Klobuchar: ‘I am not for free four-year college for all’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a 2020 Democratic hopeful, on Monday dismissed the idea of free college for all at a CNN town hall where the senator faced questions about her policy proposals.

Klobuchar responded to a question from a young voter at the forum, telling him that she would not support the plan espoused by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for tuition-free college because she found the plan too expensive.

{mosads}“I am not for free four-year college for all, no,” Klobuchar said Monday.

“I wish — if I was a magic genie and could give that to everyone and we could afford it, I would. I’m just trying to find a mix of incentives and make sure kids that are in need — that’s why I talked about expanding Pell Grants — can go to college and be able to afford it and make sure that people that can’t afford it are able to pay,” she continued.

“I am not for free four-year college for all, no,” says Sen. Amy Klobuchar. But the Democratic presidential candidate says she wants to make college more affordable by creating easier ways to refinance loans and make community college free. #KlobucharTownHall pic.twitter.com/Qr1ae5QiE9

— CNN (@CNN) February 19, 2019

The young activist who asked Klobuchar the question told The Hill in a statement Tuesday that her answer indicated that she was “afraid” to take on special interests and Wall Street.

“Last night I asked Amy Klobuchar if she would support free college for all,” said Griffin Wingate, an activist with NH Youth Movement. “We don’t need a genie to end the student debt crisis, we need a president who isn’t afraid to tax wall street and the 1 percent to fund critical programs like free college for all.”

Klobuchar has faced a number of questions about whether she supports recent progressive proposals since announcing her run, and she has shied away from embracing the more left-wing aspects of Sanders’s and others’ plans for college tuition, student debt, and other issues, including climate change.

The senator referred to the “Green New Deal” supported by rising Democratic star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) as “aspirational” and has said she is opposed to a “Medicare for All” single-payer health care system.

She faces a crowded field of Democrats vying for the 2020 nomination, including Sanders himself who announced his own candidacy on Tuesday.

—Updated at 3:12 p.m.