Hillary Clinton
Clinton Plan Will Provide Tuition Free Education at Predominantly Black Institutions in SC
As part of the New College Compact, Hillary Clinton announced a dedicated $25 billion fund to support private colleges, including South Carolina’s private historically black colleges and universities. For those at public and private colleges, her New College Compact ensures costs won’t be a barrier to entry and debt won’t hold anyone back once they graduate. For those attending predominantly black technical schools and community colleges, they would attend tuition-free. As of today, HBCU’s are serving more than 300,000 students.
For all public HBCUs, under the New College Compact students should never have to take out a loan to earn four-year degrees and will not have to pay a dime to earn two-year degrees because the plan:
ü Invests new federal funds in states that commit to investing more in public HBCUs, meaning that HBCUs benefit from additional federal as well as state support under her plan.
ü Invests more funds when public schools enroll low- and middle-income students, meaning that HBCUs, which play a key role in educating underserved students, will be eligible for proportionally more support.
ü Ensures that Pell recipients at these public HBCUs can direct their full Pell funding toward living expenses.
For all private HBCUs, Clinton’s plan:
ü Creates a dedicated $25 billion fund to provide support to private nonprofit schools that serve low- and middle-income students and help them build the skills they need, of which private HBCUs are a prime example.
And for all HBCUs, both public and private, Clinton’s plan:
ü Significantly cuts the interest rates that students pay on any loans they take out so that the government never profits on the loans.
ü Enables students with debt to refinance their loans at low current rates. Parents with PLUS loans will also be able to refinance at current rates.
ü Extends the American Opportunity Tax Credit with its $1,000 refundable credit to low-income families sending their sons and daughters to these schools.
ü Ensures that parents who borrow through the Parent PLUS program will not have to take out such high levels of debt in order to send their children and grandchildren to these schools.
ü Enables students never to have to repay more than 10 percent of their monthly income.
ü Builds on programs such as TRIO and GEAR UP to invest in student support, including child care for students who are parents, to help all students stay in school and boost completion.
“Hillary Clinton is committed to making college affordable for all of South Carolina’s students and families. Her proposal for a federal-state partnership is an innovative idea that will help lower the skyrocketing cost of higher education,” said Senator Darrell Jackson and graduate of Benedict College.
“For far too long, our leaders haven’t address the unacceptable rise in cost of college. No challenge is too big for Hillary Clinton, who is ready to tackle this issue that has gone unaddressed for far too long. With her bold ideas, students would have the opportunity to attend public HBCU’s like South Carolina State University without loans for tuition,” said Bryanta Maxwell, President of the Young Democrats of South Carolina and graduate of South Carolina State University.
The $25 billion fund, which includes non-profit, private Historically Black Colleges, was based on the America’s College Promise Act, introduced in Congress in July by Rep. Bobby Scott. His legislation is designed to create new pathways to four-year degrees at HBCUs as well as other MSIs. The new funds help the schools lower attendance costs and implement supports to improve student outcomes.
