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Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, speaks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 2016. - Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, speaks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 25, 2016.Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images
Each of the major speakers who took the stage at the first night of the Democratic National Convention Monday touched briefly on what's becoming one of the party's prominent campaign issues: the cost of higher education.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said Clinton would ensure all students can go to college without taking on debt. And New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said Clinton understands America needs to out educate in order to out innovate.
"She knows that debt-free college is not a gift, it's not charity” Booker said. “It's an investment.”
But, with a bare minimum price tag of $35 billion a year, is it the right investment?
Clinton’s recently revamped higher education plan would offer free tuition at public colleges, starting with families making $85,000 or less and increasing in tiers until the threshold for free tuition reaches families earning up to $125,000 in 2021.
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That’s more ambitious (and likely more expensive, though no price tag has been released) than her original college plan, which called for a combination of state and federal funding that would make it possible to attend in-state colleges without borrowing for tuition.
While popular for obvious reasons with the highly desired voting population of college students and young debt-holding graduates, the variations of free college introduced so far have been met with skeptical reactions from many economists and higher education wonks.
“Tuition-free college is way less help than some people need and way more than others require,” wrote former college presidents William G. Bowen and Michael S. McPherson in a op-ed on Vox.com last week.
Even Clinton’s vice presidential pick, Tim Kaine, has expressed doubts about free college, writing in The Huffington Post earlier this year that making all public university education free gives away “a college education to richer Americans who don’t need the assistance paying for it.”
There’s little disputing that families in the top income tier of Clinton's plan would benefit the most from a free tuition policy in terms of sheer dollars.
That’s because students from lower-income families are more likely than their wealthier peers to attend community colleges and small regional colleges, which are less expensive than major public research universities.
Saint John’s University is a Catholic school for men that partners with a nearby women’s school, College of Saint Benedict, to share academic programs and campuses resources. Nearly 80% of students at Saint John’s graduate within six years, 12% higher than similar schools. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of St. John's UniversityRecently admitted CalTech students scored about 1600 on average on their SATs—higher than at MIT or Stanford. Professors are notoriously hard graders. The school boasts 34 Nobel laureates among alumni and faculty. Recent grads tend to get high-paying jobs. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of California Institute of TechnologyPomona is among the handful of schools vowing to meet student’s full demonstrated need with aid, so more than 70% of grads have no student debt. With 1,600 undergraduates, Pomona features close student-faculty relationships. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Ponoma CollegeIllinois’s flagship university is among the top 15 public schools on the National Science Foundation’s list of high research spenders, and its strongest programs include accounting, engineering, and physics. Students also have access to the country’s second largest university library system. (Only Harvard’s is larger.) FULL PROFILE Courtesy University of IllinoisClemson was founded as an agricultural college, and while agricultural science is still a specialty, more general programs such as business are more popular today. Most every one at this rural campus is united by an enormous amount of school pride, especially around the football team. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Clemson UniversityUCLA produces a lot of stars: professors like Internet pioneer Leonard Kleinrock, grads in show business like Ben Stiller, and others in pro sports like Kareem Abdul Jabbar. The school also supports ordinary students as well, with more than one third from low-income families. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of UCLALike most large public schools, the University of Maryland has some all-star professors. The faculty roster boasts three Nobel laureates, two Pulitzer Prize winners and, thanks to the campus’s proximity to Washington, D.C., leaders in major positions at federal agencies like NASA and the National Institutes of Health. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of University of MarylandWhile Virginia Tech is known especially for engineering, its business, social sciences, and agriculture programs are also strong. The campus Math Emporium houses hundreds of computers programmed with lessons that have boosted students’ math prowess. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Virginia PolytechnicUC–Davis has made a reputation as an affordable school that produces results. About 43% of students are low-income, but its six-year graduation rate is a high 83%. The school is best known for its agriculture and animal science specialties. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of University of CaliforniaUC-Irvine shines in serving one of the most diverse student bodies in the country: More than 40% of students come from low-income families. Yet the school still boasts an 86% graduation rate—an impressive 41% higher than similar colleges. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of University of CaliforniaThe University of Florida is one of the biggest bargains in higher education, with tuition of just $6,300 a year for Floridians. For that low price, students get access to some of the world’s top professors, well-respected programs in fields as diverse as astronomy and journalism, and sports teams that often dominate their leagues. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of University of FloridaUC-San Diego is one of the top research universities in the country, with renowned science programs, especially in marine biology and oceanography. Like other colleges in the University of California system, the San Diego campus stands out for its comparative affordability for state residents. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of University of CalifoTexas A&M has one of the largest undergraduate student bodies in the country, with more the 40,000 students who graduate into an especially proud, loyal group of alumni. The college is well known for its business, agriculture, and engineering programs, as well as a recreation, park, and tourism management program. