Future Forum Unveils Manifesto to Make Higher Education More Affordable and Accessible.
WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Eric Swalwell (CA-15), the founder and chairman of Future Forum, and other members of that group on Wednesday unveiled a policy paper entitled “Future For Us: Higher Ed” – a plan for making higher education more accessible and affordable.
Future Forum, founded in April 2015, is a group of 27 young House Democrats focused upon listening to and acting upon the needs of millennials – America’s largest, most-diverse, and best-educated generation. Swalwell and other Future Forum members have visited with millennials in almost 50 U.S. cities to hear their concerns.
“Future For Us: Higher Ed” crystalizes what they learned on a subject of top importance to millennials: the high cost of a college education and the crushing burden of student loan debt.
“The future of our economy and our society rely on a well-educated population unburdened by decades of debt,” Swalwell said. “Congress must act to help Americans make these dreams real and not roll them back. It’s a strategy for our nation’s long-term stability and security, and it should start now.”
Priorities outlined in “Future for Us: Higher Ed” are targeted to put more money in more pockets while building a better, fairer higher education system that works for all Americans, not just the economically fortunate.
Policy recommendations include strengthening on-campus child care for young parents; community college for all; more efficient encouragement of public service in exchange for loan forgiveness; a smarter Pell Grant program; interest-free federal loans, and more.
It also includes preserving and expanding the student loan interest tax deduction, which is claimed by about 12 million taxpayers every year. The Republican tax plan now under consideration would abolish this tax deduction; Swalwell’s H.R. 3048, introduced in June, would double it.
Click here to read the full text of “Future For Us: Higher Ed.”
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