Hillary Clinton Tacks Left on Higher Ed

Months ago, in the midst of her Democratic primary fight with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton made it a point to argue that her “debt-free” college plan was more responsible than Bernie Sanders’ promise of tuition-free four-year college. As Clinton herself argued—repeatedly—she doesn’t want to give Donald Trump’s kids free college, and asking middle and upper income families to pay something ensured that “everyone had ‘skin in the game.’”

Yesterday, in a bid to woo Sanders supporters, Clinton tacked left, promising tuition-free public college to families earning less than $125,000 by 2021 (in the first year, families earning $85,000 or less could expect to get free tuition, and the plan would ramp up over time). The mechanics of the plan seem to be the same as they were last summer (and the same as Bernie’s plan): the feds would use a large infusion of new money to incentivize states to spend more of their own money on public higher education. To get access to the federal money, states would have to match federal dollars at a specified rate and then commit to charging families below an income threshold no tuition. Clinton’s latest announcement would significantly increase the federal contribution to this federal-state “partnership.”

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