As President Trump and Congressional Republicans work to make college unaffordable and unattainable for millions of working-class families, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) joined Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.-07), and eight Senate colleagues in introducing legislation to make public colleges and universities tuition free for 95 percent of students. The College for All Act would be the most transformative investment in higher education in 60 years and would substantially improve the lives of millions of students throughout the United States.
Nearly 4 million student borrowers live in California, owing an average of $38,168 and a total of $148.6 billion in student loan debt.
“As a first-generation college graduate from a low-income household, I know a good education is the foundation of the American dream, but I’ve seen firsthand the challenges of accessing and affording higher education,” said Senator Padilla. “We need bold, proactive solutions to make college more affordable — not the Trump Administration’s short-sighted plan to eradicate student financial aid and put higher education out of reach for millions of American families. The College for All Act would help millions of working families shoulder the financial burden of paying for their children’s college. When we invest in all students, we support our nation’s financial interests by ensuring that opportunity and economic prosperity are attainable for all, regardless of income.”
“In a highly competitive global economy where technology is changing the very nature of work and the jobs we perform, we need the best educated workforce in the world,” said Senator Sanders. “Our nation used to lead the world in the percentage of adults with a college degree. Today, we are in 11th place behind countries like Japan, South Korea, Canada, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. That is not a prescription for a strong American economy of the future. It is a prescription for failure. Instead of increasing the cost of college in order to give more tax breaks to billionaires, we have a better idea. We are going to make public colleges and universities tuition free so that working class students can succeed and are not burdened with a lifetime of debt.”
Making public colleges and universities tuition free is not a radical idea. In 1944, as World War II was coming to an end, the U.S. government made free higher education available to all those who served in the armed forces. That act not only improved the financial well-being of the Greatest Generation, but it also laid the groundwork for the greatest expansion of the American middle class in U.S. history. Moreover, over 50 years ago, many of America’s most prestigious public colleges and universities were also tuition free or virtually tuition free.
Since this legislation was first introduced 10 years ago, several colleges and universities in America have provided free tuition for working class and middle-class students, including every state college in New Mexico, the State University of New York, the University of Texas, the University of Wisconsin, and Arkansas State University.
Other wealthy countries like France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland have made their public colleges and universities tuition free or virtually tuition free because they understand the value of investing in their young people.
The College for All Act would guarantee tuition-free community college for all students and allow students from single households earning up to $150,000 a year, and married households earning up to $300,000 a year, to attend college without fear of being saddled with student loan debt.
Specifically, the College for All Act would also:
- Double the maximum Pell Grant award for students enrolled at public and private non-profit colleges;
- Establish a $10 billion grant program to improve student outcomes and address equity gaps at underfunded public colleges and universities;
- Triple federal TRIO program funding;
- Double GEAR UP funding; and
- Double mandatory funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and other Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs).
In addition to Senator Padilla, the legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
Senator Padilla has consistently advocated on behalf of students to make college more affordable and accessible. Last year, Padilla and Representative Norma J. Torres (D-Calif.-35) hosted local students and advocates to reintroduce the Basic Assistance for Students in College (BASIC) Act, bicameral legislation to help ensure college students can meet their basic needs while pursuing their education. He also introduced the Student Food Security Act of 2024, bicameral legislation to address food insecurity faced by college students nationwide. Padilla previously cosponsored the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act, bicameral legislation that would nearly double the Pell Grant maximum award, index the maximum award for inflation, and expand the program to include Dreamers.
During the Biden Administration, Padilla led numerous letters urging the President to provide meaningful student debt cancellation, along with multiple letters urging former U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to leverage his authority under the Higher Education Act to provide expanded student debt relief to working and middle-class borrowers.
A one-pager on the College for All Act is available here.
Full text of the bill is available here.
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Republicans want to increase the deficit and raise the debt ceiling, but offering free college is “too expensive?” Why are republicans so worried about having an educated America?
he must be coming up for re-election.
“they understand the value of investing in their young people”
That is what separates from the other civilized countries. We value billionaires over education.
Coming out of college with a BA and $100K in debt is a sure fire way to keep the lower and middle class down. Want a better job? Pay more money and incur even more debt for a Masters or PhD.
This sh&% makes no sense. America needs change. I’m not blaming the fat tangerine either. This is been a problem for decades.
An educated populace is the key to advancement. America is far from advancing anything these days.
Hooray! A long overdue return to sanity over profiteering!
This isn’t a good idea, Mr. Padilla. Lots of reasons why.
