Opinion: Warren’s free-college-and-debt-forgiveness plan may be liberal, but it isn’t progressive
By Catherine Rampell Catherine Rampell Columnist covering economics, public policy, politics and culture Email Bio Follow Columnist April 25 Sen. Elizabeth Warren might want to work on making her free-college-and-debt-forgiveness plan more progressive.
Some elements in Warren’s plan are well-targeted to help the neediest and most marginal students enroll in postsecondary education, persist through graduation and succeed in the workplace. These include calls to expand Pell Grants, cover more non-tuition expenses and increase funding for historically black colleges and universities.
Take the free tuition proposal. This would be a big giveaway to high-income families who plan to send their kids to college anyway and don’t need to be comped. Free college means it’s free for Bill Gates’s kids, too, after all. It’s no wonder, then, that the biggest beneficiaries of Warren’s debt-forgiveness plan would be upper-income households, according to an analysis by Brookings Institution scholar Adam Looney. He finds that low-income borrowers would save $569 in annual payments under the proposal, compared with $2,653 for those in the 80th to 90th percentiles.
“It’s a redistribution from the richest 1 percent to the bottom 95 percent. The overall flow of money here is extremely progressive,” a senior campaign aide told me.
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