O’Malley to lay out plan for debt-free college

Debt-free college has already become a major issue in the Democratic presidential race, with endorsements of the idea from Sen.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Democrat Martin O’Malley is calling the high cost of college a “crisis” as he lays out a goal of debt-free tuition for all students at public colleges and universities within five years if elected president.

He pointed to his time as Maryland governor, when the state froze tuition for four years straight. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Unless we act now, more and more students will not be able to afford higher education at all, putting the American Dream even further out of reach”, O’Malley said in a statement.

Introduced in the Senate in May, Sanders’ bill would require the federal government to cover two-thirds of the total $70 billion tuition paid at public colleges and states to cover the rest.

The plan also includes re-financing options and automatically enrolling borrowers in income-based repayment plans.

O’Malley’s goal is to make it possible for anyone to graduate from a public college or university without tuition debt.

At St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, New Hampshire, where O’Malley rolled out his plan, he said that plan wouldn’t address rising education costs.

O’Malley’s plan instead focuses on reducing tuition at state schools, providing incentives in the form of matching grants for states to invest more heavily in their public colleges and universities, and making it easier for students to transfer credits and take courses online to complete their degrees in a timely manner.