Warren’s Vs. Bernie’s Plans for Student Loans and College
Author: Whit Barrett
When it comes to debt in the U.S.A, many immediately think of student loans. They plague tons of Americans, racking up to $1.41 trillion as of 2019. Being such a severe dilemma, it will surely be a hot topic for the 2020 Presidential Election. In fact, it already has. Many of those running already have addressed the issue, including both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Both wish to tackle the issue heavily and aid Americans, but their approaches diverge slightly.
Warren plans to go through the Secretary of Education initially. She plans to use their authority to change student loans consistently with her plan to cancel up to $50,000 for 95% of those with student loans. She also shall use the Secretary of Education to tackle for-profit colleges and fight racial disparities in the higher education system. To tackle for-profit colleges, she will ban federal funding for them. To tackle racial disparities in the higher education system, she will have the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights institute a huge investigation into the roles that higher education systems – including colleges – play in contributing to said disparities. Any illegal discrimination found will have the law enforced upon it to the maximum. Warren will pay for this elaborate plan using the wealth tax she proposed along with enaction from Congress on universal tuition (free public college).
Bernie has a similar goal. He too wants to guarantee tuition for all through his suggested College for All Act. When it comes to tuition that has already come to happen however, he differs from Warren, as he wants all tuition to be canceled. He’ll then place a cap on student loan interest rates at 1.88%. Bernie also wants to fight racial disparities, but his approach is more passive. Instead of going for those causing them, he will invest $1.3 billion every year in private non-profit colleges and universities that are historically minority-serving. His payment method overall also differs from Warren’s. Bernie plans to pay for it all by placing a tax of a fraction of a percent on Wall Street speculators. The Wall Street speculation tax will raise $2.4 trillion over the next ten years by placing a 0.5% tax on stock trades, 0.1% fee on bond trades, and a 0.005% fee on derivatives trades.
While the same end goals seem to be consistent between these two, their methods to achieve said goals differ.
Department of Public Information 