We know that fighting for free college tuition is no easy task. It’s why we need your help and support. It’s why we need to make sure this issue is on the forefront of elections across the country. And it’s why, on Wednesday some of RAP’s earliest endorsers and supporters gathered together in a summit to plot a course for how RAP’s vision will be realized.
Joined by former Arkansas Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter, former Michigan Congressman Bob Carr, former DNC Chairman Don Fowler and other higher education reform advocates, the summit included a discussion of the incredible progress made since the launch of our organization in June, addressing some of the outstanding questions that exist around the organizations overall direction and taking actionable next steps to get us there.
The group reached a consensus that our mission should be to “make public colleges tuition free everywhere in the country.” To make this happen, we want to focus our efforts on achieving three goals by 2018:
1. Generating sufficient public support that a majority of Americans agree strongly with the idea that college tuition should be free.
2. Establishing a process at the federal level that enables interested states to make their public colleges tuition free.
3. Helping at least three states implement plans to make all of their institutions of higher education tuition free.
The group also agreed on five values that will continue to guide all of our interactions and policy deliberations:
✓ Economic Mobility
✓ Personal Responsibility
✓ Institutional Accountability
✓ Intergenerational Equity
✓ Fiscal Integrity
Thanks to all of you who provided your own input to our deliberations by answering our survey before the meeting. Your stories and ideas are why we’re here, and will be critical to driving this conversation.
We welcome your comments and feedback on our plan and look forward to sharing its evolution with each of our supporters as we work to make all public colleges in America tuition free.
Our goal is to make higher education a possibility for every American, without regard to their financial circumstances.
We have a lot to do and not much time to do it, so your support is critical for our campaign to succeed. It’s with your investment that we can fundamentally reform how higher education is financed in this country, opening the doors to a more equitable society.
If you agree with our goal, our plan, and the urgency of the problem, we ask that you give what you can to help us write the next chapter in our nation’s history of continuously expanding access to universal, free education.
