Sanders vs. Clinton: Who Has the Best Plan for College Students?

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/10/02/sanders-vs-clinton-who-has-the-best-plan-for-college-students/

The Sanders plan provides tuition-free public higher education to every qualified student. The Clinton plan does not.

The Sanders plan treats higher education the same way we have treated other forms of education in the past: Every young person who studies hard and succeeds in school should be able to get the education they need. By contrast, the Clinton plan charges tuition to middle-class students, using an as-yet unspecified formula based on a family’s income.

The Clinton approach is unnecessarily complicated.

The Clinton plan is unnecessarily complicated and difficult to administer. It leaves a number of key questions open to manipulation by future politicians, such as: What are the thresholds for paying part of the tuition? What’s a reasonable percent of family income to pay into the program?

Compare that to the simplicity and safety of a program like Social Security, which is run at very low administrative cost. If you qualify for its benefits, you receive them. We don’t “means test” Social Security – and we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t do it for a public higher education, either.

The Clinton plan holds political risk.

The principles behind the Clinton plan seem closer to some of the Republican candidates’ ideas than they do to those of great Democratic presidents like Franklin D. Roosevelt. Candidate Chris Christie, for example, wants to cut Social Security benefits for Americans earning more than $80,000.

Another conservative group, the Concord Coalition, proposed that Social Security benefits be cut for any family whose annual income exceeds $40,000 per year – and that includes both Social Security benefits and the cash value of their Medicare protection!

That’s the problem with ideas like these. Once the door is open, there’s always the possibility that politicians will use them to shift costs to the middle class.

The Clinton plan also requires middle-class students to work as well as study, something their wealthier peers won’t be required to do.

The Clinton plan also forces students who receive financial aid to work 10 hours a week, in addition to keeping up with their coursework.

College is a time for study and achievement. It can also be competitive. Students who are forced to comply with Clinton’s 10-hour-per week work requirement – which is one-fourth of a full-time job – will carry a heavy burden of time and effort. Wealthy students won’t share that burden because their parents are paying full tuition.

[Duckhunter935]

1. Bernie

[Enthusiast]

2. Kicked and recommended!

The objective is a highly educated workforce. Bernie's plan meets this objective.

[Live and Learn]

4. +1 Support for lifelong learning and an educated populace is dangerous for the establishment. nt

[Live and Learn]

3. And where are all these jobs?

I know plenty of college students that would love to find a job that will work with their schedule. Is Clinton going to manufacture these jobs?

No requirements should be required for wanting to learn.