Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks to the crowd during the 2019 South Carolina Democratic Party State Convention on June 22, 2019 in Columbia, South Carolina.
Sean Rayford | Getty Images
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced a plan on Monday to erase the country's $1.6 trillion outstanding student loan tab, intensifying the higher education policy debate in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
The Democratic presidential candidate's legislation — dubbed "The College for All Act" — will release all 45 million Americans from their student debt and be paid for with a new tax on Wall Street transactions.
The proposal goes further than fellow Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren's plan, which caps student debt forgiveness at $50,000 and offers no relief to borrowers who earn more than $250,000.
Outstanding education debt in the U.S. has eclipsed credit card and auto debt. Today the average college graduate leaves school $30,000 in the red, up from $10,000 in the 1990s, and 28% of student loan borrowers are in delinquency or default.
Sanders' plan would make two- and four-year public colleges and universities tuition- and debt-free. Trade schools and apprenticeship programs would be tuition-free, as well.
"This is truly a revolutionary proposal," Sanders told The Washington Post. "In a generation hard hit by the Wall Street crash of 2008, it forgives all student debt and ends the absurdity of sentencing an entire generation to a lifetime of debt for the 'crime' of getting a college education."
Student loans now follow millions of Americans into *retirement*. It's time we cancel all student debt and guarantee debt- and tuition-free college for anyone who wants to attend. https://t.co/JYx9hxWFzD
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) January 28, 2019