Bernie Sanders issues bill to make 4-year colleges tuition-free

Michael Schramm | University of Michigan

Senator Bernie Sanders has officially introduced a bill that would eliminate undergraduate tuition. Titled the “College for All Act,” the bill would eliminate the $70 billion dollar tuition costs at all 4-year public colleges and universities.

Under the plan, the Federal Government would cover 67% — $47 billion dollars each year — of the costs.

States would be required to produce the remaining 33% of the costs, or 23 billion dollars.

To qualify for the federal government grants, the states would also have to meet a variety of requirements. Some of these requirements include ensuring universities maintain or increase expenditures on students each year, maintaining or increasing operation expenditures each year and guaranteeing that after 5 years on this program, at least 75% of instruction is taught by tenured or tenure-track professors.

After using the federal government grant money to eliminate costs of tuition, colleges would then have the opportunity to increase funding for students, hire new faculty, and provide professional development opportunities for students.

Sanders’ plan comes at a time in which federal funding towards higher education has been on a consistent decline.

To fund the federal government through September 2015, the senate and congressional budget for the Fiscal year 2015 called for nearly $10 billion in reductions to the Pell Grant program. The Pell Grant program statistically assists 2/3 black undergraduate college students, and over half of undergraduate Latino students. These grants do not get paid back upon graduation. The $33.97 billion set aside for educational grants is a $300 million cut from last year.

This year, House of Representative Republicans proposed freezing Pell Grant awards at a maximum of $5,775 for the next 10 years, while also calling for the grants to only go to students who need them most. The proposed budget would also allow for the House education committee to find $1 billion in savings, over the next ten years, through managing the federal aid system.

Bloomberg recently reported Sanders commenting on the necessity of this bill. “We live in a highly-competitive global economy and, if our economy is to be strong, we need the best-educated work force 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.”

Alexandra Flores-Quilty, vice president of the United States Students Association (USSA), which fights for the rights of students in the nation, believes that a plan to address student debt and the mounting cost of tuition is necessary for the future of the nation.

"Senator Sanders' proposal is exactly what the broken U.S. higher education system needs,” Flores-Quilty says. "A free education means a free society. I want to thank Senator Sanders for being a champion to students and working families.”

Flores-Quilty was raised in Hillsboro, Oregon by her mother, “a proud, working class Latina,” where struggles with money were a common thing. After graduating from high school, she didn’t know if she would have the finances to continue her education.

"Education is the foundation of any country, and if we want to see this country thrive, then everyone must be able to have access to an education — regardless of their identity and regardless of how much money they or their family have,” Flores-Quilty says.

Working several jobs was never enough to ensure that she would be able to continue her education at University of Oregon. After taking longer than four years to graduate, Flores-Quilty has accumulated over $20,000 in student loan debt, while her mother has approximately $30,000 in debt, for her education.

"This is a burden my family will have to carry for decades,” Flore-Quilty says.

According to USSA statistics, student debt for higher education surpassed $1 trillion in 2012, and are now approaching $2 trillion. Between 1987 and 2012, the total share of the cost that students pay has risen from 23% to 47% in 2012. In terms of dollars, in 2012, states invested $5,896 per full-time equivalent student — in 1987, an investment of $8,497 was made per full-time equivalent student.

In terms of Pell Grants, the money granted to students covers approximately 32% of tuition, as of 2012. When the program began, it covered 75% of tuition.

"Students and family need tuition-free college, and we need Senator Sanders’ legislation to ensure that education is a right, not a privilege,” Flores-Quilty says.

The bill will decrease interest rates on current student loans, cutting them almost in half from 4.32% to 2.32%. The bill will also allow current borrowers to refinance their loans with a new 2.35% rate.

Additional provisions of the bill include expanding work-study programs to all students and creating a pilot program to remove requirements for students to re-apply for financial aid each year.

The bill plans to cover these costs by initiating a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street. A .5% speculation fee will be charged on investment houses, hedge funds, and other stock trades. Additionally, a .1% fee will be charged on bonds, and a .005% fee will be charged on derivatives.





Michael Schramm is a student at the University of Michigan and a summer 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

Ethan Stoetzer is a student at Rowan University and a summer 2015 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.