Principles & Values
: Nov 10, 2015
This election is a generational choice about 21st century
This next election is a generational choice. A choice about what kind of nation we will be in the 21st century. We have a society that stigmatizes those that hold cultural values that are traditional. We have millions living paycheck to paycheck.
We have young Americans who owe thousands of dollars in student loans. The Democratic Party has no ideas about the future. All their ideas are the same, tired ideas of the past. They will be the party of the past, we will be the party of the 21st century
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Source: Fox Business/WSJ Second Tier debate
Donald Trump on Education
: Nov 3, 2015
No federal government profit from student loans
A four-year degree today can be expensive enough to create six-figure debt. We can't forgive these loans, but we should take steps to help students.The big problem is the federal government.
There is no reason the federal government should profit from student loans. This only makes an already difficult problem worse.
The Federal Student Loan Program turned a $41.3 billion profit in 2013.
These student loans are probably one of the only things that the government shouldn't make money from, and yet it does.
And do you think this has anything to do with why schools continue to raise their tuition every year? Those loans should be viewed as an investment in America's future.
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Source: Crippled America, by Donald Trump, p. 58-9
Bernie Sanders on Education
: Apr 30, 2015
College loan repayment is regressive; refinance & forgive
In my view, the most revolting aspect of the student loan crisis is that every year, the federal government makes billions of dollars in profits off of student loans--$127 billion over 10 years. We must end the practice of the government making billions
in profits from student loans taken out by low and moderate income families. That is extremely regressive public policy. It also makes no sense that students and their parents are forced to pay interest rates for higher education loans that are much
higher than they pay for car loans or housing mortgages. We must restructure our student loan programs to take the profits out of our system, and return them to borrowers in the form of loan forgiveness and lower interest rates.Today's borrowers
should be able to refinance their student loans at much lower interest rates. This will allow millions of people to pay off their debt sooner, and have more money to buy a car, buy a house, or invest in their own children's future education.
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Source: Forbes Magazine on 2016 hopefuls: 2015 speech at U. Iowa
Bernie Sanders on Education
: Apr 30, 2015
$18B to fund two years free tuition at state colleges
On Education: Two years free tuition at state colleges. Reform student loans.Sanders would provide $18 billion to state governments to allow them to cut tuition at state
colleges by 55 percent. And he would allow anyone paying off a student loan currently to refinance at a lower rate.
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Source: PBS News Hour "2016 Candidate Stands" series
Marco Rubio on Education
: Feb 20, 2015
Private lenders get percentage of student's income
Rubio discussed several of his economic proposals designed to help lower-income Americans climb out of poverty. Among his ideas is a proposal to allow what he called "private sector investors" to help pay the student loan debt of graduate students.
In return, the investor would reap a percentage of the student's income once they earned a job.
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Source: Washington Post, "Rubio heckled" on 2016 election
Nikki Haley on Education
: Jan 21, 2015
Incentives for teachers, including tuition & grad school
We've proposed a new initiative that will help our rural schools get, and keep, the kind of highly qualified teachers their students deserve.- First, if a student graduating high school is willing to spend eight years teaching in their underserved
home district after college, we will pay for up to four years of tuition at a state school.
- Second, if a teacher who has graduated from college and is burdened by student loans commits to teach in a rural district, we will contribute to their student
loan repayment.
- Third, if a teacher has less than five years' experience and begins teaching in an eligible district, he or she will receive a pay bump, advancing his or her salary to the level of a teacher five years further down the road.
-
Finally, if a teacher wants to attend graduate school at a state college or university, we will cover the cost of that education, again in exchange for a commitment to teach in a rural or underserved district.
Click for Nikki Haley on other issues.
Source: State of the State address to 2015 South Carolina Assembly
Marco Rubio on Education
: Feb 12, 2013
Give info to students on costs & benefits of student loans
Because tuition costs have grown so fast, we need to change the way we pay for higher education. I believe in federal financial aid. I couldn't have gone to college without it. But it's not just about spending more money on these programs; it's also
about strengthening and modernizing them.A 21st century workforce should not be forced to accept 20th century education solutions. Today's students aren't only 18 year olds. They're returning veterans. They're single parents who decide to get the
education they need to earn a decent wage. We need student aid that does not discriminate against programs that non-traditional students rely on--like online courses, or degree programs that give you credit for work experience.
When I finished school,
I owed over $100,000 in student loans, a debt I paid off just a few months ago. Today, many graduates face massive student debt. We must give students more information on the costs and benefits of the student loans they're taking out.
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Source: GOP Response to 2013 State of the Union Address
Jill Stein on Education
: Oct 16, 2012
Bail out the students instead of bailing out the banks
OBAMA: We've got to make sure that we have the best education system in the world. We've worked hard so that student loans are available, but I also want to make sure that community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained.STEIN:
To ensure that our students have a strong, secure economic future, how about we bail out the students instead of bailing out the banks for the fourth time? The Federal Reserve just announced its latest quantitative easing, where it will be spending
$40 billion a month to bail out the banks for what's effectively the fourth bailout, yet we've really gone nowhere with these bailouts. It's time to bail out the students instead, so that way students can enter into their professional life, their
careers, without the deep burden of debt that they currently now have. While we're at it, let's make public higher education free. We owe it to our young people to give them a good, strong start in life. And we know this pays for itself from the GI Bill.
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Source: Democracy Now! Expanded Second Obama-Romney 2012 debate
Marco Rubio on Principles & Values
: Jun 19, 2012
1991: Interned for Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
In 1991 at the University of Florida, Marco lived on student loans & grants & took a part-time job. He also scored a prime internship, working for Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the 1st Republican woman elected to the US House of Representatives. She would become
a fixture on the South Florida political scene, but at that time she was relatively new to Washington. It's unclear whether she knew that the young man she was bringing on as an intern was the bother-in-law of a man that her husband had sent to prison.
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Source: The Rise of Marco Rubio, by Manuel Rogi-Franzia, p. 77-78
Jill Stein on Education
: Jan 25, 2012
Right to a tuition-free public education, pre-K thru college
The Green New Deal begins with an Economic Bill of Rights that recognizes our rights to an economy that serves people. This means all of us have the right to quality education, health care, housing and utilities. We will honor the right to a
tuition-free, quality public education from pre-school through college at public institutions. And we will forgive student loan debt left over from the current era of unaffordable college education .
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Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech
Jill Stein on Education
: Jan 25, 2012
College loans trap students in financial prison of debt
Thirty million college students and recent graduates are trapped in the financial prison of student loan debt. Most students must take out costly loans to meet the skyrocketing cost of tuition.
Yet paying off those loans is almost impossible as young people face double-digit unemployment and much lower pay--40% less--than their parents' generation received for the same work.
Click for Jill Stein on other issues.
Source: Green Party 2012 People's State of the Union speech
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