Richardson proposes forgiving college loans in exchange for national service.

[seasat]

Richardson has some pretty good ideas on education. He proposes repealing the No Child Left Behind bill and guaranteeing teachers a minimum wage of $40,000 per year. He also proposes increasing arts, science, and phys-ed in schools. He's got a pretty comprehensive plan already but is expanding it in a policy speech in a fews weeks. He's now proposing forgiving student loans in exchange for a year of national service.

"As part of your college loan structure _ in other words we'll pay them off, if you give your country one year of national service: work in a forest, clean up a forest ... work in a hospital, go in the military, go in the Peace Corps, go in Vista," he said.
...
He also said his plan would link incentives for nontraditional studies, including vocational schools and trades programs.

"My idea of education is between 3 and 99 years of age," he said.
...
"Nobody talks about education. It's not at the top of the polls," Richardson said. "I happen to think this is the most important issue facing our families, economic development and competitiveness."

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Now, THAT'S a good idea!

:thumbsup:

[lligrd]

2. Sounds Good To Me nt

[grasswire]

3. cool

If they were able to provide housing and a tiny stipend to people working off their student loans in this manner, a LOT of national service projects could be implemented! A person could go off to Appalachia or New Orleans and work for a couple of years.

[LiberalEsto]

4. Good ideas

My older daughter has $46,000 in student loans, and is 5 credits short of a BA. She makes $28,000 as a social worker, after dropping out of 5 colleges.

We are stuck paying her loans for the forseeable future, and because of this we are unable to save anything for old age. Forget about saving a couple hundred in the bank for future car repairs or dental visits. We are at wits' end.

[Webster Green]

5. Sign me up!

I owe 30 grand for loans I took out to learn web design and graphic design. I'll have a really hard time paying it back, the way things are going. I'll go clean up the forest for a year, and we'll call it even.

[jillan]

6. Yoohoo Richardson! That has been in place since 2000

http://www.finaid.org/loans/forgiveness.phtml

[seasat]

7. Yoohoo Biden supporter, those programs are not total forgiveness for a year of service

AmeriCorps. Serve for 12 months and receive up to $7400 in stipends plus $4725 to be used towards your loan. Call 1-800-942-2677.

Peace Corps. Volunteers may apply for deferment of Stafford, Perkins and Consolidation loans and partial cancellation of Perkins Loans (15% for each year of service, up to 70% in total). Volunteers make a real difference in the lives of real people with two years of service in more than 70 developing countries. Contact the Peace Corps at 1111 20th St., NW, Washington, DC 20526 or call 1-800-424-8580 or 1-202-692-1845.

Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA). Volunteer with private, non-profit groups that help eradicate hunger, homelessness, poverty and illiteracy. Provide 1700 hours of service and receive $4725. Call 1-800-942-2677 or 1-202-606-5000.

If you're going to attack another candidate at least make sure the link backs up your attack.

[AtomicKitten]

8. wonderful proposal

[high density]

9. How much of a "portion" are we talking about in regards to paying student loans?

I graduated college with about $16k in student loans... Would mine be forgiven at the same rate as somebody who graduates with $200k+ in loans? Sorry, but I have no sympathy for those who elect to get a bachelor's degree from any of these super expensive institutions. I do not think that taxpayers should be expected to subsidize it. If you want prestige you can pay for it yourself.

[Booster]

10. I like this idea. I would hope that he would extend it to people

who are in prison for non-violent crimes (in other words, petty shit) where they could do the remainder of their crimes in these things also. We have sooooo many people wasting away in our prisons who really aren't bad people but who made mistakes, like most of us have. I'd love to see Paris, Lindsay and Nichole cleaning up a forest - they can even televise it. Just kidding about that part.

[LWolf]

11. Richardson is very strong on education.

Strong enough that I wrote his campaign after the first debate (that I saw) to ask him if he would clarify his relationship with the DLC.

If he could do that to my satisfaction, he'd rise to my #2.

Unfortunately, I didn't hear back from him or his campaign, so he's not on my list.

Still, on the issues overall he's #2, perhaps tied with Edwards, and I have him tied for #1 on education with Kucinich. They are equal in most areas; Richardson's statement about NCLB is best, and DK's universal preschool - college/trade school tops the tuition for public service plan, so I've balanced them out.

If he is your candidate, can you get him to clarify the DLC relationship?

I'm behind DK all the way in the primaries, but if Richardson would publicly tell me where he stands with the DLC, he might get my support as well as vote in the general election.

[seasat]

14. Here's his response on that question in July 2006

From interview notes at America for Richardson blog:

David: Do you call yourself a DLC Democrat?

I call myself a New Progressive

Invest in people, not bureaucracy, I believe that accountability is very important

Investing in people, programs that work, economic growth

We need to be the party of technology, the party of innovation

That's probably the closest Richardson will get to disavowing the DLC. The last record I can find of his involvement with the DLC is a conference in 2004. Currently, Hillary is a leader in the DLC and will probably benefit the most from them. It would probably hurt him more in the long run to directly attack the DLC since one of his campaign themes is bringing people together and appealing to independents.

