College is expensive. What will key 2020 candidates do about it?

Californians owe the plurality of the nation’s student debt, with 3.8 million borrowers owing $135 billion, according to data from the Department of Education’s Office for Federal Student Aid — more than three-fifth of the state’s annual budget.

With California’s March 3, 2020 primary approaching, college affordability is topic voters are asking the candidates to address.

Here’s how the top candidates on the Democratic ballot would try to improve the country’s higher education system:

Joe Biden

Biden wants to provide people with two free years of community college, while eliminating $10,000 in student debt every year for public service workers, including teachers and military members, for up to five years.

Part-time students and children who unlawfully entered the United States and are enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would also be eligible for free community college.

He’d also work to double the maximum value of Pell grants so recipients can pay off more of their college expenses. He wants to give historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and minority serving institutions $18 billion, which his campaign says would amount to up to two years of free college for lower and middle class students.

His higher education plan would cost $750 billion over 10 years, according to his campaign. Biden would pay for it by capping itemized deductions for wealthier Americans at 28 percent and eliminating a complicated tax provision known as “stepped-up basis” that allows people to avoid paying extra taxes on assets they’ve inherited that have gained value over the benefactor’s lifetime.

Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg opposes free four-year college degrees for everyone wishing to attend a public college or university. Instead, he wants to expand Pell grants, make community college tuition free and overhaul the existing system for student loans.

Under his plan, new and existing undergraduate student-loan borrowers would automatically be enrolled in a repayment program that allows them to pay back their loans at different speeds and costs based on their income.

He’d cap repayment at 5 percent of a person’s income reward those and allow borrowers enrolled in the program to have up to $57,000 in undergrad debt canceled if they are “making reasonable progress on their loans.”

Pete Buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg and his husband are still paying off the more than $100,000 in student debt they incurred from college, and the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Ind. is looking to make a change.

Buttigieg’s proposal would increase Pell grants, provide free or substantially reduced tuition to most Californians and follow the state’s model in allowing college athletes to seek opportunities to get paid for their name, image and likeness.

“Cost should never be a barrier to a brighter future, and we can’t build a 21st century economy without including all Americans,” Buttigieg wrote in an opinion piece published in The Sacramento Bee last year.

Under his plan, Californians and others across the country would get free tuition if their families make less than $100,000 a year. Families earning between $100,000 and $150,000 would receive “substantial tuition subsidies.”

Data from the U.S. Census places the median household income in California at about $67,000, meaning a majority of residents would not have to pay college tuition.

If elected president, Buttigieg says he’d add $120 billion to the federal Pell Grant program and use some of that money to help cover some student’s housing and food expenses.

He’d provide an additional $50 billion for historically black colleges and universities and other minority institutions, which his campaign said would benefit 53 California colleges.

Amy Klobuchar

Like Biden, Amy Klobuchar wants to double the maximum Pell grants.

As president, she would also expand eligibility for the grants to families making up to $100,000 per year and allow the money to be used for certain non-tuition expenses.

While Klobuchar wouldn’t offer free tuition at public colleges and universities like Sanders and Warren, she would allow students to get free tuition for one-year and two-year community college degrees and technical certifications.

Bernie Sanders

As president, Bernie Sanders says he would cancel the roughly $1.5 trillion in student loan debt owed by nearly 43 million Americans. He would also make attendance at trade schools, public colleges and universities, historically black college and universities and minority-serving institutions tuition-free and debt-free to everyone, regardless of income, race or immigration status.

He estimates his plan would cost $2.2 trillion, which he’d pay for by placing a tax on stock, bond and derivative trades. He introduced a bill known as the “Inclusive Prosperity Act” last year with California Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. The plan would raise an estimated $2.4 trillion over 10 years.

At an August 2019 rally in Sacramento, Sanders vowed to raise teacher pay to at least $60,000 a year. He also chastised corporations for receiving bailouts during the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009. If they could receive a break from the federal government, Sanders insisted everyday Americans should also be able to get bailed out from crushing debt.

“In a nation that bailed out the crooks on Wall Street, in a Congress that gave over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top one percent and large profitable corporations, if we can do that, if we can do that, then we can cancel all student debt,” Sanders said.

Tom Steyer

Tom Steyer wants to spend $125 billion over the next 10 years for “infrastructure and technology upgrades” at historically black colleges. He’d also offer educational benefits to students who choose to participate in national service programs.

He considers education from pre-K through college a “fundamental constitutional right.” In a Washington Post interview, Steyer said middle and low-income students should be able to graduate from a four-year college without debt.

Elizabeth Warren

Like Sanders, Elizabeth Warren would offer free tuition for those wishing to attend public colleges and universities, but unlike Sanders, she won’t cancel all existing student debt.

Instead, Warren wants to cancel some debt for 95 percent of those with loans and eliminate it entirely for more than 75 percent. She would not allow student debt to be canceled for people with household incomes above $250,000. Her campaign has a debt calculator for those wishing to see how much they could save under her proposal.

She also wants to reduce non-tuition expenses, such as books and room and board, by expanding federal funding available for such costs. As president, she would have the federal government increase Pell Grants by $100 billion over the next decade.

While Sanders wants to fund his plan with a tax on Wall Street speculation, Warren is pushing for an added annual 2 percent “Ultra-Millionaire Tax” on the wealthiest Americans — those with at least $50 million in wealth.

This story was originally published February 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.