A plan to revamp college funding once known as "Fix UC" has caught on within the University of California system and in two other states, the Huffington Post reported.
In 2012, a group of students from the University of California-Riverside (UC) proposed a new plan that would change the way students paid for college. Instead of paying with scholarships, grants and loans, a student would give the school five percent of his or her income for 20 years after graduating or leaving school.
Mark Yudoff, the soon resigning president of the UC system, called the idea "appealing" at the time, but did not implement it. Now both Ohio and Oregon have proposals following a similar model to Fix UC's.
Chris LoCascio, Fix UC president, said he was thrilled to see other states using his group's model to fix their student debt issue.
"Eliminating tuition and loans is a game-changing proposition with the potential to drastically change the way we think about higher education," he said. "It was always our goal for the model to spread and be adapted for other institutions, and I'm thrilled to see such growing support for it across the country."
The plan's critics have suggested it does not promote success because students with higher incomes after college have to pay a lot more. LoCascio said that was basically the point.
"We found that tying the amount a graduate contributes to what they are making is not only inherently affordable, but would provide universities with the funding they so desperately need," he said. "For the UC, funding would double over 20 years, which is absolutely unthinkable under the current model."
The model would allow students wishing to attend a public university to forgo any student loans and any scholarship or grant with the promise of paying back after graduation. If leaving the school for any reason leads to a high-paying job, then the school would likely see an increase in funding.
"I'm cautiously supportive of the idea," Ohio University economist Richard Vedder, a frequent critic of higher education spending, told WVIZ. "The devil's in the details."
Jordan Weissmann wrote an op-ed piece for the Atlantic earlier this month in regards to the plan being adopted by Oregon. He noted that the model was "nowhere close to becoming a reality" and also that he felt the downside outweighed the upside.
"It's a major misconception that student debt is driven entirely by tuition. In many cases, it's not," he wrote. "At public schools, and especially community colleges, room, board, and supplies like textbooks are often far more expensive, especially once you take institutional aid into account."
It is for those expenses and other living costs that Weissmann believed students would still need to borrow money while at school under the Fix UC model. He wrote students would still be able to receive federal Pell Grants. Living expenses for room and board, meal plans and books and supplies, whether through the school or off campus, still adds up to be expensive for students.
