Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) announced a new plan to cancel student loan debt for many, to expand Pell Grants, and create a $50 billion fund for HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions.
“Like K-12 education, college is a basic need that should be available for free to everyone who wants to go,” The senator wrote in a blog post on medium. "That’s why I’m proposing a historic new federal investment in public higher education, that will eliminate the cost of tuition and fees at every public two-year and four-year college in America.”
Warren is not alone in her call to revamp policy around higher education, particularly with the growing student loan crisis, but her plan is one of the most expansive as she is offering some form of debt cancellation to 95 percent of borrowers and complete debt cancellation to 80 percent of black borrowers.
“We can fix some of the structural problems that are preventing our higher education system from fairly serving lower-income students and students of color,” Warren said. “We can make big structural change and create new opportunities for all Americans.”
The plan was given a price tag of $1.25 trillion over 10 years which the senator says would be paid for with her planned Ultra-Millionare tax on those whose net worth is greater than $50 million.
That along with what is believed to be the economic benefit of the release from the debt for millions of Americans, Warren says, can free up a generation to change their lives.
“Student loan debt holds America’s young people back, making it harder for them to save for a down payment on a home, start a small business, or start building families of their own,” Warren said in a press release.
Sen. Warren believes this plan, in connection with her personal story, will make her the leading candidate to fight for student borrowers in the midst of this crisis.
“Higher education opened a million doors for me. It’s how the daughter of a janitor in a small town in Oklahoma got to become a teacher, a law school professor, a U.S. Senator, and eventually, a candidate for President of the United States,” Warren wrote. “Today, it’s virtually impossible for a young person to find that kind of opportunity.”
Now check these out:
Ben & Jerry's Uses 4/20 To Get Blunt About The Way Black Stoners Are Treated By Law Enforcement
Hennessy Plans To Donate $10 Million To HBCU Graduate Students Within A 10-Year Period
