Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has proposed his College For All plan that would make public undergraduate colleges and universities tuition-free. Sanders based his 2016 campaign heavily on his plan for “free college.” Outstanding student loans have now surpassed $1.5 trillion and many are calling for solutions to reduce that balance. For that reason, his plan would also “cancel all student debt.” (Senator Elizabeth Warren has also proposed a debt cancellation plan that, while still very generous, is more targeted.)
But would it cancel all student debt? In reality, Sanders’s plan (also introduced as a bill in the Senate) would just provide a one-time cancellation of student debt. It would not cancel the student loan program meaning that people could borrow to go to college essentially the next day. That’s because Sanders does not fully address the reasons for the student debt situation we have now. Below are three main problems with Sanders’s plan to cancel student debt.
Sanders does not address living costs.
While eliminating tuition can make a dent in the bill for many students, tuition is not the only expense associated with a college degree. Living costs associated with college are actually a driving factor of why students borrow for college. In fact, living costs make up 52% of the cost of a four-year degree. The number is 70% for a two-year degree, where tuition is much lower. Sanders plan doesn’t ensure that no student would have living costs covered. He continues the Pell Grant, but doesn’t increase the investment to cover the costs for all students so many students would still have to borrow to cover those costs.
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Sanders does not make graduate school tuition-free.
Sanders’s “free college” plan only makes undergraduate tuition free. He doesn’t address the tuition costs associated with a graduate degree—let alone the living expenses associated with one. But graduate degree borrowing accounts for a significant portion of the cumulative debt—40% last year. Sanders’s plan would provide everyone currently with graduate school debt forgiveness, though he does not address the high costs of those programs going forward. Given that, Sanders’s plan for one-time forgiveness that would be a boon to students with graduate debt, particularly those with professional doctorates like those in law school and medical school who have an average debt of over $117,000. Going forward, those students would still borrow for their graduate education.
Sanders does not ban private or for-profit colleges.
Not only does Sanders only make undergraduate tuition free, he only does so at public colleges and universities. But our higher education system is more than that. What we have today is a mixture of public, for-profit, and private, non-profit institutions. By leaving the federal student loan system in place, Sanders would allow students to borrow to attend these often expensive for-profit and private, non-profit schools. For-profit schools in particular are a big part of student loan problems. For example, while for-profits only enroll about 9 percent of students, they account for more than a third of the defaults. Sanders does nothing to stop for-profit students from loading up students—particularly low-income students, students of color, and veteran students—with debt for a low-quality degree. His colleague and presidential rival Senator Elizabeth Warren has a higher education proposal that would forbid for-profit colleges from accessing federal student aid.
Sanders is pitching his plan as a solution to student debt, but it doesn’t truly address student debt going forward. Even if you agree that no one should have debt, his plan will not guarantee that. While his plan might fit nicely on a bumper sticker, it doesn’t tell you the full story of both his plan and the issues of student debt.
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