Role of Policy Makers

Policy makers must research and consider the data when implementing a policy. A decent amount of people must agree with the policy, and it must be evident that the policy will not have any drastic or immediate consequences to minimize issues for when the policy is implemented. It must also be decided that the issue the policy is solving is a public issue. There are many different ways one can view certain issues, and depending on how it is seen, many policies can be seen as violating freedom instead of protecting the public.

• Lobbying: In order for policy makers to want to take action, the people must make the policy makers aware of the issue, and exactly how they want it to be taken care of. People can write to policy makers, make phone calls, perform protests, etc. (Gilens and Page).

• Collaboration: The government is not going to listen to an idea brought up by a single person. People who agree with this policy should join together. This way, lobbying will be more effective, research will be more diverse, and it will be easier for the people to understand every aspect of this new policy, from all the cons to every way it could be implemented.

• Democrats: The Majority of people who support tuition caps are democrats. Most policy makers who have supported or brought up a bill similar to a tuition cap or have taken other actions to rectify high student debt are democrats.

• College Students: Most college students, being the ones directly affected by student debt, are advocates of lowering tuition, and many vote that a tuition cap is a very good way to do it (Brown).

• Committee of Education: Voted unanimously when similar bills were brought up in Louisiana (Kelchin and Pingel).

• College Administration: Many colleges do not like the idea of lowering tuition, as this would mean less profits and a smaller budget. A lot of colleges will also cut corners in the event of a tuition cut.

• Republicans: Statistics show that almost half of republicans asked believe that a tuition cap is too much government intervention (Fast et al.). 

• Sponsors: The main reason both the bill that was suggested in Louisiana and Maryland failed was because the sponsors pulled it or there were budget issues (Kelchin and Pingel).

Mark Pocan, a Democratic House representative from Wisconsin and a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor, who strongly supports more accessible and affordable education, specifically in post secondary education through student debt loan forgiveness and believes that education is one of the best ways to help America grow the workforce, economy, and society (“Education | Congressman Mark Pocan”).

Bobby Scott, a Democratic House representative from Virginia and the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, who supports all education from k-12 to post secondary education and values equal opportunity in education and stresses the importance of affordability, access and completion of post secondary education. Scott supports both the Head Start program and the Child Care for Working Families Act as well as has fought to reenact the Higher Education Act in order to provide more federal funding to education (“Education | Congressman Bobby Scott”).

Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, a Democratic Assemblywoman and Chair of the New Jersey Education previously has supported bills limiting the prices of post secondary institutions such as bill A853 which prevents post secondary institutions from raising the initial cost of enrollment between continuous academic years. Additionally, Reynolds-Jackson has also supported extracurricular activities and their funding through bills such as A873 which provides funding for after school recreation programs (“NJ Legislature”).

Linda S. Carter, the Chair of the New Jersey Higher Education Committee. One of her main goals has been to fight inequality and support marginalized groups, including underprivileged people. She has sponsored bills such as A1786, which helps disadvantaged students to get an online education, bill A4111, which helps new parents delay their student loans, and many other smaller bills to strengthen the education system, like A5182 (Linda S. Carter).

Republicans currently have a majority in both the House and Senate and generally disagree with education funding, calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education since its creation. Recently, President Donald Trump urged republicans to dismantle the department in a speech to congress (Turner).

Democrats generally support education with the majority of Democratic states maintaining higher education standards than republican ones including the District of Columbia, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Vermont, all of which have the highest education spending in the United States and all of which are heavily democratic dominated states. These same states appear as the top spenders for post secondary education as well according to World Population Review (“Per Pupil Spending by State 2025.”).

People who first introduced their plan to the government and got the bill approved in New Jersey (Forbes).

• Cody Miller (NJ-4)

• Margie Donlon (NJ-11)

• Shanique Speight (NJ-29)

Governor Phil Murphy (NJ)

• Has championed initiatives in the past to make college more affordable in New Jersey, his efforts include the Community College Opportunity Grant (CCOG) and the Garden State Guarantee (GSG)