After a concerted push over the past several months from liberals and progressive groups, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign appears to be on the cusp of embracing a debt-free college plan.
The Democratic front-runner's campaign manager promoted the idea last week during an interview on CNBC.
"What voters are looking for is someone to be a champion for everyday people," the campaign manager, Robby Mook, said. "For young people, that's debt-free college."
His comments follow a resolution last month by Congressional Democrats that promoted debt-free public higher education and that won the backing of prominent Democrats like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer.
Much of the inspiration for the debt-free college plan has come from a Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Demos policy paper that sketches out the concept of making public higher education debt-free across the country.
The idea has already caught on with Clinton's potential and declared rivals in the Democratic nominating contest. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent, who is running for president, has proposed an $18 billion federal program to make the first two years of public higher education free. And former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, a likely contender, has also backed the idea.
Debt-free college, if it does indeed capture a high-profile spot on the Democratic 2016 campaign trail, would be among the most ambitious higher education proposals offered by a presidential candidate in a few decades of election cycles.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/11/push-liberals-debt-free-college-gains-traction-2016-democratic-campaign