College will not get a convict hired most places. Some sort of technical skills training I can see....a felon with an MBA is unemployable.

MBA could result in self employment. The point is you are opening more doors.

gerrymandering will come to fruition soon and stop legislation like that from getting through congress.

The college tuition they are talking about is likely for community colleges for an associate's or bachelor's degree, not master's degrees. If providing rehabilitation for inmates can keep inmates out of prison and reduce costs, then by all means it is worth it. The inmates would probably have to finish their degree once they were released.

There is no reason we can't fight for rehabilitation and relief for those who have student loans. We are suppose to be progressives, not regressive.

For those who have done nothing but try to do well in school.

If I told you the amount of my student loans you'd faint (and if you really want to know send me a PM and I'll tell you). No one wants student loan relief more than I do. Which is why I support the work Senator Warren is doing in the Senate. We need to keep pushing for that.

Neither of these are mutually exclusive though.

Much like President Obama worked to reform health care, education needs the same. Why not provide master's and doctorate students the opportunity to teach at prisons in exchange for free tuition? Those of us who have student loans could teach at a prison and have part of our debt forgiven.

There are a number of ways it could work, but it would still require some kind of funding mechanism.

And seen the challenges, reform of prison administration in this country would be the best money spent. Putting first time offenders in a position of being irreparably victimized by long time gang inmates perpetuates the prison revolving door. Education of inmates will not solve the problem of recidivism when between classes the student is victimized repeatedly...our prison system is broken badly.

but again is that incompatible with providing means of rehabilitation? When inmates get out if they have no skills what are they going to do? Answer: re-offend and create more victims. How about keeping people from going back to prison? Giving them a reason and the resources to change. Again, isn't that what progressives are suppose to be for?

At the same time I don't feel it is appropriate to figure out a manner to pay for prisoners to go to school without debt when people like me are drowning in student loan debt with no hope and no way out. Even if I could, which I can not, pay on my loans, I have a payment schedule that has me paying until I am 70 years old.
So is my only real option to go to jail now?

Providing rehabilitation to inmates could very well keep them out of jail and allow them to finish their degree when they are released. It is possible they could get an associate's or bachelor's degree, but most likely the programs would be through community colleges and limited to those inmates that are below a certain classification and amount of time left before release.

I too will be paying on my student loans forever. In fact, I'd venture to guess my balance is quite a bit more than yours. Yet, I can still see this as a win-win situation.

And I realize we can do both but the point is we are not. This program already has legs and most likely is going to happen in some form by the sound of it. Student loan relief is not even up for serious discussion and is unlikely.
I have 90+ thousand dollars with a 6.8% interest rate from the DOEd. The gov is intending to make a great deal of money off me. Spent the majority of my professional career in IT surrounded (many different types of jobs from help desk to server admin to project management) by people doing the same job as me with no degree. At this point (20 years of exp) a degree actually matters little. I enjoyed going to college but 14 years later I would be hard pressed to say it was worth it.

Yes, I know that student debt reform looks like it is deader than a door nail. We have to fight harder to get it back in the public eye. If something is not done soon there will be a student loan bubble and it will burst. They can only kick the can down the road so far until this turns into a catastrophe. We both know that.

as well as those who are justly convicted (and non-violent). However...I have three degrees and six figures of debt for my BA, MA, and PhD. I teach the next generation of college graduates. I get paid shit to do so. Yet the Department of Education sees it fit to demand a quarter of my salary, regardless of my rent payments and other life-sustaining bills, plus the fact that the state of WV only pays me 9 months per year and taxes the hell out of me because the rest of the workers in this state are so poor.
And the first person to tell me to find a better paying job gets verbally eviscerated for not understanding how terrible the academic market is.
So forgive me if I'm not super sympathetic and supportive until we figure out a way to help out those of us who haven't broken the law.

we were not from wealthy families. Got some aid but not enough to cover everything. I'd much rather see interest rate cuts for law-abiding citizens before they start giving free tuition to inmates. This is the kind of thing that will flare up at election time and hurt democrats. Bad idea.

s/he applies for that job. Most places do not hire an ex-con. So the bigotry will have to end for this to work.

Addressing the real issue of the student loan debt crisis and the out of control costs in higher education. Speaking as one dramatically impacted by this issue I consider it one of the top 5 domestic policy issues and I expect to hear it from the candidate I cast a vote on.

For the argument pipoman made in the first reply. Parents will look at their kids, struggling to pay off student loans, and wonder why criminals are getting grants.

Terrible idea politically, regardless of how effective it might be. The Republicans would destroy us.