Hillary Clinton on Education (continued)

Many other countries seriously subsidize the cost of college. Could America be next? Well, maybe. Clinton wants to give a $3,500 tuition tax credit to all families with a kid in college. Sure, $3,500 might not cover the full cost of most universities, but according to the Clinton campaign, it’s more than 50% of the cost of tuition at the average public institution.

Clinton says she will also increase Pell Grants. When the Pell Grant was first introduced it covered 99% of the cost of a two-year college, 77% at a four-year public school, and 36% at a private school—now it doesn’t even come close.  Clinton wants to make sure that each year the Pell is adjusted to take rising college costs into account. And she wants to do good for do-gooders, by giving Americorps members, who do 1-2 years of full-time public service, $10,000 to put towards college.  She also wants to start a Public Service Academy, which her campaign says will be “like the West Point of public service”.

Other key points of Clinton's college affordability plan:

• Improve college graduation rates by creating a $250 million graduation fund.
• Strengthen community colleges with $500 million in incentive grants, and make transferring to a 4-year institution easier.
• Eliminate the need to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form. Instead, allow families to check a box on their tax return requesting financial aid. Upon checking that box, they will receive a letter from the Department of Education with a coupon showing the amount of grants and loans they’re entitled to. Schools can reach out directly to the Department of Education to collect the funds.
• Force schools to provide Truth in Tuition Disclosures—in other words, require them to tell families in advance how much college will cost from Freshman year onwards.

Universal Preschool

Should preschool be free for all children? Clinton says yes. In fact, universal pre-K is one of her cornerstone educational issues. According to Nobel Laureate and University of Chicago Economics Professor James Heckman, half of the black-white achievement gap that exists at the end of high school is evident before children start kindergarten. But state-funded pre-K still only serves one out of every five 4-year-olds in America.

Clinton wants every kid in the country to have access to free preschool in the year before kindergarten and she’s proposed $10 billion in spending to make it happen. Her program would be “a federal-state partnership”, according to the Clinton campaign. In other words, while the Fed will provide some money, states need to match it dollar-for-dollar. They also need to follow some rules. For example, all teachers hired must have a bachelor’s degree and specialized training in early childhood development. Programs need to maintain a low teacher-student ratio. And the program has to be offered to all kids in the state, free of charge. Once states hit those benchmarks, they get to have some flexibility in how they use their funds, but not before that.

Why the push for universal pre-K? Clinton contends, “Children who attend pre-kindergarten are less likely to enroll in special education; they are less likely to drop out of high school. They are more likely to go on and graduate from college. They are less likely to be unemployed, and they are less likely to go on welfare… If you put in a dollar in early childhood, you are going to get at least seven dollars back. Imagine if you could buy a stock with that kind of return.”

All this educational spending won’t come cheap. “Obviously we are spending more than half a trillion dollars on the Iraq war and when we finally end that, we are going to have to start getting ourselves out of deficit,” Clinton says, “But we need at the same time to make some investment that will keep our country strong.” Education, says Clinton, is a place to start.

Want to read more candidate viewpoints? Check out our coverage of the presidential race: Election Fever 2008