Clinton's College Education Reform

"Last year I proposed and you passed 220,000 new Pell Grant scholarships for deserving students. Student loans are already less expensive and easier to repay. Now you get to deduct the interest. Families all over America now can put their savings into new tax-free education IRAs. And this year for the first 2 years of college families will get a $1,500 tax credit, a Hope Scholarship that will cover the cost of most community college tuition. And for junior and senior year, graduate school and job training, there is a lifetime learning credit."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/states/docs/sou98.htm

This is why I don't have any faith in tax credits to solve our health care problems. You have to have money before you can pay for college to qualify for the tax credit. It wasn't refundable so it didn't help low income people who didn't make enough for the tax credit to be useful. And $1500 wasn't enough to pay for tuition, user fees, books, health insurance, and all the rest.

We can't keep having these band-aid approaches to serious problems. We need real change.

But for undergrads, increasing Pell Grants is the way to go.

Undergrads are either already claimed by their parents or they don't make enough to file taxes (if they are independent).

...in return for national service.

but to be fair, that was from 1998 when taxes were a little bit higher. Since the child tax credit was only $400 or so, some lower income people were paying more taxes than they are now. Plus the Pell Grants and Hope scholarship were nice additions.

Check out how he began though

"Though they sat on opposite sides of the aisle, Representatives Walter Capps and Sonny Bono shared a deep love for this House and an unshakable commitment to improving the lives of all our people."

Sonny Bono shared an "unshakable commitment to improving the lives of all our people"? Hey, I liked his TV show and read his biography, but I remember him being a typical Republican jerk in Congress.

That was the promise. It was bullshit.

And Pell Grants have been around for decades.