Buttigieg: Free public college tuition will expand opportunity to more Americans

I never thought I’d be on a Forbes magazine list, until this year when they ranked presidential candidates by wealth. I came in dead last. One reason is because we’re still paying off six-figure student debt in our household.

A college degree has long been a ticket to a good-paying job. Students with a degree or credential earn more on average than those with a high school diploma. For so many Americans, higher education has afforded the freedom to join the middle class.

Yet tuition has gone up almost eight times faster than paychecks. In 1968, around the time my parents were attending college, tuition at the University of California was free. This year, tuition and fees cost $14,000. Pell Grants used to cover nearly 80 percent of tuition, fees and room and board. Today, they cover just 29 percent.

Meanwhile, young people pursuing alternatives to higher education find that the skills they’re being taught often aren’t right for the jobs that are available.

Cost should never be a barrier to a brighter future – and we can’t build a 21st century economy without including all Americans. So I’m releasing an ambitious plan to make educational opportunity available whether you go to college or not.

We have to make it easier to afford a college degree. But unlike some other proposals, I don’t believe in asking Americans – especially low-income taxpayers – to pay every last penny of tuition for the child of a billionaire. So when I’m president, any family earning $100,000 or less will receive free tuition at any public college. Families earning less than $150,000 will have their tuition subsidized.

And when over 40 percent of students don’t make it to graduation, we’ll make our investment more effective by tackling barriers to completion – with the goal of producing ten million more graduates over the next decade.

We’ll increase Pell grants for all students – including expanded support so students don’t go hungry or homeless while seeking a degree – and put students on the path to college early by notifying high-schoolers about their Pell eligibility and getting their financial aid applications started. To help students of color thrive, we’ll invest $50 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other minority-serving institutions.

The average graduate with a bachelor’s degree graduates with around $30,000 in debt. So we’ll make student loans less burdensome and more affordable, protect students from predatory for-profit programs, and expand public service loan forgiveness.

At the same time, we’re going to strengthen college transparency, safety, and oversight. My administration will require colleges to be transparent about student debt, graduation rates and post-college earnings.

When for-profit colleges intentionally take advantage of students – particularly service members and veterans – we will hold them accountable and eliminate the debt of students who got ripped off. We’ll also ensure students are safe at school, by restoring strong Title IX protections, supporting training to prevent sexual violence, protecting transgender students, and reducing the danger of firearms on campuses. And my administration will support legislation – like California’s bipartisan Fair Pay to Play Act – to ensure student athletes benefit from the revenues that they generate.

Even as we make it more affordable to attend college, we also have to make it possible to succeed if you choose not to go to college. That’s why my administration will invest $50 billion into workforce development in growing fields. We’ll double annual investments in career and technical education.

That includes providing over $100 million annually to scale locally-driven workforce partnerships, like the ones being piloted by unions, employers and community colleges from Los Angeles to Charleston to Philadelphia. We’ll modernize and expand apprenticeships so that every American can access one close to where they live. Finally, we’ll provide paid service opportunities for high school graduates, focusing on rural areas and communities of color.

From educational institutions that serve students of color to young people seeking the skills and training to join our changing economy, too many Americans have been left behind for too long. With the right investment and commitment, we can unlock the potential of those who need it most.

This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 3:01 AM.