K-14+ Education for All

Debt-Free Options for Higher Education or Workforce Training

In 1892, the United States of America realized that a middle school education was no longer sufficient in preparing our children for the workforce. In 1892, the Committee of Ten - a group of leading educators - recommended the standardization of high school education in the United States and the High School movement that followed led to the rapid expansion of high schools across the country from 1910-1940. Similarly, K-12 education is no longer sufficient for our youth and American competitiveness. America adapted when it realized a middle school education was not sufficient — it is time to bring our educational system to the 21st century.

We must provide matching grants for states to create each of the following: tuition-free community college, vocational training, technical college, and 4-year public college options. Additionally, the federal government should provide grants to expand apprenticeship opportunities. In exchange for these grants, colleges and universities must work to reduce costs, eliminate wasteful spending, publish outcomes such as graduation rates and job placement, create plans to increase graduation rates, and create assistance programs for students that are at risk of not completing their degrees.

To cover the cost of living expenses, the Pell Grant program must be expanded to $15,000. Pell Grant eligibility should be automatically determined via the IRS. Pell Grants eligibility should be extended to job training, vocational education, and technical education. Timely completion bonuses of up to $500 should be awarded.

Increase Funding for Minority Serving Institutions

Provide $100 billion dollars in grants to HBCUs and other MSIs to improve and build new infrastructure, invest in academic programs, student services, and hire more faculty.

Preserve and Strengthen Academia

Societal pressure has resulted in emphasizing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematical (STEM) education and career-focused education. This has led to the decline of liberal arts education and a decrease in university research budgets. While STEM and career-focused education are crucial, people change careers — often multiple times throughout one’s lifetime. Liberal arts education provides flexibility and teaches individuals skills like analytical thinking, writing, researching, and creativity. State funding cuts have resulted in a decline in university research budgets. Tuition-free college will exacerbate the situation. Academic Research is crucial to American leadership, progress, and our economy. We must increase federal funding and grants to universities for academic research to fill the void. We must also protect Open Access to federally funded research. Open Access allows anyone to read publicly funded research. It results in research being dispersed quicker and more widely than research papers in subscription journals. The incumbent in NY-12 sponsored a bill to end the mandate of open access for federally funded research

Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Program Expansion

ATE is technical and vocational training fit for the 21st century economy. The ATE program is a National Science Foundation program that supports the development of innovative approaches to educating highly skilled technicians. The ATE program partners with businesses, industry, government agencies, high schools, community colleges, and four-year colleges and universities to train enrollees in advanced manufacturing technologies, agricultural and environmental technologies, engineering technologies, information and security technologies, micro and nanotechnologies, and general advanced technologies. The program consists of 61 ATE centers and has been widely successful. In 2014, 91% of enrollees either continued or completed the program. 44% of ATE students are underrepresented minorities in STEM - double the average of other STEM programs. As technological progress and innovation continue, we must ensure our workforce and education system keeps up. We must provide $10 billion in grants to expand the ATE program until we have 300 ATE Centers across the nation.

Income Share Agreements for Private College and Graduate School

We must provide relief for those trapped in their student loans. Once we fix our student debt crisis, we can’t return to the same system or we will set ourselves up for another crisis. Even with debt-free public college, student loans will still be necessary for those who wish to attend private colleges or graduate school. We must reform the student loan system by adopting Income Share Agreements (ISAs). ISAs require students to pay a portion of their income until tuition and fees are paid off, completely interest-free. My proposal for ISAs would only require repayment until a job of $50,000 a year is found, with payments capped at 8%. Payments are paused if an individual no longer has a job but would resume once they find another. Australia has implemented a similar program to great success — with defaults near zero.

End For-Profit Colleges

For-Profit Colleges have failed and disproportionately contributed to the crisis in higher education. For-Profit Colleges have preyed on people of color and veterans. We must end all federal funding to for-profit universities and ban government-backed student loans and pell grants to be used to attend for-profit universities.

End Legacy Admissions

Legacy admissions are unfair and unjust. To expand opportunities at elite institutions for low-income individuals, people of color, and first-generation college students, we need end legacy admissions. Schools that continue to give preference to legacy applicants must not receive any federal funds and should lose Pell Grant eligibility.