Third Parties on Higher Ed

August 25, 2016
  • Industry News
  • election

The presidential campaign has featured considerable debate about free public higher education, student debt and other issues related to the cost of college. But Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump aren't the only ones talking. The Green Party presidential candidate is making a play for Bernie Sanders supporters with a plan to cancel all student debt, while the Libertarian Party nominee has promised to end the Department of Education.

Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, has said she wants to be the "plan B" for Sanders supporters. For voters excited by Sanders's proposal for free tuition at public universities, Stein made even more ambitious promises: free college, yes, but also the elimination of existing student debt. So far, Johnson is attracting more support in the polls than is Stein. Third-party support tends to drop as Election Day gets closer, but this is in any number of ways an unusual election year.

Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/08/25/third-party-presidential-candidates-offer-contrasting-approaches-higher-ed