Higher education should be accessible to all people regardless of their race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background. This is because a democratic society needs informed citizens capable of critical inquiry and civic cooperation in order to solve its most pressing problems. Furthermore, the next generation of young people will need to be able to get the best education possible in order to compete in the global economy.

Our problem in higher education is twofold. On the one hand, tuition and fees at our public colleges and universities continue to increase astronomically year after year, making earning a degree out of reach for millions of students from working class families. On the other hand, millions of Americans who already went to college are burdened by student debt, exacerbating the affordability crisis. Meanwhile, the very idea of public funding for higher education is being attacked by the Trump administration through its attempts to strip funding from universities, privatize student loans, and dismantle the Department of Education.

In the midst of Trump’s gutting of the Department of Education, we need the largest reinvestment in our students and their families in decades. We also need immediate relief for people who already went to college and have student debt. That’s why I will fight not only for public colleges and community colleges to be tuition-free but also to provide relief for those who are shackled by student debt. It’s time for the United States to join most of the developed world in treating higher education as a public good, not a commodity.