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Texas A&MLike its fellow high-ranking Ivy League peers, Princeton and Harvard, Yale is highly selective. But for students who are admitted, the college promises a very generous financial aid package and courses taught by some of the world’s most extraordinary academics. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Yale UniversityMIT is one of the best known and most respected science colleges in the world. It’s competitive selection process and grueling course load produces results, though—recent graduates boast one of the highest average salaries in Money’s rankings, according to PayScale data. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of MITStanford isn’t one of the eight members of the elite Ivy League, but it would fit right in. It’s the hardest school in the country to get into and has generous financial aid policies like Princeton and Harvard. But here’s a key difference: Recent graduates report average annual salaries that are $8,000 higher than those of Ivy League grads. FULL PROFILE Getty ImagesUVA boasts the highest graduation rate of any public university in the country, at 93%. The university’s academic strengths are wide-ranging, and the campus is the only U.S. college to be designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, thanks its connection to founder Thomas Jefferson. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of University of VirginCooper Union is unique—a small, urban school that offers degrees only in art, architecture, and engineering. Though Cooper Union no longer has the free tuition policy it was founded with, it’s still much more affordable than other elite private colleges. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Cooper UnionAn elite liberal arts college, Amherst is one of a small group of schools that will meet 100% of the demonstrated financial need of students. As a result, more than two-thirds of its students graduate without taking out loans. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Amherst CollegeUC-Berkeley, or Cal for short, ranks the highest of eight University of California system schools that made Money’s rankings. In fact, Cal is one of the most selective public colleges in the country. More than 90% of freshmen graduate within six years, a rate well above even other elite public universities. FULL PROFILE Getty ImagesBYU-Provo is the main campus of a private college system specializing in educating members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Non-Mormons can attend, but are charged more tuition and must obey the school’s strict code of conduct. The university has a high graduation rate at an affordable price for a private education. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Brigham Young UniversityThe typical Rice student majors in engineering, economics, or biology, and the university is also well known in the field of political science. Graduates of the selective private school fare well in the workforce: Recent grads out-earn their peers from similar schools by 16%, according to salary data from Payscale.com. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Rice UniversityHarvard may be the most recognizable college in the world, and it’s practically synonymous with the prestigious Ivy League. Like many of its peers, Harvard excels in Money’s rankings not only because of the outstanding education it provides but also thanks to its generous financial aid program. FULL PROFILE Getty ImagesThe University of Michigan accepts less than a third of the nearly 50,000 students who apply, and is nearly as popular with out-of-staters as with Michiganders. State residents who get in enjoy an especially good deal: Michigan is one of 11 colleges in Money’s top 50 where the average in-state cost of a degree is less than $100,000. FULL PROFILE Dave Lauridsen for MoneyPrinceton University's generous financial aid makes it, according to Money’s analysis, the most affordable member of the Ivy League. The school gives out such large grants to the six in 10 families who qualify (families earning less than $250,000 generally get some aid) that more than 83% of students graduate without any debt. FULL PROFILE Courtesy of Princeton University
Research by Matthew Chingos, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who studies education, found that students from families in the top income quartile attend public colleges that charge about $1,200, or 20%, more per year than the colleges a typical low-income student attends.
There’s also the issue that free tuition is not the same thing as free college attendance. Tuition and fees equaled less than half the total price of college in 2015, according to an annual College Board report. Chingos writes that free tuition still leaves families at the bottom half of the income distributions with $17.8 billion in annual college costs.
“Devoting new spending to eliminating tuition for all students involves an implicit tradeoff with investing the same funds in targeted grant aid that would cover more of the total costs of attendance for students from lower-income families," he writes.
Michael J. Pretrilli, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and Catharine Bond Hill, an economist who specializes in financial aid, have made similar arguments that instead of free college for all, the limited resources should be invested in grant aid to help the families that need it most.
Finally, dramatically reducing the cost of college won’t solve one of the toughest student debt problems, either. That's because increasing access is only one half the college affordability issue. The other half is increasing completion rates.
Currently, four out of every 10 students at four-year public colleges don't finish within six years.
So while there is a subset of college graduates with expensive student debt that they can’t afford, that’s actually a smaller issue than the borrowers with relatively little debt (less than $10,000) who left college without earning a degree. New data released by the White House last week shows that dropouts are three times as likely to default on their loans.
There are certainly some experts who are supportive of a Sanders-like free tuition plan, including Sara Goldrick Rab, a prominent professor of higher education policy now at Temple University.
"Targeted financial aid isn't getting the job done," she wrote in the New York Times. "It's time for universal public higher education."
Goldrick-Rab, who researches financial aid and college access, also said that grant programs have lost their purchasing power, and targeted financial aid is divisive, pitting those who get help against those who don't qualify.
Even those who'd like to see a form of free tuition become a reality have acknowledged the enormous uphill battle such an expensive idea would have in Congress.
But of course, this is campaign season. Economic analysis and political reality may not be as important as getting voters' attention.
The increasing unaffordability of college and growing ubiquity of student debt is a pain point that spans geographic regions and ideologies. And that's why we'll continue to hear about this long-shot idea that, as Bernie Sanders put it Monday night, "will revolutionize higher education in America."