The plan would provide tuition-free higher education to students at four-year colleges, the statement said. It is modeled after the way many European nations handle the costs of college.

"We live in a highly competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best-educated workforce in the world. That will not happen if, every year, hundreds of thousands of bright young people cannot afford to go to college, and if millions more leave school deeply in debt," the Vermont senator and presidential candidate said Sunday.

NEW YORK — Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation Tuesday to make college tuition-free in the United States.


"Countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and many more are providing free or inexpensive higher education for their young people," Sanders said in the statement. "They understand how important it is to be investing in their youth. We should be doing the same."

The move could add pressure on Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

A few weeks ago, campaign manager Robby Mook used the phrase "debt-free college" when discussing the issues important to young people, but Clinton has not yet said whether that would be a part of her higher education plan.

Sanders's move could stack this issue on top of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal as another issue awaiting comment from Clinton, in which more liberal Democrats are herding her to the left.

President Obama continues to try to drum up support for his plan to make community college tuition-free.

"I want to lower the cost of community college to zero," Obama said earlier this month at Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, S.D. "We can't afford to let striving Americans be priced out of the education they need to get ahead."

Sanders's statement said his bill will also seek to "substantially lower student debt and bring down interest rates on college loans."

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