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Sherrod Brown Among Democrats Pushing Debt-Free College Bill

J. Scott Applewhite
/
Associated Press

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is pushing for a bill that would give states incentives to help students graduate from college debt-free.

Brown is co-sponsoring the "Debt-Free College Act," which would offer states more federal funding for their public universities if they spend more money helping eliminate college costs for students. The funds would be matched dollar for dollar.

Brown said he thinks more money should be prioritized for legislation like this, rather than for tax breaks.

“The conservative viewpoint always is, ‘Well, we cut taxes on rich people,' and then when we want to do something for middle class or working class kids, or poor kids, then you got to pay for it," he said. "Well, I just reject that out of hand.”

Brown also said he plans to introduce a bill later this week that would allow students to refinance their loans to the current borrowing rate.

The "Debt-Free College Act" has been proposed previously but never passed.

Anna joined ideastream in 2019, where she reports on health news for WCPN and WVIZ in Cleveland. She has also served as an associate producer for NewsDepth. Before that, Anna was a 2019 Carnegie-Knight News21 fellow at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.