Throughout her career in public service, Baldwin has fought to make college financing more affordable, so that students from working and middle class families have access to higher education.
Baldwin has fought to keep higher education affordable for Wisconsin students and families. In 2008, Baldwin voted in favor of reauthorizing the Higher Education Act and doubling the maximum number of Pell Grants -- grants that make higher education more affordable. She also supported President Obama's Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act in 2009, which overhauled the federal student loan program and removed over $60 million from the big banks. Those savings have gone to expanding Pell Grants and career training. During the 2009-2010 school year, 106,179 students in Wisconsin used Pell Grants to help finance their education.
In 2011, Baldwin joined in support of the President's actions to ease the burden of student loan debt for recent graduates. In addition, when student loan interest rates were set to double from 3.4% to 6.8% in June, Baldwin fought to freeze interest rates at 3.4% and relieve the burden of student loan costs for 167,480 Wisconsin students.
Thompson has promised to pass the Republican budget plan to give individuals making over $1 million a year an average extra tax cut of $265,000. This is on top of the $129,000 tax cut they would receive from an extension of the Bush tax cuts. [Tax Policy Center,3/23/12; CBPP, 3/27/12]
