Issue Position: College Affordability

Issue Position

Everyone should have access to an affordable college education if they choose, one that lets them pursue their dreams and a great career -- without crushing debt from student loans.

I speak from firsthand experience. With the help of a state need grant and scholarships, I was able to leave a childhood of poverty and tumult to become the first in my family to go to college and am today a proud Washington State graduate.

I was able to pay this state's investment in me forward by supporting a law this year to create free and low-cost college for 110,000 Washingtonians -- paid for by big corporations in our state that owe part of their success to the well-educated workforce our public education system has produced.

In Congress, I would build on this success by increasing the amount of Pell Grants that can be provided to students, raise the income threshold so more families are eligible, and allow them to be used during summer school months so that students can graduate on time. I'd also restore protections for student borrowers that the Trump administration abandoned and hold for-profit colleges accountable for their fraud.

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