Personally, DLC past involvement doesn't concern me a lot. They were the major policy and networking Democratic group in the early 90s and a large number of Democrats are or were associated with them because of that. While most associated with the DLC were to the right of much of the party, there are quite a few liberals that were/are DLC members. This election, IMHO, the blogosphere is probably more influential than the think tanks. Richardson has gone out of his way to engage them.

Richardson's platform so far is a mix of liberal and moderate proposals. He is to the left on Iraq, energy, environment, education, and civil liberties. However, he is to the right on second amendment rights and balanced budgets. He certainly doesn't practice triangulation since he usually takes a clear position to the left or right on most issues and doesn't try to split the difference.

[LWolf]

17. This is food for thought.

I AM bothered by previous DLC involvement, but it's not a deal-breaker if I'm convinced that it is past and not present.

That "new progressive" thing can be spun both ways. After all, the dlc think tank is the so-called "progressive policy institute."

Richardson is a viable candidate, imo. I've been surprised at the non-interest here at DU. I'm a long-term dk supporter, and I am crystal clear about where my candidate stands with the party.

I'll be rooting for him. He has more to offer than Clinton or Obama, and definitely has the edge on governing experience over Edwards.

[LBJDemocrat]

12. Bad idea

Not everyone can go to college, and having everyone go to college devalues the degree and drives up tuition costs.

How about funding vocational technical training instead?

[plusfiftyfive]

13. I missed it...( looking puzzled)

Where does Richardson say EVERY child should go to college?
I doubt we can live in a world with no plumbers, mechanics, and garbage collectors, anyway!

[seasat]

15. He also said his plan would link incentives for nontraditional studies, including vocational school

Richardson is proposing funding vo-tech.

[LBJDemocrat]

23. Alright

I'm cool with that idea.

[Catchawave]

16. Great proposals !

Now brace yourselves for the obvious questions to come:

How do you pay for it ?

Trust me, I know :evilgrin:

[seasat]

21. Richardson has detailed how he would fund some of his proposals.

Here's what he's put forth so far. I don't agree with all of his policies but think most of them are good ideas.

He would let the * tax cuts for the wealthy expire. He would add some cuts for the middle class but hasn't specified how much and what tax cuts he would propose. He also wants to tax dividend as income and restore the dynasty tax for the wealthy. He would leave capital gains taxes at 15%. I disagree with him on this. While I agree there should be capital gains taxes that are lower than income to encourage investment, IMHO, 15% is too low. I wonder sometimes if there ought to be special class of stocks for IPOs and new issues that would be subject to lower capital gains rate but higher rates for stocks traded between investors.

He would cut corporate subsidies especially for companies that outsource. He's also said he'd cuts subsidies for oil, nuclear, and coal industries. He has proposed credits for industries that create jobs or innovate in new technologies such as alternative energy.

He supports a balanced budget amendment with exceptions for economic downturns and national crises. This would force any new program to be paid for by either cuts or new taxes. I like this idea depending on how the exceptions are applied. The interest on the debt is one of the largest line items currently in the budget. Reducing it would free up a lot of money for programs.

I'd like to see Richardson clarify his preference for a balanced budget amendment a little more. I can imagine defining an economic downturn as a negative real GDP growth for a quarter with deficit spending allowed until GDP turns positive. I also could imagine a super majority required for a declaration of national crises with a 1 year renewal requirement. If we had something like that in place now, we could get the votes to end the Iraq war by requiring * to either raise taxes to fund it or cut popular programs. Neither choice would work with the electorate or congress.

He would end the Iraq war ASAP. That would free up billions for programs.

He would cut defense. He wants to greatly reduce our nuclear weapons stockpile. He also wants eliminate some weapons systems and reform defense procurement.

He wants a line item veto. I disagree with him on this issue because it gives too much power to the executive branch. I can imagine an idiot like * using it to cut stem cell research or SCHIPS.

He also wants to tie congressional salaries to balancing the budget. While it is a neat idea and gets some populist support, there is no way this would make it through congress.

He wants to eliminate earmarks.

He wants to increase government efficiency by reducing bureaucracy and combining duplicated services. His rhetoric on this sounds similar to the Clinton/Gore reinventing government initiative which, IMHO, was one of Clinton's biggest successes. Richardson's background shows that he'd follow through on this promise.

[Vickers]

18. Let's see how that one year in the military works out...

:eyes:

[plusfiftyfive]

19. The military doesn't want one year soldiers

They want men with 2-3 years minimum to commit, after investing all of that training in them.

I say, 3 year military commitment at a minimum, education paid for through the college degree or the equivilent for any educational needs. That's about equal to 10 years of teaching public schools after graduation to erase the college debt. I M O

[wyldwolf]

22. who is proposing that?

:eyes:

[wyldwolf]

20. of course it's a good idea. It's the DLC's / Bill Clinton's