AJC On Campus: Biden’s plan for colleges
President-elect Joe Biden discussed ideas during the campaign that focused on making higher education more affordable for lower income families and investing more money in community colleges and schools created to serve non-white students.
His approach to higher education would be a significant change from the Trump administration’s approach to higher education. For example, Trump attempted to terminate legal protections for nearly 700,000 young immigrants, better known as Dreamers, who were brought here by their parents as children. Biden posted a tweet on Election Day that “Dreamers are Americans — and it’s time we make it official.”
Biden would also replace Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, with someone he said who is “an actual public school educator.” DeVos angered many Democrats with policies that supported school choice and charter schools.
His goals for higher education will cost billions of dollars. He’s talked about paying for these and other ideas through a plan that would raise taxes on those making more than $400,000 a year.
Biden, though, may first be greeted by governors and members of Congress asking him for money to help fund colleges and universities in their states as they wade through the coronavirus pandemic. Georgia’s public colleges and universities had to cut their budgets by 10% several months ago.
Here are 10 proposals that Biden has made concerning higher education:
- Make public colleges and universities tuition-free for students for families with annual incomes below $125,000. The median household income in Georgia is $55,679, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
- Double the maximum Pell grant. About 108,000 University System of Georgia students — approximately 40% of its undergraduate students — received Pell grants last year. Pell grants are awarded to students whose annual household incomes are typically less than $60,000.
- Invest $50 billion in training programs that would include community colleges and universities.
- Offer $10,000 of undergraduate or graduate student debt relief for every year of national or community service, up to five years.
- Free tuition at community colleges for Dreamers, and adults seeking new job skills. Georgia’s technical college system offers free tuition in more than a dozen career paths in high-demand industries such as nursing, trucking and film.
- Invest $20 billion in infrastructure for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges And Universities and Minority Serving Institutions. Georgia has nine accredited HBCUs. Dalton State College in 2018 became the first Hispanic Serving Institution in the state.
- Invest $10 billion in those schools to create at least 200 new “centers of excellence” at those schools to conduct research on climate change, globalization, inequality, health disparities, and cancer.
- Boost funding for agricultural research at land-grant universities. The University of Georgia and Fort Valley State University are among the land-grant universities in Georgia.
- Offer incentives to states to help students — particularly low-income students, military veterans and single parents — pay for childcare, tutoring, textbooks and other expenses. Experts say some students drop out of college because they cannot pay for some of those expenses.
- Finding ways to make it easier for students to earn associate degrees while still in high school. Georgia lawmakers approved changes earlier this year that reduced how many college courses high school students can take, citing rapidly rising operating costs.
About the Author
Eric Stirgus joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2001. He is the newsroom's education editor. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Eric is active in the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists and the Education Writers Association and enjoys mentoring aspiring journalists.
