The pandemic could make it hard for states to pay for their share of his proposal, policy experts said.
Presidential hopeful Joe Biden began promoting a free college plan earlier this year that would allow a majority of students to attend public institutions tuition-free. But the pandemic-triggered recession could make it difficult to muster support from Congress and the states.
To appease the Democratic Party’s left-wing, Biden in March expanded his earlier proposal, which guaranteed students two years of tuition-free community college. The updated plan — which partly draws from a 2017 bill co-sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt — also allows students from families earning less than $125,000 annually to attend public four-year colleges without paying any tuition.
The crux of the proposals are federal-state partnerships. Biden’s campaign website says states would be on the hook for one-quarter of the funding for his free community college plan, while the 2017 free college proposal, which covered two- and four-year schools, requires states to supply one-third of the funding. The federal government would put up the rest in both plans.