Senator Bernie Sanders, and Representative Pramila Jaapal, teamed up to reintroduce in Congress a bill that would eliminate tuition at public colleges and Universities!

College for All Act, a bipartisan bill that was passed in both chambers of Congress, would make community colleges free for the majority of families.

Students from households earning less than $125,000 per year or less than $250,000.00 per year could attend public colleges and universities for free.

The reintroduction of the legislation comes as the conservative-majority Supreme Court prepares to weigh in on President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt per borrower.

Republicans in the Senate also take aim at student debt relief efforts. They propose their own plan that would increase the barriers to taking out student loans, and prohibit loans for undergraduate or postgraduate programs where it has been shown that former students’ earnings potential is no higher than those with only a bachelor’s or high school graduate degree. They want to limit borrowing for graduate students to $20,500 per year.

The student debt crisis is at a new high. More than 45 million borrowers hold over $1.75 trillion of federal student loans and repayments are set to resume this October.

Progressives target root cause of student debt crisis

The need for progressives to address the root causes of the student debt crisis could not be any more urgent.

Jayapal stated in a press release that Congress should work to prevent working families from ever having to take on these crippling loans.

This country today tells its youth to get the best education possible, but then burdens them with crippling student loans for years. Sanders added, “That is a policy that I find completely absurd.”

He continued, “A higher education in the richest country of all time should be a human right, not just a privilege, for everyone.”

“Education, one of the keys for a successful democratic system, is something we should make easier for the young people who have worked hard to achieve their degrees.”