College education isn’t for everyone. Many young folks do better going into trades, etc. We’ve been seeing this documented a lot in the last decade. We need more workers on all sorts of trades, and many of them wind up doing far better long-term than the random college grad with a BS in whatever, debt or no debt.
Also, nothing is free. Taxpayers will need to fund this giveaway, of course. If a family household makes 275k/year, for example, their kid(s) automatically gets a free ride?? I’d ask why, with that level of income, they weren’t able to save ANYTHING towards their kid’s college fund. New cars, iPhones, expensive vacations, etc, need to take a backseat to your kid’s college fund, that is, if you want to have kids going to college. The more kids you have, the more you need to save along the way. This can’t be news to people, unless you live under a rock.
It’s not like *everyone* is being forced into higher education by this bill, but BI guy has to complain about his fantasies, because cons love a poorly-educated populace.
Rubbish! Basic’s comment is logical. It’s so obvious.
No, it isn’t “logical”. It’s just another simplistic cliché that substitutes for actual thinking and understanding.
Reasoning/critical thinking have never been in BASIC’s capabilities. It’s always pure fantasy and complaining without understanding or even trying to understand the issue at hand.
Just because some people will have free or nearly free tuition, doesn’t mean everyone will go to college all of a sudden. There will still be admissions criteria to weed out those who won’t benefit from attempting a degree. There will still be trade schools and yes, they ARE promoted a great deal in our local high schools. All 3 public high schools in town have trade programs, very good ones in fact. So no, no one will be denied learning a trade as he fantasizes about.
If *you* think that something is obvious, then it’s guaranteed to actually be illogical.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1479492940075881
This is an excellent idea, mainly for the reason you are citing. Colleges prepare people to make a living and they have a lot of excellent trade and business preparation programs. Yes they also have courses in subjects that don’t translate directly to a job, perhaps, and I’m sure you chortle to yourself denigrating those as fluffy and useless. But the fact is that we need all kinds of skilled people to make this world run, and education is the most important factor in developing them. We need plumbers and electricians, but we also need engineers designing plumbing and electrical systems, designers to create smarter building materials and architects making plans. Repairing computers and writing software is a “trade”. Analyzing weather patterns is a trade. Teaching others is a trade. When people can learn skills that directly help them and our society improve, and not have a ton of debt on their backs, how is that not a good idea?
In our society today, many young people go into college lacking the basics that they should have learned in K-12 but didn’t. Some go to college because we’re told that is necessary for higher paying jobs – which is true.
Some focus on subjects such as (ethnic) studies or other “studies” and not science/engineering as mentioned. Some pay for degrees that they never use – I know of someone that got an Masters in International Studies and has worked for decades only as an admin assistant (i.e. the job formerly titled a “secretary”).
But beyond those points, public colleges and universities are state owned and run. So how can a federal law require the states to change their rules other than by withdrawing federal funding? States rights and all.
And BTW the 1944 veterans didn’t exactly get free college, it was paid for in their sacrifices defending the country during a world-wide war.
ANON – You can’t blame the colleges for people not putting their degrees to good work. An MA in International Studies could be leveraged in many well paying careers with the correct guidance/motivation. Also, science/engineering aren’t the only degrees that place people into jobs. Teachers, lawyers, financial planners, and many other professions can find success with a non-science BA.
While you’re right about the sacrifice of vets who received free college, you can’t deny the massive generational success they achieved by having that option available. Free college benefits EVERYONE, even those who don’t go. America lags far behind the rest of the developed world in income equality and overall education (along with many other things). Why continue to make it worse?
An educated populace benefits everyone, both in terms of the economy, and in instilling critical thinking and decision making skills that currently seem to be woefully lacking. Exposure to other cultures also helps to eliminate bigotry and racism. K-12 education doesn’t provide a lot of that.
If American fairly taxes billionaires and corporations, we could have a free university and trade school system for all students. That would build up a solid middle class and help to ensure some economic stability for the next generations.
ANON – America will never be a great country until we value people over money. We’ve always been a greedy, billionaire worshipping nation. We’ve never been “#1” in anything but incarceration rates and military spending.
We need a massive revolution or, for those of us lucky enough to have the ability, exercise our dual citizenship rights and move. I regret not doing it before my kids were born. The quality of life here pales in comparison to actually great nations.
These people d***-riding billionaires in the hopes that a couple drops of golden ball sweat will drop on their faces are pathetic.
‘Muricans!