Hillary Clinton announced on Wednesday a plan to inaugurate as president: “debt free college for all.” Clinton’s plan includes free tuition for “select families.” The announcement from her campaign about this initiative comes as Clinton eyes the sizable number of young Bernie Sanders supporters who remain wary of supporting her campaign going into November.

Clinton’s newly announced higher education plan is strikingly similar to Sanders’s plan. As the Huffington Post reports,

‘The new plan, announced by her campaign Wednesday, incorporates a major plank of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) platform and is a direct result of the private meeting Clinton had with the Vermont senator in June, the campaign said.’

Clinton has in mind to win over Sanders supporters with this announcement.

The Senator’s plan announcing that “It’s Time to Make College Tuition Free and Debt Free” remains a major selling point where these younger Sanders supporters have clung to the Sanders campaign as “more progressive” than Clinton’s counterpart.

While Clinton is the heavily favored candidate going into November, the potential for Trump to manage to throw the election off center and win the presidency remains. Clinton holds between a 70 and 80 percent chance of winning in November according to most models, but Trump continues to push forward and occasionally even comes out on top in a poll.

With the possibility of a Trump takeover of the election, Clinton and the Democratic Party have made moves to at least give the appearance of adopting Sanders’s platform. They are taking nothing for granted. Up to 1 in 2 Sanders supporters do not plan to vote for Clinton in November- a force which could hand Trump the presidency faster than Trump could take it for himself.

Sanders, remaining desperate to keep his voice alive in the Democratic Party, praised Clinton’s announcement. As the Los Angeles Times reports, “After often criticizing Clinton for not thinking big enough during the primaries, Sanders called her plan a ‘bold initiative.'”

Still, things get complicated. While at the top of the Democratic Party forces may be aligning, not so much can be said for the grassroots level.

One sticking point is rough. As detractors on social media have already noted, Clinton’s plan is only similar to the one Sanders holds to, with key differences.

https://twitter.com/LisaVikingstad/status/750709216260730880

Clinton doesn‘t propose tuition free college for all. As Clinton’s website states,

‘Every student should have the option to graduate from a public college or university in their state without taking on any student debt. Under Hillary’s plan, by 2021, families with income up to $125,000 will pay no tuition at in-state four-year public colleges and universities—covering more than 80 percent of all families. And from the start of the plan, every student from a family making $85,000 a year or less will be able to go to an in-state four-year public college or university without paying tuition. Students at community college will also pay no tuition.’

Clinton includes an income cap for this free tuition- and even for the poor she intends to cover she doesn’t treat their education as a right.

Clinton intends to make poor students work for their education, stating further in her “plan” as view-able on her site, “Students will do their part by contributing their earnings from working 10 hours a week, [and] Families will do their part by making an affordable and realistic family contribution.”

She makes no mention of a similar requirement for students who come to college with plenty of money, requiring no government assistance. Instead, Clinton boxes in low income students to have to prove their worthiness for their education.

Sanders’s plan for higher education is, while similar in word to what Clinton put out, more direct. As Sanders’s website tells:

‘The Sanders plan would require public colleges and universities to meet 100% of the financial needs of the lowest-income students. Low-income students would be able to use federal, state and college financial aid to cover room and board, books and living expenses. And Sanders would more than triple the federal work study program to build valuable career experience that will help them after they graduate.’

Sanders would “more than triple” the work study program- with no mention of participation in work study being a requirement for funding the student’s education.

Clinton, while attempting to woo over Sanders supporters with her latest announcement, remains fundamentally different from Sanders in her overall policy priorities. Sanders supporters now have to decide if they can work with that- or not.

Featured Image is via Gage Skidmore on Flickr, Available Under a Creative Commons License.