Joe Biden’s plans for free college and student debt have grabbed most of the headlines, but his … [+]
Joe Biden has released a number of plans for his potential administration. In education, his plans to eliminate tuition at public colleges and universities and provide student debt cancellation have gotten the most attention. Both would go a long way to making college more affordable for all students, but Biden also has proposals that would further improve college affordability and student success for the low-income students who stand to gain the most from a college degree.
Beyond eliminating tuition, Biden has promised to double the Pell Grant, the federal grant given to low- and moderate-income students to bring down the cost of higher education. This would dramatically make college more affordable for a number of students because it would allow Pell-eligible students to use their grant to cover living costs—like housing, food, and textbooks—which make up a larger share of college costs than tuition.
By doubling the amount of the grant, it means the grant would go further with increased buying power. That would dramatically reduce the need to borrow for higher education, and even eliminate it for some students. And it would make more students eligible, considerably increasing the number of middle-income students who would receive additional financial aid for living costs.
But it isn’t just about affordability. Paying for a college education is a major issue, to be sure, but ensuring students complete a degree is crucial to both affording any debt a student takes on, but also to reap the benefits of a college degree. And the ability of a student to complete a degree is often impacted by the school’s ability to support its students, which is obviously reliant on the school having the necessary resources.
American higher education is extremely stratified, where low-income students attend the institutions with the fewest resources. Community colleges are historically under-funded compared to their four-year counterparts. The regional four-year institutions that enroll larger shares of low-income students also get fewer resources than more elite colleges where low-income students are underrepresented.
Luckily, Biden has some ideas to fix that. The former vice president has proposed serious investments that are meant to rectify some of the funding disparities and infuse resources into institutions to fund initiatives to improve student outcomes.
Biden has long been a champion for community colleges, likely related to the fact that his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, is a community college professor. He has put forth a number of investments in those colleges that could be transformative. For example, he has proposed investing $8 billion in community colleges to “improve the health and safety of their facilities, and equip their schools with new technology.”
Biden’s platform also calls for a $50 billion investment in workforce training, which would greatly benefit community colleges since they provide a large portion of job training for the country. Biden’s plan also said he would create a grant program for community colleges to implement evidence-based practices to improve retention and degree completion.
Biden also has a strategy to help the four-year colleges that are underfunded but serve a larger share of low-income students. In K-12 education, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides additional funds to schools serving larger numbers or large percentages of low-income students, recognizing the need for additional resources to effectively educate and support low-income students. Biden’s plan calls for a creating a “Title I” for higher education that would grant those institutions money to provide wraparound services and additional financial aid, like emergency grants,.
Should Biden win the election in two weeks he would have a number of issues to address in January, as the country continues to be rocked by the public health and economic effects of the pandemic. Some may suggest he focus narrowly on those issues, but they would be wise to also consider his higher education plans. Past recessions have shown that those with college degrees fare better in a recovery, so if Biden wants to build back better, investing in students and higher education will be essential to doing so.
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