Super Tuesday is here, and there are many issues on the minds of Democratic voters.
The top four focus points of most campaign policies (according to a Politico cited poll with all candidates ranked with double digits), these candidates are highly ranked in the polls. The candidates include Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, and Mike Bloomberg.
At the heart of these issues, there were two concerns, tuition and loan debt.
Here is a brief look at the top four Democratic candidates’ policies regarding student loan debt and cost of tuition, some of which are improvements of existing plans.
Starting with Bernie Sanders, according to his presidential website, he wants to cancel all student loan debt and make college tuition free. He wants to do this by passing his College for All Act.
This would provide 48 billion dollars a year to eliminate all tuition fees for most higher education. Americans currently owe 1.6 trillion in student debt and, and Sanders intends to place a cap on future loans at 1.88 percent. Some notable changes include closing cost gaps left by the Pell Grant, and tripling funding to the work-study program.
Next, Joe Biden talks about planning on investing $50 billion into workforce training, including community-college business partnerships and apprenticeships. Alongside this investment, Biden focuses on prioritization of work-study programs and partnerships with businesses to help students earn their degrees faster.
Biden plans on addressing loans by taking action against loaners who “are misleading students about their options and do not provide affordable payment plans.” If a student has been paying their loans off responsibly and makes below $25k, under his plan, their debt will be forgiven. While those who make more, will pay a 5% tax of their discretionary income.
Onwards, Mike Bloomberg, talks about incentivizing states and educational institutions to develop new industry-relevant credentials for in-demand jobs. Also, he plans on funding “partnerships between employers and community and technical colleges to prepare people for good jobs.”
Bloomberg plans on streamlining the government’s 43 employment and training programs, shifting focus to programs with high results. And he will increase access to unemployment insurance benefits to pay for programs in school. He will pay for this with a 5% surtax on all labor and capital above $5 million.
Lastly, Elizbeth Warren talks about planning to cancel all debt up to $50,000 for homes with income below $100,000. Her plan for a universal free college program would cost $1.25 trillion over ten years, according to the campaign’s website.
Warren also plans on expanding the Pell Grant, with an additional investment of $100 billion over the next ten years. Warren would expand the eligibility of those seeking the Pell Grant to disregard one’s citizenship status and criminal history.
Her plans are paid for by an “ultra millionaire tax,” which taxes on every dollar that the top-earning families make. This includes families who make over $50 million, who will be taxed at 2%, with those who make $3 billion at 6%.
Most plans on display are comprehensive with the allocation of more resources and consideration for the cost of living. These plans have different approaches and vary on the amount of progress they aim for.
Bloomberg’s page regarding education was very short compared to the other candidates’ pages regarding education, with very few plans to address the cost of getting a degree. One plan is to expand unemployment insurance plans, and the other is prioritizing programs that already get results with pooled resources.
While the other three candidates plan to address issues with the existing Pell Grants and tuition cost, Bloomberg wants to address its efficiency, its size, and its results. This is a drastically distant approach from the others, more business-minded, in sharp contrast to the dominant position of massive expansion of existing policies.
Sanders is the most ambitious with his plans, which would expand the size of the federal government, in terms of funding and bureaucracy. Whether other things like the quality, availability, and equity are maintained, is not assured.
Biden’s plan is the most incrementalist, as it’s an extension of Obama’s legacies and policies. Most improvements are small. Something significant is creating Title 1 funding for post-secondary schools.
Warren and Sanders’ positions are similar, save for some very important differences. In some areas, Warren’s positions don’t go as far as Sanders in terms of progressive policy. Examining student debt, Sanders wants full forgiveness of debt while everyone else besides Bloomberg wants partial forgiveness based on income.
Another difference is the funding for these policies. Sanders’ is based on stock trading, while Warren’s is based on taxing wealthy families. Bloomberg is taxing capital and labor above $5 million. Lastly, Biden plans on taxing families’ discretionary income.
As mentioned, this is only a sample of what they propose and it’s encouraged to look through each candidate’s policies. As most plans are all comprehensive, while with similar goals, they all differ in regards to the source of the needed revenue.