For viewers eager to hear the Democratic presidential candidates’ stances on K–12 education policy, the Tuesday’s primary debate was a disappointment. However, the two front-runners, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, did speak at length about the necessity of college affordability and their plans for tuition-free campuses.
“A college degree today is the equivalent of what a high school degree was fifty years ago,” Sanders said. “And what we said fifty years ago and one hundred years ago is that every kid in this country should be able to get a high school education regardless of the income of their family. I think we have to say that is true for everybody going to college.”
Clinton had previously criticized the senator’s proposal, saying that it would force taxpayers to pick up the tab for children of billionaires like Donald Trump. Sanders remarked that under his policies, billionaires would pay significantly more in taxes.
Clinton supports free college tuition, but said that students should work at least ten hours a week while in school to attain it. She also said that she wants to give the forty million Americans carrying student debt the opportunity to refinance their loans. “That will save thousands of dollars for people who are now struggling under this cumbersome, burdensome college debt,” Clinton said. “As a young student in Nevada said to me, ‘The hardest part about going to college should not be paying for it.’”
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley pointed out that Maryland went four years without a penny’s increase in college tuition. “We need to make wages go up and college more affordable,” he said.
O’Malley and Clinton also briefly voiced support for allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition.
When each candidate was asked to defend themselves against their biggest lines of critique, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb touched on affirmative action. Webb supports preferential admissions criteria for African Americans “because of their unique history of slavery,” but added that diversity programs exclude poor white people.
The night’s only mention of early education went to Clinton.
“We need to make it possible for every child to live up to his or her God-given potential,” she said. “That is really hard to do if you don’t have early childhood education, if you don’t have schools that are able to meet the needs of the people.”
