Hillary Clinton’s free college plan may have helped her win over progressives, but it is already under sharp attack by private college presidents, who say it could rob families of choice and put some private colleges out of business.

The campaign promise — making public colleges free for more than 80 percent of Americans — gained momentum at the Democratic National Convention, where it emerged as a key point of “unity” between the Clinton and Bernie Sanders wings of the party. But the plan is facing significant blowback from private, nonprofit colleges, who warn that the tuition help for public schools would reverse decades of federal policy, undercut private institutions and spur an exodus of middle-class students that would turn private schools into bastions of the rich.


Patricia McGuire, president of Trinity Washington University, is a Clinton supporter who’s now concerned about her school’s survival.

McGuire runs a private women’s college and complained that Clinton’s revised college affordability plan — eliminating public college tuition for families making up to $125,000 — puts small institutions like hers “gravely at risk.” McGuire said her college serves a mostly low-income population, and she blasted the plan for playing into the “mythology” that private colleges serve only the wealthy.

“We’re going to ruin some of the places where low-income students get the best education and are most likely to be successful,” McGuire said.

There are about 1,600 private colleges across the U.S., and they enroll about one in five college students. Private colleges compete directly with public colleges for students and that competition would get a lot harder if public schools are suddenly free.

The Clinton campaign did not respond directly to the criticisms, which could complicate the Democratic nominee’s sales pitch on what is emerging as one of the defining issues of the 2016 presidential campaign.

Campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson stressed that Clinton has a “comprehensive” college plan “that includes support for students at private colleges, as well as public, including lower interest rate loans, the ability to refinance existing loans, support for student-parents, debt forgiveness for AmeriCorps [volunteers], and a year-round Pell grant, to name just some.”

Several private college presidents interviewed by POLITICO said their concern goes beyond protecting their own bottom line.

Elite private colleges such as Ivy League schools aren’t at risk. But some other types of private colleges — including women’s colleges, religiously affiliated institutions, and historically black colleges and universities — rely heavily on tuition. If Congress were to enact the free public college proposal, a sudden, steep drop in enrollment could put private schools like that out of business, McGuire said. And a wounded private college sector could mean fewer choices. Of course, congressional approval of Clinton’s plan is a big “if,” given Capitol Hill Republicans’ rejection of President Barack Obama’s more modest proposal for tuition-free community college.

Sheila Bair, president of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, said the free college proposal is simply unaffordable and ultimately just shifts the funding burden to taxpayers. Bair, a moderate Republican, is a former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. who early on sounded the alarm about the nation’s subprime lending crisis.

If the Democrats’ plan does move forward, Bair said the funding should be in the form of grants to an institution of a student’s choosing — otherwise it would skew student choice away from the “unique kind of environment” that private schools offer.

That “richness of choice is something I think we should preserve,” said Bair, who started a “back-end” scholarship program at her college that rewards many graduates by reducing their student debt as they walk out the door.

“I think what would happen is, we would have to become more elitist, because anybody who is not really wealthy is going to go to take the free option,” Bair said. “I don’t want us to be elitist. I want us to have a diverse student population.”

Even as most private college presidents praise the Democrats’ focus on college affordability, they predict the objections over free public college will grow louder in the coming months. Private colleges say there's a long tradition, dating back to at least the 1944 GI Bill, of allowing students to choose where to use their federal aid.

“The proposals that are out there would cause a major shift in higher education,” said Sarah Flanagan, vice president for government relations and policy development at the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. “We believe the money should follow the student, because we think it’s the best way to help low-income students.”

The nation’s collective student loan debt exceeds $1.3 trillion, and research shows that students at private colleges tend to borrow about $7,000 to $10,000 more than their counterparts at public colleges.

During the Democratic primary, Sanders’ “debt-free” college plan for everyone gained traction and resonated with young voters. Clinton also sought to expand free tuition to many students, but her plan stopped short of making free public college available to everyone. Clinton argued that children of billionaires like Donald Trump shouldn’t have their college paid for by taxpayers.

But Clinton — in an attempt to mend fences with Sanders — in recent weeks adjusted her $350 billion college affordability plan to ensure that families with incomes up to $125,000 would eventually pay no tuition for their children to attend public colleges and universities. That means more than 80 percent of families would qualify for the benefit when it takes full effect in 2021, her campaign said.

The party’s platform adopted in Philadelphia also contains strong language in support of this idea. “Democrats are unified in their strong belief that every student should be able to go to college debt-free, and working families should not have to pay any tuition to go to public colleges and universities,” it reads.

At the convention, Clinton and Sanders presented her adjusted proposal as a unifying issue. “Bernie Sanders and I will work together to make college tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for all,” Clinton said Thursday night, as she accepted her party’s nomination.

The proposal has a long path to passage — particularly if Republicans maintain control of the House and the Senate in November. Republicans have shown little appetite for tackling the corporate tax overhauls that the Clinton campaign has said would be used to fund the plan. And Obama’s less ambitious free community college proposal — announced early last year — has gained no traction on Capitol Hill.

But the heightened focus in Philadelphia has caught the attention of college presidents such as McGuire. McGuire said she’s been watching Clinton’s proposal, and now that she has more insight about where it's headed, she’s planning to speak out.

“I am absolutely, deeply concerned,” McGuire said.

In contrast to Clinton, Trump has revealed little about how he would tackle rising college costs. In recent days, he said he would have a plan “over the next four weeks.” Trump didn’t offer any details on what he would propose, though he said it might not “fit beautifully within the Republican framework.”

Trump also suggested that he believes federal financial aid to students is a factor in why “college costs are out of control.” And he criticized “the salaries being paid” in higher education.

The average tuition and fees last year to attend a private, nonprofit college or university was $32,405, according to the College Board. In comparison, the average in-state student at a four-year public institution paid $9,410, and an out-of-state student paid $23,893.

The private college sector has among the lowest student loan default rates in higher education, and the association representing it points to federal data that show half of its students come from families making less than $50,000. Some private colleges have fewer than 100 students, and have been hit hard in recent years by the economic downturn and declining enrollments — making them particularly vulnerable to increased competition.

David Bushman, president of Bridgewater College in Bridgewater, Virginia, said tackling college costs is a much more “complicated dialogue” than “let’s make college free to publics” — and it doesn’t have to pit public colleges against privates. He said there are also practical considerations, such as whether public colleges could handle an influx of new students.

“There are certainly ways to increase access and decrease debt — and include the privates,” Bushman said.

Linda LeMura, president of Le Moyne College, a Jesuit college in Syracuse, New York, said she personally would love to be part of the conversation.

“We don’t want to solve one problem and then create other problems because we haven’t thought this through in a very sophisticated fashion,” LeMura said.

Michael Stratford contributed to this report.