Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley on Wednesday put forward a five-year goal of allowing students to graduate debt-free from public colleges and universities across the country.
The issue is one being talked about a lot by Democrats, including the party's other White House candidates, as more and more students enter the workforce with hefty debt loads.
O'Malley, a former Maryland governor, called on states to freeze tuition rates at public colleges and universities -- as Maryland did for four years -- and proposed other measures that would help those carrying debt.
Under O'Malley's plan, students and parents would be able to refinance their debt at lower interest rates. And O'Malley would base the repayment terms for student borrowers on their income upon graduation.
For the long term, O'Malley said he would set a goal of limiting college tuition to 10 percent of a state's median income at four-year institutions and 5 percent at two-year institutions. Federal matching grants would help states that participate in reaching the goal.
Under his plan, O'Malley also would increase federal Pell Grants and revamp federal work-study programs to help cover nontuition costs, such as room and board.
"Right now, student loan debt is holding us back -- student by student, family by family -- and as a nation, we have to do better," O'Malley said at an event at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.
Aides declined to spell out the cost of O'Malley's initiatives but suggested they could be paid for by measures such as ending corporate tax provisions and taxing capital gains at the same rate as earned income.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who also is seeking the Democratic nomination, has proposed a somewhat different idea: making four-year public colleges and universities free.
His plan, which he estimates would cost $70 billion a year, would be paid for in part by a tax on Wall Street transactions by investment houses, hedge funds and other speculators. Fellow candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also has hinted that she plans to detail her own college affordability plans.
O'Malley's plan prompted some back and forth on the campaign trail Wednesday, with Republican candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush characterizing O'Malley's plan as "more free stuff" during a stop in Dover, N.H.
O'Malley later said in a statement that "debt-free college isn't about 'free stuff.' It's about providing opportunity to every American."
In recent years, O'Malley's daughter Grace, 24, graduated from Georgetown University, and another daughter, Tara, 23, graduated from the College of Charleston. Georgetown is a private university in Washington, D.C., while College of Charleston is a public university in South Carolina.
Aides said O'Malley and his wife have taken out nine loans totaling $339,200 to help pay for their daughters' education.
While some provisions in O'Malley's plan would not affect private universities, O'Malley aides said those schools would have an incentive to keep costs down as public colleges and universities become more affordable.
In an email sent to O'Malley supporters Tuesday, Grace O'Malley, now a public school teacher in Baltimore, relayed her college-tuition story and urged others to do so on a website set up by her father's campaign.
"I had to make a tough choice: Do I go to the college we can afford or do I take out loans to go to the college of my dreams?" she wrote. "At the age of 18, I made the decision to follow my dreams. My family and I now face years of debt -- and we know we're not the only ones."
Information for this article was contributed by Paul Steinhauser of The Washington Post.
A Section on 07/09/2015